scholarly journals Aggressive calls improve leading callers’ attractiveness in the treefrog Dendropsophus ebraccatus

2011 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 951-959 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Reichert
Keyword(s):  
Dendropsophus Ebraccatus ◽  
Aggressive Calls

How long does it take to know a species? Redescription, vocalization, and chigger mites infestation pattern in the centenary Brachycephalus garbeanus (Anura: Brachycephalidae)

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4950 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-344
Author(s):  
MANUELLA FOLLY ◽  
MANOELA WOITOVICZ-CARDOSO ◽  
CLARISSA CANEDO ◽  
PAULO NOGUEIRA-COSTA ◽  
JOSÉ P. JR. POMBAL
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Habits ◽  
Average Rate ◽  
Dominant Frequency ◽  
Southeastern Brazil ◽  
Advertisement Call ◽  
Microhabitat Use ◽  
Mountain Range ◽  
Short Pulses ◽  
Infestation Pattern ◽  
Aggressive Calls

Although we celebrate the centennial of Brachycephalus garbeanus’ discovery, little progress has been done on understanding this species’ biology apart from a few morphological and ecological studies, which includes its redescription based on three specimens from the type-series, microhabitat use, sexual dimorphism in body size, and feeding habits. This species is endemic to the Serra dos Órgãos Mountain range, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. Here we redescribe B. garbeanus based on a wide sampling, including its advertisement and aggressive calls, and also the chigger mites infestation pattern. The advertisement call is longer than 25.8 s with pulsed notes series emitted at an average rate of 2.3 notes/s and 14.1 pulses/s; long inter-note interval with 320 ms; notes with distinctly short pulses (1 to 16 ms); low dominant frequency for this genus (3.0-5.4 kHz) and presence of four harmonics. This species is often parasitized by chigger mites of Hannemania, with a prevalence of infection of 67%, mainly affecting the ventral body surface. Females had a higher prevalence of parasites than males and there was no correlation found between the size of specimens and the number of parasites. Our study, provides an important and overdue taxonomical contribution, including a large amount of novel information for B. garbeanus. 

scholarly journals Oviposition site choice under conflicting risks demonstrates that aquatic predators drive terrestrial egg-laying

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1808) ◽  
pp. 20150376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin C. Touchon ◽  
Julie L. Worley
Keyword(s):  
Egg Laying ◽  
Oviposition Site ◽  
Relative Importance ◽  
Egg Predation ◽  
Extant Species ◽  
Choice Tests ◽  
Animal Phyla ◽  
Aquatic Predators ◽  
Dendropsophus Ebraccatus ◽  
Desiccation Risk

Laying eggs out of water was crucial to the transition to land and has evolved repeatedly in multiple animal phyla. However, testing hypotheses about this transition has been difficult because extant species only breed in one environment. The pantless treefrog, Dendropsophus ebraccatus , makes such tests possible because they lay both aquatic and arboreal eggs. Here, we test the oviposition site choices of D. ebraccatus under conflicting risks of arboreal egg desiccation and aquatic egg predation, thereby estimating the relative importance of each selective agent on reproduction. We also measured discrimination between habitats with and without predators and development of naturally laid aquatic and arboreal eggs. Aquatic embryos in nature developed faster than arboreal embryos, implying no cost to aquatic egg laying. In choice tests, D. ebraccatus avoided habitats with fish, showing that they can detect aquatic egg predators. Most importantly, D. ebraccatus laid most eggs in the water when faced with only desiccation risk, but switched to laying eggs arboreally when desiccation risk and aquatic predators were both present. This provides the first experimental evidence to our knowledge that aquatic predation risk influences non-aquatic oviposition and strongly supports the hypothesis that it was a driver of the evolution of terrestrial reproduction.

Escalated aggressive behaviour and facultative parental care in the nest building gladiator frog, Hyla faber

1998 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
José P. Pombal ◽  
Marcio Martins ◽  
Célio F.B. Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Parental Care ◽  
Aggressive Behaviour ◽  
Nest Building ◽  
Southeastern Brazil ◽  
Male Density ◽  
Aggressive Calls ◽  
Agonistic Encounters

AbstractAgonistic encounters and facultative parental care in Hyla faber were observed in two localities in southeastern Brazil. Maximum male density was 0.9 and 3.3 males/m2 in Campinas and Ribeirão Branco, respectively. Aggression was escalated and the highly variable aggressive calls were specific to each phase of the encounter. The last, more aggressive phases rarely occurred in Campinas; in Ribeirao Branco they occurred frequently. Male parental care (egg attendance) was common in Ribeirao Branco while it was never observed in Campinas. Egg attendance lasted one to two nights and was observed only during high male density. The main benefit of egg attendance seemed to be avoiding nest intrusion by other males (sunken eggs and/or embryos invariably die). Males may build additional nests during egg attendance, but attending males did not attract females (they did not call).

