Repeatability of mate choice: the effect of size in the African painted reed frog, Hyperolius marmoratus

doi:10.1016/0003-3472(95)80165-0

Animal Behaviour

Volume 49, Issue 1, January 1995, Pages 181-186

https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-3472(95)80165-0 Get rights and content

Abstract

Female painted reed frogs were offered a choice between artificial advertisement calls differing in frequency. Repeatability of mate choice was assessed by multiple testing of females. When the difference between the stimuli was 400 Hz, almost all females, regardless of size, consistently chose the low frequency call. When the frequency difference between the calls was smaller (200 Hz), females as a group appeared to choose at random. However, individual females seemed to show repeatability of mate choice. There was also a relationship between female size and the number of times they chose the lower frequency stimuli. This suggests that the manner in which females respond to stimuli that differ in frequency may be size-dependent. Larger females may be more sensitive to variation in call frequency, and therefore more likely to express a mating preference for low frequency calls.

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Citation Excerpt :
Mate choice is conditional, and a large body of evidence shows that higher quality females show a stronger preference for attractive traits in males (Cotton et al., 2006). For example, larger female Hyperolius marmoratus (African reed frogs) show a stronger preference for low-pitched male calls (Jennions et al., 1995). Female crickets on a high-quality diet show stronger preference for high call rate and responded faster to playbacks with typically preferred features (Hunt et al., 2005).
Concern over global amphibian declines and possible links to agrochemical use has led to research on the endocrine disrupting actions of agrochemicals, such as fertilizers, fungicides, insecticides, acaricides, herbicides, metals, and mixtures. Amphibians, like other species, have to partition resources for body maintenance, growth, and reproduction. Recent studies suggest that metabolic impairments induced by endocrine disrupting chemicals, and more particularly agrichemicals, may disrupt physiological constraints associated with these limited resources and could cause deleterious effects on growth and reproduction. Metabolic disruption has hardly been considered for amphibian species following agrichemical exposure. As for metamorphosis, the key thyroid hormone-dependent developmental phase for amphibians, it can either be advanced or delayed by agrichemicals with consequences for juvenile and adult health and survival. While numerous agrichemicals affect anuran sexual development, including sex reversal and intersex in several species, little is known about the mechanisms involved in dysregulation of the sex differentiation processes. Adult anurans display stereotypical male mating calls and female phonotaxis responses leading to successful amplexus and spawning. These are hormone-dependent behaviours at the foundation of reproductive success. Therefore, male vocalizations are highly ecologically-relevant and may be a non-invasive low-cost method for the assessment of endocrine disruption at the population level. While it is clear that agrochemicals disrupt multiple endocrine systems in frogs, very little has been uncovered regarding the molecular and cellular mechanisms at the basis of these actions. This is surprising, given the importance of the frog models to our deep understanding of developmental biology and thyroid hormone action to understand human health. Several agrochemicals were found to have multiple endocrine effects at once (e.g., targeting both the thyroid and gonadal axes); therefore, the assessment of agrochemicals that alter cross-talk between hormonal systems must be further addressed. Given the diversity of life-history traits in Anura, Caudata, and the Gymnophiona, it is essential that studies on endocrine disruption expand to include the lesser known taxa. Research under ecologically-relevant conditions will also be paramount. Closer collaboration between molecular and cellular endocrinologists and ecotoxicologists and ecologists is thus recommended.
Temperature variations affect postcopulatory but not precopulatory sexual selection in the cigarette beetle
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Citation Excerpt :
We note that male and female body sizes were not measured in this study. Although male and female body sizes often affect their fitness through pre- and postcopulatory sexual selection (Andersson, 1994; Jennions, Backwell, & Passmore, 1995; Simmons, 2001; Thornhill & Alcock, 1983), a previous study indicated that neither male nor female body size is associated with either pre- or postcopulatory sexual selection in L. serricorne (Katsuki et al., 2017). All statistical analyses were performed using JMP version 11 (SAS Institute, 2013).
The ambient temperature varies on several timescales such as year, season and day and affects many reproductive traits of ectotherms. Thus, the direction and intensity of sexual selection should be affected by thermal conditions. However, the effects of temperature variation during mating events have sometimes been overlooked. We assessed traits associated with pre- and postcopulatory sexual selection in the cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne, using three thermal mating conditions: 19 °C, 25 °C and 31 °C. Thermal conditions did not affect precopulatory traits (mating rate, mating latency and courtship intensity). Mating duration increased with decreasing temperature, whereas the number of sperm transferred and female fecundity were greatest at 25 °C. To investigate whether these thermal differences affected the risk of sperm competition (remating rate) and fitness consequences for both sexes, we conducted double-mating experiments using a black colour mutant. Females that had first mated at low or high temperatures were more likely to accept remating and exhibited higher fecundity compared to females that rejected remating; when females remated, the paternity of the first male was highest at 25 °C. Thermal conditions at the first mating event affected the fitness consequences for both sexes, irrespective of the females’ remating acceptance. Changes to the thermal conditions for the female remating event caused no difference in the female remating rate or fecundity; however, the paternity of the second mate was highest at the intermediate temperature, and this could be attributed to the decreased sperm transfer at low and high temperatures. Our results suggest that temperature conditions during mating affect postcopulatory processes in L. serricorne. In particular, when females first mated at extreme temperatures, polyandry was promoted, potentially favouring males with higher sperm competitive ability through increased likelihood and intensity of sperm competition.
