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Advertisement-call modification, male competition, and female preference in the bird-voiced treefrog Hyla avivoca

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Abstract

Senders and receivers influence dynamic characteristics of the signals used for mate attraction over different time scales. On a moment-to-moment basis, interactions among senders competing for a mate influence dynamic characteristics, whereas the preferences of receivers of the opposite gender exert an influence over evolutionary time. We observed and recorded the calling patterns of the bird-voiced treefrog Hyla avivoca to assess how the dynamic characters of calls vary during interactions among groups of males in a chorus. This question was also addressed using playback experiments with males. Playback experiments with females showed how changes in dynamic call properties are likely to affect male mating success. Frogs calling in pairs, groups, or in response to playbacks produced longer calls than did isolated males. During call overlap, males often increased the duration of the silent interval (gaps) between the pulses of their calls so that the pulses of the calls of two neighbors interdigitated. This change resulted in increased variability of pulse rate, a traditionally static acoustic property; however, males also produced high proportions of non-overlapped calls in which variability in pulse rate was low and had species-typical values. Females preferred long calls to short- and average-duration calls, and non-overlapped calls to overlapped calls. Given a choice between pairs of overlapped calls, females preferred pairs in which the proportion of overlap was low and pairs in which the pulses of such calls interdigitated completely. The observed patterns of vocal competition thus reflect the preferences of conspecific females, which have influenced the evolution of the calling behavior of H. avivoca.

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Acknowledgment

We thank Adam Boyette, Drew Dittmer, and Zapic Martínez for assistance in collecting data and testing frogs in the field. Bob Jones, Kristy Wharton, and Ray Semlitsch facilitated locality data for the Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee populations, respectively. Mario and Crystal Sánchez, and Kristy Wharton kindly provided housing (and moral support) in the field; George K. and S. Adams made the long hours in the field feel less harsh. Bob Jones and Jerome Ford kindly granted permission to carry out our research in Mississippi and Louisiana, respectively. Gerlinde Höbel and J. J. Schwartz, along with two anonymous reviewers greatly improved this manuscript. This work was supported by a National Science Foundation (Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant to Martínez-Rivera and IBN-0091993 to Gerhardt), the Public Health Service (DHHS R01 DC05760 to Gerhardt), and the City of Mayagüez Department of Education, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico (to Martínez-Rivera).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Philadelphia Zoo, 3400 West Girard Ave, Philadelphia, PA, 19104-1196, USA

    Carlos César Martínez-Rivera

  2. Division of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, 213 Tucker Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    H. Carl Gerhardt

Authors
  1. Carlos César Martínez-Rivera
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  2. H. Carl Gerhardt
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Carlos César Martínez-Rivera.

Additional information

Communicated by J. Christensen-Dalsgaard.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

S1 Advertisement call

Sound file of average call of a male H. avivoca calling in a chorus. The call consist of 24 pulses of about 0.050 ms given at intervals of about 0.075 ms for a total call length of 3 s. Uninterrupted calls have a constant pulse rate of about 8.4 pulses per second at a temperature of about 24°C (see Fig. 1a and text) (WAV 423 KB)

S2 Call interaction

Stereo sound file of an advertisement-call interaction between two neighboring males. The first call, produced by male 1, is 2.34 s long and contains 18 pulses; the next call of male 1 is 2.46 s long and contains 17 pulses. The call is completely overlapped by the call of male 2, which is 3.17 s long and contains 24 pulses. During call overlap, both males increase the length of the inter-pulse interval, resulting in an irregular pulse rate during call overlap (see Fig. 1b for a graphic example of pulse interdigitation during call overlap) (WAV 1.76 MB)

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Table 4 Localities of Hyla avivoca used in this study
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Martínez-Rivera, C.C., Gerhardt, H.C. Advertisement-call modification, male competition, and female preference in the bird-voiced treefrog Hyla avivoca . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 63, 195–208 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-008-0650-0

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