Salamander Egg Sizes 81 



larval habitats might be able to introduce variation in egg size by 

 ovipositing successive clutches with different mean egg sizes. A. 

 maculatum did exhibit the largest degree of interclutch variation, 

 and the other species followed in nearly the predicted order. 



Smith-Gill (1983) suggested that much adaptive variation can be 

 introduced at the whole organism level through developmental mechan- 

 isms, the mechanism in this case being vitellogenesis. Those develop- 

 mental mechanisms that provide for variation should be subject to 

 natural selection; i.e., those mechanisms should provide the amount of 

 variation that maximizes an individual's fitness. The variation in egg 

 size in the species examined provides some support for the hypothesis 

 that this variation is correlated with habitat variability and is possibly 

 adaptive. It remains to be seen if the hypothesis of adaptive variation 

 in egg size is supported when more species of amphibians are 

 investigated. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS — This research represents a portion of 

 work submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the 

 M.S. degree at Western Carolina University, Cullowhee, North 

 Carolina. R. C. Bruce, M. L. Crump, R. G. Jaeger, R. H. Kaplan, 

 C. L. Ory, and S. C. Walls reviewed versions of the manuscript. S. 

 G. Tilley kindly identified some of the clutches of Desmognathus. I 

 thank J. B. Bernardo, R. C. Bruce, and S. R. Voss for their help 

 in collecting clutches of eggs and for helpful criticisms during the 

 completion of this project. This work was supported by The 

 Highlands Biological Station and Louisiana Board of Regents 

 Doctoral Fellowship LEQSF (1988-1994)-GF-15. 



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