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Female and male behavioral response to advertisement calls of graded complexity in túngara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus

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Abstract

We investigated the natural dynamics in a sexual signal that combines different call components and explored the role of call complexity in sexual selection using a neotropical frog. Male túngara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus, facultatively add up to seven short, multi-harmonic components (chucks) to the simple form of their calls (whines). Female túngara frogs are preferentially attracted to whines with chucks over whines without chucks, and males also call more in response to calls containing chucks. Because acoustic predators prefer complex calls, in the context of simple (no chucks) versus complex (any number of chucks) calls, the variably complex call appears to have evolved in response to the opposing selective forces of natural and sexual selection. There is no evidence, however, for the function of increasing the number of chucks within complex calls. We tested two aspects of increasing call complexity: natural patterns of use of call types in males and how both sexes respond to variation in multi-chuck calls. Males incrementally change call complexity by the addition or subtraction of a single chuck and usually do not produce more than two chucks. Variation in call complexity, for calls with at least one chuck, does not influence response calling in males or phonotaxis in females. Our results suggest that one reason for not increasing call complexity beyond a single chuck is the diminishing effectiveness on the responses of both sexes.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the assistants that helped us record the calls, analyze the recordings, and perform female choice experiments. We are also thankful to J. Christensen-Dalsgaard and two anonymous reviewers whose comments greatly improved this work. The Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute provided critical logistic support. The Autoridad Nacional del Ambiente de Panama provided the permits to perform this research. The frogs were marked following the Guidelines for the Use of Live Amphibians and Reptiles in Field Research compiled by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH), the Herpetologists' League (HL), and the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles (SSAR), available at http://www.asih.org/pubs/herpcoll.html. This work was funded by grant IBN 0078150 from the National Science Foundation. The research presented complies with the current laws of the countries in which it was performed.

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Author notes

  1. Ximena E. Bernal

    Present address: Department of Biological Science, Texas Tech University, Box 43131, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Section of Integrative Biology C0930, The University of Texas, Austin, TX, 78712, USA

    Ximena E. Bernal, Karin L. Akre, Alexander T. Baugh & Michael J. Ryan

  2. Smithsonian Tropical Research Institution, P.O. Box 0843-03092, Balboa Ancón, Republic of Panamá

    A. Stanley Rand & Michael J. Ryan

Authors
  1. Ximena E. Bernal
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  2. Karin L. Akre
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  3. Alexander T. Baugh
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  4. A. Stanley Rand
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  5. Michael J. Ryan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ximena E. Bernal.

Additional information

Communicated by J. Christensen-Dalsgaard

This is a posthumous publication for A. Stanley Rand

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Bernal, X.E., Akre, K.L., Baugh, A.T. et al. Female and male behavioral response to advertisement calls of graded complexity in túngara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 63, 1269–1279 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0795-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-009-0795-5

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