Abstract
A grouping effect and an influence of the food quality interact on the daily fecundity. the net reproductive rate and the mixis rate of B. plicatilis. The food quality (not the food change from one generation to the next) influences the age specific fecundity and the mixis rate in F1: the egg-laying is faster and the mixis rate, lower with Dunaliella. The grouping increases the production of mictic females when the mothers feed on Dunaliella but this action disappears with Diogenes as food. Such a relation between quality of food and grouping effect has been previously described in Notommata copeus. But, opposite to the effects observed in this last species, in B. plicatilis the grouping affects also the net production rate and the daily fecundity which are higher in the females grouped per six than in the isolated females. The population density s. str. (i.e. separated from the grouping effect) influences also positively these two parameters. Its action appears clearly in the isolated females where the net reproduction rate is positively and linearly correlated with the volume available for one female. The correlation is not significant when the females are grouped. Not any effect of the population density (s. str.) on the mixis rate could be shown. The authors discuss some hypotheses on the implicated mechanism and the implications of these facts on the population dynamics

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