All's well that begins Wells: Celebrating 60 years of Animal Behaviour and 36 years of research on anuran social behaviour
2013, Animal Behaviour
Citation Excerpt :
We know next to nothing about the magnitude of additive genetic variance and the potential for gene × environment interactions underlying the expression of signals and preferences. As an upper-bound estimate of heritability, several studies have measured the ‘repeatability’ (sensu Boake 1989) of male calling performance (reviewed in Gerhardt & Huber 2002), but we generally still lack equivalent data on female preferences (e.g. Jennions et al. 1995). To our knowledge there are no published data from quantitative genetic studies estimating the actual heritabilities of male calling behaviours and female mating preferences.
The scientific study of frogs and toads as important systems in behavioural ecology traces its roots to an influential review published in this journal 36 years ago (Wells 1977a, ‘The social behaviour of anuran amphibians’, Animal Behaviour, 25, 666–693). In just 28 pages, Wells summarized the state of knowledge on important behaviours associated with anuran breeding and introduced an evolutionary framework ‘for understanding the relationship between social behaviour and ecology’ (page 666) that was largely lacking in earlier treatments of this group. Not only is Wells's review one of the most cited papers ever published in Animal Behaviour, it is also responsible for setting broad research agendas and shaping much of our current thinking on social behaviour in an entire order of vertebrates. As such, it is entirely appropriate that we honour Wells's review and its contributions to the study of animal behaviour in this inaugural essay celebrating 12 papers selected by the community as the most influential papers published in the 60-year history of Animal Behaviour. In our essay, we place Wells's review in historical context at the dawn of behavioural ecology, highlight the field's progress in answering some major research questions outlined in the review, and provide our own prospectus for future research on the social behaviour of anuran amphibians.
Taking the sensory approach: How individual differences in sensory perception can influence mate choice
2012, Animal Behaviour
Citation Excerpt :
Quality matching in mating pairs is an example of assortative mating. Female midwife toads, Alytes mulentensis (Lea et al. 2000), cricket frogs, Acris crepitans (Ryan et al. 1992) and African painted reed frogs, Hyperolius marmoratus (Jennions et al. 1995) have size-dependent preferences that result in larger, more fecund females preferring larger, more fecund males. In anurans, body size is negatively correlated with the dominant frequency of a frog's advertisement call and the best excitatory frequency of the basilar papilla (Ryan 1980).
Many male signallers convey information to female receivers in multimodal courtship displays. While much is known about how males vary in terms of signalling, variation in female detection of these multimodal signals is relatively unexplored. We suggest that there is a critical, albeit underdeveloped, link between multimodal sensory reception and individual variation in mate choice. This review addresses the potential effects of developmental and conditional factors (e.g. nutrient availability, hormone profiles and age) on female multimodal processing, and illustrates that differences in the (1) source of individual variation and (2) the number of sensory processing modes affected by this variation can influence the receiver's mate choice patterns. Based on these two factors, we outline novel predictions of preference functions and choosiness in a redundant multimodal signalling context. Moreover, we explore the theoretical implications of individual variation in multimodal signal perception in relation to sensory drive, honest signalling, assortative mating and intrasexual selection. We propose that understanding the role of variation in sensory processing and its relation to mate choice can help us better identify the factors that influence sender and receiver fitness, and subsequently the rate and direction of signal evolution.
The repeatability of behaviour: a meta-analysis
2009, Animal Behaviour
There is increasing interest in individual differences in animal behaviour. Recent research now suggests that an individual's behaviour, once considered to be plastic, may be more predictable than previously thought. Here, we take advantage of the large number of studies that have estimated the repeatability of various behaviours to evaluate whether there is good evidence for consistent individual differences in behaviour and to answer some outstanding questions about possible factors that can influence repeatability. Specifically, we use meta-analysis to ask whether different types of behaviours were more repeatable than others, and if repeatability estimates depended on taxa, sex, age, field versus laboratory, the number of measures and the interval between measures. Some of the overall patterns that were revealed by this analysis were that repeatability estimates were higher in the field compared to the laboratory and repeatability was higher when the interval between observations was short. Mate preference behaviour was one of the best studied but least repeatable behaviours. Our findings prompt new insights into the relative flexibility of different types of behaviour and offer suggestions for the design and analysis of future research.
Sexual Selection and Condition-Dependent Mate Preferences
2006, Current Biology
The last decade has witnessed considerable theoretical and empirical investigation of how male sexual ornaments evolve. This strong male-biased perspective has resulted in the relative neglect of variation in female mate preferences and its consequences for ornament evolution. As sexual selection is a co-evolutionary process between males and females, ignoring variation in females overlooks a key aspect of this process. Here, we review the empirical evidence that female mate preferences, like male ornaments, are condition dependent. We show accumulating support for the hypothesis that high quality females show the strongest mate preference. Nonetheless, this is still an infant field, and we highlight areas in need of more research, both theoretical and empirical. We also examine some of the wider implications of condition-dependent mating decisions and their effect on the strength of sexual selection.

