Effect of temperature on life history traits of the invasive calanoid copepod Arctodiaptomus dorsalis (Marsh, 1907) from Lake Taal, Philippines

Abstract

Arctodiaptomus dorsalis is an invasive calanoid copepod from America, and is now found in 23 out of 32 lakes and rivers in the Philippines. Live specimens of A. dorsalis were collected from Lake Taal and cultured in the laboratory. The specimens were reared under three different temperatures (25°C, 30°C, and 35°C) with the same food and light conditions, i.e. ~105 cells mL-1 of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and 12L: 12D at ~60 lx, respectively. Post-embryonic development times from hatching to adult decreased from 31.5 d to 18.3 d as the temperature increased, while those during naupliar stages were quite similar, i.e. 4.4, 2.8 and 2.3 d at 25, 30 and 35°C, respectively. The naupliar durations were substantially shorter than the copepodid stages. Clutch sizes were almost the same, 8.7-9.2 eggs clutch-1, among all temperatures tested, while hatching success decreased from 85.9% at 25°C to 24.2% at 35°C. Overall survival rates from hatching to adult decreased as well from 67% at 25°C to 23% at 35°C. This is the first successful attempt to culture A. dorsalis collected from a freshwater lake in the Philippines.