The accumulation of lipid reserves was investigated in two common cladoceran species typical of neotropical freshwaters. Experiments were performed in order to measure differential accumulation of lipid reserves in response to two algal diets, S. quadricauda and A. gracilis. The larger D. laevis fed with the Ankistrodesmus diet accumulated a higher amount of total lipids. The average lipid content for both diets was 11.1% and 22.1% dry weight for Scenedesmus and Ankistrodemsus, respectively. This difference was found to be highly significant. The superior nutritional quality of A. gracilis was confirmed by the experiments using the smaller Moina micrura. This cladoceran accumulated 11.4% and 19.9% of the average dry weight of lipids from Scenedesmus and Ankistrodesmus, respectively. The study also found that most lipid reserves are concentrated as triacylglycerols in both cladocerans. The relative contribution of this class of lipids also varied according to the diet. For Daphnia, for instance, the average triacylglycerol levels varied from 6.2 to 11.0 with the Scenedesmus and Ankistrodesmus diets, respectively.
variation nutritional; cladocerans; chlorophyceae; experiments