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Animal Behaviour

Abstract

References (25)

Tail length and female choice

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Two-choice phonotaxis in Hyperolius marmoratus (Anura, Hyperoliidae): the effect of temporal variation in presented stimuli

Anim. Behav.

Female mate choice in treefrogs: static and dynamic acoustic criteria

Anim. Behav.

Female preferences for ‘song races’ of Ephippiger ephippiger (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)

Anim. Behav.

Variation in male song and female preferences within a population of Ephippiger ephippiger (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae)

Anim. Behav.

Setbacks in the search for mate-preference genes

Trends Ecol. Evol.

Ornament and body size variation and their measurement in natural populations

Biol. J. Linn. Soc.

Repeatability: its role in evolutionary studies of mating behaviour

Evol. Ecol.

Male behaviour and correlates of mating success in a natural population of African painted reed frog (Hyperolius marmoratus)

Herpetologica

Vocalisations of some hybrid treefrogs: acoustic and behavioural analyses

Behaviour

Sound pattern recognition in North American treefrogs (Anura: Hylidae): implications for male choice

Am. Zool.

Conducting playback experiments and interpreting their results

Cited by (59)

Agrochemicals disrupt multiple endocrine axes in amphibians

Temperature variations affect postcopulatory but not precopulatory sexual selection in the cigarette beetle

All's well that begins Wells: Celebrating 60 years of Animal Behaviour and 36 years of research on anuran social behaviour

Taking the sensory approach: How individual differences in sensory perception can influence mate choice

The repeatability of behaviour: a meta-analysis

Sexual Selection and Condition-Dependent Mate Preferences