Maternal egg care enhances hatching success and offspring quality in an oviparous skink.

Maternal egg‐caring behavior can often be observed in oviparous scincid lizards. The expression of such behavior is predictably affected by the trade‐off between its resultant costs and benefits for mothers and/or offspring, which has been investigated in only a few scincid species. Here, post‐ovipositional Plestiodon chinensis females were treated to care for their egg clutches without interference, under simulated predation pressure, or to be care‐deprived. Potential maternal costs and offspring benefits associated with egg‐caring behavior were then evaluated by measuring changes in maternal body condition, egg mortality, and hatchling performance. Egg‐caring behavior caused post‐ovipositional females to participate less in outside‐nest activity, eat less food, and show relatively poorer body conditions at egg hatching. By contrast, compared with care‐deprived females, egg‐caring females gained mass slightly faster, and achieved a similar body condition within a few months of hatching. Eggs that were cared for by their mothers were more likely to hatch and produced larger, faster‐running and better‐growing hatchlings with higher survival than uncared‐for eggs. Simulated exposure to a potential predator had no distinct impact on maternal egg‐caring behavior expression and offspring performance. These results indicated that marked benefits of offspring viability but minor maternal energy costs might play a decisive role in the occurrence of maternal egg‐caring behavior in P. chinensis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]