MATERNALCARE IN THE NEOTROPICALHARVESTMAN BOURGUYIAALBIORNATA (ARACHNIDA:OPILIONES): OVIPOSITION SITE SELECTION AND EGG PROTECTION by GLAUCO MACHADO and PAULO

Females of the harvestman Bourguyia albiornata oviposit almost exclusively inside the tube formed by the curled leaves of the bromeliad Aechmea nudicaulis. Oviposition is not correlated with rainfall or with temperature, but is negatively correlated with the number of individuals of A. nudicaulis emitting  owers. Because the in orescence stalk occupies the tube of leaves of  owering bromeliads, oviposition site is not available for ovigerous females. During one year, 83.6% of the females produced only one egg-batch and the remaining produced two or three batches. The mean number of eggs per batch along successive reproductive events decreased signiŽ cantly. A Ž eld experiment in which females were removed from the nest bromeliad showed that less than 7% of the unprotected eggs survived beyond two weeks. In a control in which females were maintained over the eggs, predators attacked only one egg-batch. Ants were the most important egg predators, and at the study site at least 20 species nest and/or forage in A. nudicaulis. Intense predationon eggs by generalist predatorsmay be an important pressure promoting parental care in Neotropical harvestmen.