Relació entre grandària i nombre d'ous en un copèpode d'aigua dolça

Resum

Both in poikylotherms and in homeotherms there is a clear relationship between the animal's body size and the number of eggs laid. Not only the egg number, but the individual egg size varies; usually, there is an inverse relation between them. In a sense, the variation being more accused in the number than in the size can be thought as an expression of oppossed evolutionary strategies or trends.
This study is intended to show the real relationship between the egg number and size and the individual size in the freshwater copepod Tropocyclops prasinus from Spanish dams. The copepods from northern water masses have a greater egg number than those from southern impoundments. The allometric relation between body size and egg number nears 3, but if the volume of an oviger sac germ mass is considered the relation is more clear-cut.
Egg size varies less than egg number; when the copepod size increases the egg number also increases, not its size. That is to say, the metabolism of the somatic and germ cells is differently influenced by the environmental conditions.