A trophic egg is an egg whose function is not reproduction but nutrition; in essence, the trophic egg serves as food for offspring hatched from viable eggs. In most species that produce them, a trophic egg is usually an unfertilised egg. The production of trophic eggs has been observed in a highly diverse range of species, including fish, amphibians, spiders and insects. The function is not limited to any particular level of parental care, but occurs in some sub-social species of insects, the spider A. ferox, and a few other species like the frogs Leptodactylus fallax and Oophaga, and the catfish Bagrus meridionalis.
Parents of some species deliver trophic eggs directly to their offspring, whereas some other species simply produce the trophic eggs after laying the viable eggs; they then leave the trophic eggs where the viable offspring are likely to find them.
The mackerel sharks present the most extreme example of proximity between reproductive eggs and trophic eggs; their viable offspring feed on trophic eggs in utero.
Despite the diversity of species and life strategies in which trophic eggs occur, all trophic egg functions are similarly derived from similar ancestral functions, which once amounted to the sacrifice of potential future offspring in order to provide food for the survival of rival (usually earlier) offspring. In more derived examples the trophic eggs are not viable, being neither fertilised, nor even fully formed in some cases, so they do not represent actually potential offspring, although they still represent parental investment corresponding to the amount of food it took to produce them.
A trophicegg is an egg whose function is not reproduction but nutrition; in essence, the trophicegg serves as food for offspring hatched from viable...
need for both group presence and group communication. Similar to the trophicegg consumption and matriphagy behaviors, this phenomenon might have adaptive...
with egg-casings that resist evaporation of moisture. Ovo-viviparity is where the zygote is retained in the adult's body but there are no trophic (feeding)...
species, matriphagy occurs after the ingestion of nutritional eggs known as trophiceggs (e.g. Black lace-weaver Amaurobius ferox, Crab spider Australomisidia...
called trophic links. The number of trophic links per consumer is a measure of food web connectance. Food chains are nested within the trophic links of...
eating, including the other eggs in their clutch. Certain species lay extra infertile trophiceggs with the fertile eggs, providing a backup food source...
entomology, an egg sometimes is called unembryonated until it contains a visibly segmented embryo. An unembryonated egg might be a trophicegg, probably (but...
Apex predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning that they occupy the highest trophic levels. Food chains are often far shorter on...
the mother to provide trophic (eggs specifically for nutrition) eggs. Female parental care is provided in the form of trophicegg feeding to offspring...
circumstances. Variations on the theme in biology are enormous, ranging from trophiceggs to resorption of partly developed embryos in hard times or when they...
Female climbing mantella engage in trophicegg laying, and care for their young by feeding them their unfertilized eggs (a behavior known as oophagy). When...
connexa never reach complete fertility because they lay unfertilized trophiceggs which provide additional nutrition for their offspring when they hatch...
the cell. Afterwards, the queen checks the cell and eats the trophicegg, an unfertilized egg that is made specifically for the queen's nutrition. Melipona...
affect the survival rate of the turtle egg. Biomagnification (magnification of toxins with increasing trophic level) Chelation therapy Drug accumulation...
species e.g., E. quadridens, which lay trails. Trophicegg laying. Workers appear capable of laying trophiceggs. Wallpapering. When a new callows eclose,...
transfer of liquid food among family members or guest organisms trophicegg non-viable egg laid by the queen to be used as a source of nutrition trophobiosis...
reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop inside eggs that remain...
than cannibalism. Many ant species engage in trophicegg consumption in which the workers have sterile eggs that the ants can feed on. Leptanilla workers...
75km 50miles Ole Miss Mississippi State The Egg Bowl (traditionally named the “Battle for the Golden Egg”) is the name given to the Ole Miss–Mississippi...
order Monotremata. They are the only known group of living mammals that lay eggs, rather than bearing live young. The extant monotreme species are the platypus...
produce trophiceggs for their children to eat. Those that engage in cannibalism are normally adults or larvae that consume pupae or eggs. Eggs and pupae...
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