. The biology of the amphibia. Amphibians. 414 THE BIOLOGY OF THE AMPHIBIA female salamander apparently does not recognize its own eggs. The bond between parent and eggs may be considered an instinct and as such to have arisen in the same way as other instincts (Chap. XVI). The brooding instinct seems to have arisen fully formed in many groups. Thus, most species of Ambystoma abandon their eggs in the water, but A. opacum deposits its eggs on land in the fall and curls around them. Although the terrestrial eggs of Desmognathus and other salamanders are sometimes found with- out parents, it see
. The biology of the amphibia. Amphibians. 414 THE BIOLOGY OF THE AMPHIBIA female salamander apparently does not recognize its own eggs. The bond between parent and eggs may be considered an instinct and as such to have arisen in the same way as other instincts (Chap. XVI). The brooding instinct seems to have arisen fully formed in many groups. Thus, most species of Ambystoma abandon their eggs in the water, but A. opacum deposits its eggs on land in the fall and curls around them. Although the terrestrial eggs of Desmognathus and other salamanders are sometimes found with- out parents, it seems probable that the parents may have been destroyed, rather than have failed to exhibit the brooding instinct. It has been shown that A. opacum, however, does not return to its eggs when disturbed. Hence, the bond between parents and eggs is not great in this species, and the brooding habit may have. Fig. 136.—Female Desmognathus fuscus brooding her eggs. resulted merely from exhaustion of the female after egg laying. The brooding of Necturus may have even less biological signifi- cance. Bishop (1927) found that females occupy the "nest" after the young have departed. Since some adults use these nests as retreats throughout the year, the brooding of Necturus may be merely the result of the disinclination of the adult to leave a favorite retreat. In higher vertebrates an extension of the brooding instinct leads to care of the young. Among salamanders only some terrestrial plethodontids, Aneides (Storer, 1925), Hemidactylium (Blan- chard, 1923), and possibly Plethodon remain with the young after they hatch. In these cases probably little or no protection is given to the young, unless it be that the moist body of the parent prevents their desiccation. Among frogs the habit of brooding the eggs has led to various modifications of the female's body. Protopipa and Pipa carry the eggs in individual sacs on the back. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookpublishernewyorkmcgr, booksubjectamphibians
