| phenotypic integration and the evolution of signal repertoires: a case study of treefrog acoustic communication. | animal signals are inherently complex phenotypes with many interacting parts combining to elicit responses from receivers. the pattern of interrelationships between signal components reflects the extent to which each component is expressed, and responds to selection, either in concert with or independently of others. furthermore, many species have complex repertoires consisting of multiple signal types used in different contexts, and common morphological and physiological constraints may result ... | 2018 | 29607035 |
| hear them roar: a comparison of black-capped chickadee (poecile atricapillus) and human (homo sapiens) perception of arousal in vocalizations across all classes of terrestrial vertebrates. | recently, evidence for acoustic universals in vocal communication was found by demonstrating that humans can identify levels of arousal in vocalizations produced by species across three biological classes (filippi et al., 2017). here, we extend this work by testing whether two vocal learning species, humans and chickadees, can discriminate vocalizations of high and low arousal using operant discrimination go/no-go tasks. stimuli included vocalizations from nine species: giant panda, american all ... | 2019 | 31259563 |
| multimodal cues improve prey localization under complex environmental conditions. | predators often eavesdrop on sexual displays of their prey. these displays can provide multimodal cues that aid predators, but the benefits in attending to them should depend on the environmental sensory conditions under which they forage. we assessed whether bats hunting for frogs use multimodal cues to locate their prey and whether their use varies with ambient conditions. we used a robotic set-up mimicking the sexual display of a male túngara frog (physalaemus pustulosus) to test prey assessm ... | 2015 | 26336176 |
| collateral damage or a shadow of safety? the effects of signalling heterospecific neighbours on the risks of parasitism and predation. | although males often display from mixed-species aggregations, the influence of nearby heterospecifics on risks associated with sexual signalling has not been previously examined. we tested whether predation and parasitism risks depend on proximity to heterospecific signallers. using field playback experiments with calls of two species that often display from the same ponds, túngara frogs and hourglass treefrogs, we tested two hypotheses: (1) calling near heterospecific signallers attractive to e ... | 2016 | 27194694 |
| thermally contingent plasticity: temperature alters expression of predator-induced colour and morphology in a neotropical treefrog tadpole. | 1. behavioural, morphological and coloration plasticity are common responses of prey to predation risk. theory predicts that prey should respond to the relative magnitude of risk, rather than a single level of response to any risk level. in addition to conspecific and predator densities, prey growth and differentiation rates affect the duration of vulnerability to size- and stage-limited predators and therefore the relative value of defences. 2. we reared tadpoles of the neotropical treefrog den ... | 2011 | 20964684 |
| negative synergism of rainfall patterns and predators affects frog egg survival. | 1. the importance of rainfall is recognized in arid habitats, but has rarely been explored in ecosystems not viewed as rainfall limited. in addition, most attempts to study how rainfall affects organismal survival have focused on long-term rainfall metrics (e.g. monthly or seasonal patterns) instead of short-term measures. for organisms that are short lived or are sensitive to desiccation, short-term patterns of rainfall may provide insight to understanding what determines survival in particular ... | 2009 | 19486379 |
| discordant patterns of evolutionary differentiation in two neotropical treefrogs. | comparative studies of codistributed taxa test the degree to which historical processes have shaped contemporary population structure. discordant patterns of lineage divergence among taxa indicate that species differ in their response to common historical processes. the complex geologic landscape of the isthmus of central america provides an ideal setting to test the effects of vicariance and other biogeographic factors on population history. we compared divergence patterns between two codistrib ... | 2009 | 19368645 |
| you cannot have it all: heritability and constraints of predator-induced developmental plasticity in a neotropical treefrog. | many organisms have evolved phenotypic plasticity but examples of a heritable genetic basis or genetic constraints for plasticity across environments remain scarce. tadpoles of the neotropical treefrog dendropsophus ebraccatus alter tail coloration and shape differently in response to fish or aquatic insect predators. to assess the genetic basis of plasticity we raised 1020 tadpoles from 17 maternal half-sib pairs (34 unique families) individually with chemical cues of fish or aquatic insects, o ... | 2018 | 30346031 |
