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Sperm traits in the quacking frog (Crinia georgiana), a species with plastic alternative mating tactics

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Abstract

In species where males use alternative reproductive tactics and male phenotypes are confronted with different risks of sperm competition, theory predicts that between-male-type differences in sperm expenditure may evolve. In the frog Crinia georgiana big males can monopolize females, whereas small males often engage in polyandrous matings. Consequently, big males may experience a lower risk of sperm competition than do small males. We tested if the predictions from theoretical models can be applied to the mating system of C. georgiana. Our results showed that small males do not have larger testes relative to their body size compared to their larger counterparts and that the efficiency with which sperm number, size, motility, and longevity are produced by the testes does not differ between small and large males in the predicted way. These results are not in alignment with predictions from a loaded raffle model of sperm competition on sperm expenditure in males with alternative phenotypes. The plasticity in mating tactics used by C. georgiana males and a high intraseasonal variation in male densities may have prevented the evolution of enhanced sperm performance in smaller males. A fair raffle in the sperm competition game played by C. georgiana males could also explain the observed patterns in sperm traits. Future investigations determining the parameters responsible for the deviation from theoretical predictions in this system will test the degree to which current theoretical models can indeed be applied to species with plastic reproductive tactics.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Martin A. Dziminski for help with the field work and Leigh W. Simmons for comments that have led to substantial improvements in the manuscript. This study was supported by a Hungarian State Eötvös Fellowship financed by the Ministry of Education and promoted by the Hungarian Scholarship Board (grant to A. Hettyey), by an Australia-Europe Scholarship funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Education, Science and Training and promoted by the Australian Education International (grant to A. Hettyey and J. D. Roberts) and by a UWA Research Grant (grant to J. D. Roberts and P. Vercoe). Animal collections were made under permit from the Department of Conservation and Land Management (License No. SF004231) and all procedures were approved by the Animal Ethics Committee of the University of Western Australia (Approval Number 03/100/292). We declare that the experiments complied with the current laws in Australia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Behavioural Ecology Group, Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány Péter sétány 1/c, Budapest, 1117, Hungary

    Attila Hettyey

  2. School of Animal Biology (MO92), The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, 6009, Australia

    Attila Hettyey & J. Dale Roberts

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  1. Attila Hettyey
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  2. J. Dale Roberts
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Correspondence to Attila Hettyey.

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Communicated by J. Christensen-Dalsgaard

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Hettyey, A., Roberts, J.D. Sperm traits in the quacking frog (Crinia georgiana), a species with plastic alternative mating tactics. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 61, 1303–1310 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0361-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-007-0361-y

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