Maternal Influences on Offspring Development in the California Newt, Taricha torosa

Previous studies show that intrapopulational variation in egg size influences developmental rates, growth rates and metabolic rates of salamander embryos and larvae up to and slightly beyond the feeding stage. The effects of these maternal influences are extended in this study to include metamorphosis in a stream breeding population of California newts, Taricha torosa. In a food unlimited situation, larvae from large eggs metamorphose in less time and at a larger size than those from small eggs. In a food limited situation larvae from large eggs still metamorphose at a larger size but take substantially more time to do so. These results support the view that egg-size induced maternal effects are important to an understanding of both the factors that affect amphibian metamorphosis and to those that influence the evolution of developmental plasticity in amphibian life history traits.