| skin bacterial communities of neotropical treefrogs vary with local environmental conditions at the time of sampling. | the amphibian skin microbiome has been the focus of recent studies aiming to better understand the role of these microbial symbionts in host defense against disease. however, host-associated microbial communities are complex and dynamic, and changes in their composition and structure can influence their function. understanding temporal variation of bacterial communities on amphibian skin is critical for establishing baselines from which to improve the development of mitigation techniques based o ... | 2019 | 31275740 |
| right phenotype, wrong place: predator-induced plasticity is costly in a mismatched environment. | 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 be ... | 2019 | 31795869 |
| stabilizing and directional preferences of female hyla ebraccata for calls differing in static properties. | female frogs of many species show preferences for calls with particular properties. this study focuses on female preferences in hyla ebraccata for computer-synthesized calls that differ in pulse-repetition rate or dominant frequency. both of these call properties are static acoustic properties of advertisement calls of h. ebraccata (within-male coefficient of variation <5%). females exerted directional selection on dominant frequency, preferring low-frequency calls (2960 hz) to calls with the do ... | 1998 | 9642005 |
| acoustic interference limits call detection in a neotropical frog hyla ebraccata. | problems1999 the association for the study of animal behaviourassociated with communication in noisy environments include detection, discrimination, and localization of appropriate signals. i investigated the effects of broadband background noise on call detection by female copyright 1999 the association for the study of animal behaviour. | 1999 | 10196042 |
| reproductive mode plasticity: aquatic and terrestrial oviposition in a treefrog. | diversification of reproductive mode is a major theme in animal evolution. vertebrate reproduction began in water, and terrestrial eggs evolved multiple times in fishes and amphibians and in the amniote ancestor. because oxygen uptake from water conflicts with water retention in air, egg adaptations to one environment typically preclude development in the other. few animals have variable reproductive modes, and no vertebrates are known to lay eggs both in water and on land. we report phenotypic ... | 2008 | 18495921 |
| a treefrog with reproductive mode plasticity reveals a changing balance of selection for nonaquatic egg laying. | nonaquatic reproduction has evolved repeatedly, but the factors that select for laying eggs on land are not well understood. the treefrog dendropsophus ebraccatus has plasticity in its reproductive mode, laying eggs that successfully develop in or out of water. this permits the first experimental comparison of the selective agents that shape adult oviposition behavior and embryo developmental capacity. i quantified the sources and strengths of arboreal and aquatic egg mortality and how mortality ... | 2012 | 23149398 |
| oviposition site choice under conflicting risks demonstrates that aquatic predators drive terrestrial egg-laying. | 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 ... | 2015 | 25948689 |
| patterns of reproduction and habitat use in an assemblage of neotropical hylid frogs. | we censused pond-breeding hylid frogs in northeastern costa rica weekly for 15 months to deseribe patterns of reproduction, habitat use, and to establish baseline data on relative abundance for members of the assemblage. reproduction in the costa rican assemblage was seasonal and occurred only during wet months. some species called, but none reproduced, during the dry season. three species (agalychnis callidryas, hyla ebraccata, and scinax elaeochroa) accounted for more than 75% of the observati ... | 1994 | 28313905 |
| prey subsidy or predator cue? direct and indirect effects of caged predators on aquatic consumers and resources. | the non-consumptive effects of predators on prey can affect prey phenotypes, potentially having important consequences for communities due to trait-mediated indirect interactions. predicting non-consumptive effects and their impacts on communities can be difficult because predators can affect resources directly through nutrient cycling and indirectly by altering prey resource use, which can lead to complex interactions among resources and consumers. in this study we examined the effects of caged ... | 2013 | 23771817 |
| the hatching process and mechanisms of adaptive hatching acceleration in hourglass treefrogs, dendropsophus ebraccatus. | environmentally cued hatching is well documented in anurans, enabling embryos to escape diverse threats. however, knowledge of anuran hatching mechanisms is limited and based largely on aquatic-breeding species without known plasticity in hatching timing. generally, hatching gland cells produce a hatching enzyme that degrades the vitelline membrane. we investigated hatching and its regulation in terrestrial embryos of hourglass treefrogs, dendropsophus ebraccatus, which accelerate hatching to es ... | 2017 | 29056480 |