Does physical or acoustical disturbance cause male pickerel frogs, Rana palustris, to vocalize underwater?

2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 177-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mac Given
Keyword(s):  
Test Period ◽  
Advertisement Call ◽  
Vocal Repertoire ◽  
Bufo Americanus ◽  
Physical Disturbance ◽  
Pseudacris Crucifer ◽  
Aggressive Calls

Abstract Male pickerel frogs (Rana palustris) vocalize both above water and underwater. Males have a complex vocal repertoire consisting of an advertisement call and two additional call types (i.e., aggressive calls) that can be elicited by the playback of a conspecific advertisement call. Additionally, in a previous study, males in these playbacks often dove and vocalized underwater for a few minutes before returning to the surface. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether physical or acoustical disturbance cause male pickerel frogs to call underwater. Experimental manipulations were performed with resident males that, initially, were calling above water. In the first, 16 males were physically disturbed with the intent to make them dive underwater. Eleven of these began to call underwater within 10 to 95 seconds and continued for up to four minutes before returning to calling above water. The second experiment involved playbacks in which males were disturbed acoustically by two minutes of continuous advertisement calling from either one Bufo americanus or Pseudacris crucifer male. Only one of 15 males dove and then called underwater in response to B. americanus calls even though most subjects emitted aggressive calls during the test period, and no male called underwater in response to P. crucifer calls (n = 13). In conclusion, male pickerel frogs will shift to underwater calling in response to a physical disturbance, but do not shift in response to the sounds of one heterospecific caller.

scholarly journals Male serrate-legged treefrogs adjust competition strategies according to visual or chemical cues from females

2020 ◽  
Vol 223 (21) ◽  
pp. jeb229245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Deng ◽  
Qiao-Ling He ◽  
Ya Zhou ◽  
Bi-Cheng Zhu ◽  
Tong-Liang Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cues ◽  
Chemical Cues ◽  
Advertisement Calls ◽  
Treatment Groups ◽  
Vocal Responses ◽  
Acoustic Stimuli ◽  
Multisensory Cues ◽  
Multimodal Cues ◽  
Aggressive Calls

ABSTRACTThere is increasing evidence that many anurans use multimodal cues to detect, discriminate and/or locate conspecifics and thus modify their behaviors. To date, however, most studies have focused on the roles of multimodal cues in female choice or male–male interactions. In the present study, we conducted an experiment to investigate whether male serrate-legged small treefrogs (Kurixalus odontotarsus) used visual or chemical cues to detect females and thus altered their competition strategies in different calling contexts. Three acoustic stimuli (advertisement calls, aggressive calls and compound calls) were broadcast in a randomized order after a spontaneous period to focal males in one of four treatment groups: combined visual and chemical cues of a female, only chemical cues, only visual cues and a control (with no females). We recorded the vocal responses of the focal males during each 3 min period. Our results demonstrate that males reduce the total number of calls in response to the presence of females, regardless of how they perceived the females. In response to advertisement calls and compound calls, males that perceived females through chemical cues produced relatively fewer advertisement calls but more aggressive calls. In addition, they produced relatively more aggressive calls during the playback of aggressive calls. Taken together, our study suggests that male K. odontotarsus adjust their competition strategies according to the visual or chemical cues of potential mates and highlights the important role of multisensory cues in male frogs' perception of females.

scholarly journals Right phenotype, wrong place: predator-induced plasticity is costly in a mismatched environment

2019 ◽  
Vol 286 (1916) ◽  
pp. 20192347 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne A. Innes-Gold ◽  
Nicholas Y. Zuczek ◽  
Justin C. Touchon
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Survival Benefit ◽  
Morphological Changes ◽  
Survival Rates ◽  
Environmental Cost ◽  
Heterogeneous Environment ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Risk Of Predation ◽  
Dendropsophus Ebraccatus ◽  
Wrong Place

Like many animals, tadpoles often produce different, predator-specific phenotypes when exposed to risk of predation. It is generally assumed that such plasticity enhances survival in the presence of the predator and is costly elsewhere, but evidence remains surprisingly scarce. We measured (1) the survival trade-off of opposing phenotypes developed by Dendropsophus ebraccatus tadpoles when exposed to different predators and (2) which specific aspects of morphology drive any potential survival benefit or cost. Tadpoles developed predator-specific phenotypes after being reared with caged fish or dragonfly predators for two weeks. In 24 h predation trials with either a fish or a dragonfly, survival was highest in the groups with their matched predator, and lowest among with those the mismatched predator, with predator-naive controls being relatively intermediate. Then, using a large group of phenotypically variable predator-naive tadpoles, we found that increased survival rates are directly related to the morphological changes that are induced by each predator. This demonstrates that induced phenotypes are indeed adaptive and the product of natural selection. Furthermore, our data provide clear evidence of an environmental cost for phenotypic plasticity in a heterogeneous environment. Such costs are fundamental for understanding the evolution and maintenance of inducible phenotypes.

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