Mictic female production in the rotifer Brachionus calyciflorus
Gilbert, J.J.
Jour Exptl Zool 153(2): 113-123
1963
DOI: 10.1002/jez.1401530204
Accession: 023035029
Mictic female production in Brachionus calyciflorus is a density dependent phenomenon. Young amictic females, grown either singly or in groups of six, produce significantly greater percentages of mictic female offspring at a density of 4.0 animals per ml than at one of 0.66 animals per ml. Crowding B. calyciflorus with Paramecium caudatum does not affect mictic female production. Crowding B. calyciflorus with B. angularis, if this latter species is more dense than about 100 animals per ml, may induce mictic female production in the former species. The density effect is not explicable in terms of reproductive rates, social effects, or general metabolic waste products. The most fitting explanation is one involving the accumulation in the environment of a chemical substance which is released by the rotifers themselves and which possesses some degree of taxonomic specificity.