Abstract
Visual communication is apparently widespread among anurans, but these behaviours in many Neotropical species remain unstudied. We provide the first descriptions of visual displays in males of the Neotropical treefrog Dendropsophus carnifex (Hylidae) from three populations at Mindo, in northwestern Ecuador. We describe hind-foot lifting, foot-flagging, arm waving, toe trembling, body raising, and throat exposure for D. carnifex. All visual displays include exposure of flash colours in hidden surfaces of body and legs. Vocalisations were not emitted simultaneously with visual displays but were intercalated.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Carmen Romero, Homero Peñaherrera, Pedro Peñaherrera-R., Mirjaya Izurieta, Mateo Dávila-Játiva, Nicole Acosta-Vásconez, Carlos Valle, Alex Hearn, Francisco Velásquez and Esteban Serrano for their support during field and lab work; Santiago Ron-BIOWEB for his photos of D. carnifex; Washington Baca for his help with Figure 2; Instituto IBIOTROP-USFQ for logistical support; and two anonymous reviewers for their comments.
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This work was supported by the Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ under operational funds for the Instituto de Biodiversidad Tropical IBIOTROP.
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Peñaherrera-Romero, E., Cisneros-Heredia, D.F. First report of visual displays in the Neotropical treefrog Dendropsophus carnifex. acta ethol 26, 75–78 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-022-00407-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10211-022-00407-z