| tactical reproductive parasitism via larval cannibalism in peruvian poison frogs. | we report an unusual example of reproductive parasitism in amphibians. dendrobates variabilis, an amazonian poison frog, oviposits at the surface of the water in small pools in plants and deposits tadpoles within the pools. tadpoles are highly cannibalistic and consume young tadpoles if they are accessible. deposition of embryos and tadpoles in the same pool is common. genetic analyses indicate that tadpoles are frequently unrelated to embryos in the same pool. a pool choice experiment in the fi ... | 2009 | 19042178 |
| a key ecological trait drove the evolution of biparental care and monogamy in an amphibian. | linking specific ecological factors to the evolution of parental care pattern and mating system is a difficult task of key importance. we provide evidence from comparative analyses that an ecological factor (breeding pool size) is associated with the evolution of parental care across all frogs. we further show that the most intensive form of parental care (trophic egg feeding) evolved in concert with the use of small pools for tadpole deposition and that egg feeding was associated with the evolu ... | 2010 | 20180700 |
| advergence in müllerian mimicry: the case of the poison dart frogs of northern peru revisited. | whether the evolution of similar aposematic signals in different unpalatable species (i.e. müllerian mimicry) is because of phenotypic convergence or advergence continues to puzzle scientists. the poison dart frog ranitomeya imitator provides a rare example in support of the hypothesis of advergence: this species was believed to mimic numerous distinct model species because of high phenotypic variability and low genetic divergence among populations. in this study, we test the evidence in support ... | 2011 | 21411452 |
| a danger foreseen is a danger avoided: how chemical cues of different tadpoles influence parental decisions of a neotropical poison frog. | the protection of offspring against predators and competitors is especially important in organisms using spatially separated breeding resources, impeding the offspring's chances to escape. one example of such isolated reproductive resources are phytotelmata (small water bodies in plant axils), exploited by the neotropical poison frog ranitomeya variabilis (dendrobatidae) for both clutch and tadpole deposition. because poison frog tadpoles are often cannibalistic, parents tend to avoid deposition ... | 2014 | 23852187 |
| do poison frogs recognize chemical cues of the other sex or do they react to cues of stressed conspecifics? | although anuran communication primarily takes place acoustically, chemical cues are also often used for intra- and intersexual communication in frogs. in the present study we analyzed the behavior of the poison frog ranitomeya variabilis when presented chemical cues of same-sex or opposite-sex conspecifics. chemical cues were obtained by keeping a single frog on a moist paper towel for about 47h. afterwards two paper towels were offered to a test animal, one containing the chemical cues, the oth ... | 2013 | 23911857 |
| decoding and discrimination of chemical cues and signals: avoidance of predation and competition during parental care behavior in sympatric poison frogs. | the evolution of chemical communication and the discrimination between evolved functions (signals) and unintentional releases (cues) are among the most challenging issues in chemical ecology. the accurate classification of inter- or intraspecific chemical communication is often puzzling. here we report on two different communication systems triggering the same parental care behavior in the poison frog ranitomeya variabilis. this species deposits its tadpoles and egg clutches in phytotelmata and ... | 2015 | 26132416 |