Herpetology Notes, volume 8: 295 (2015) (published online on 19 May 2015)

Intense interspecific amplexus of wood , Lithobates sylvaticus, on a tiger salamander, Ambystoma tigrinum

Adam Crane1,* and Maud Ferrari2

Wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus) have a brief and been observed in ranid frogs (e.g., Pearl, et al.,2005). explosive breeding period during either the late winter In the late afternoon of 7 May 2013 at a site in or early spring. Adults often form large aggregations Strathcona County, Alberta, Canada (53.484571°N, at temporary ponds, and mate competition is fierce 113.151671°W, WPS 84), we found five male wood among males that are attempting to amplect females. frogs (about 40 mm snout-vent length) amplecting Sometimes mating balls (i.e., several males amplecting a a reproductive adult tiger salamander, Ambystoma female simultaneously) can be so intense that they result tigrinum, that initially was not moving and appeared in death for females (e.g., Phillips and Wade,1990). In dead or in lethargy. As we lifted the salamander (85 general, amplexus occurs only among closely-related mm snout-vent length, 75 mm tail length), two of the species, but occasionally, interspecific amplexus has frogs jumped back into the pond, but the other three individuals continued amplecting the salamander. Two frogs were tightly grasping the salamander around the abdomen, and the third individual held the salamander around the neck (Fig. 1). We carefully dislodged the frogs in a bucket and released them in the pond. The salamander proved to be still alive, thus in lethargy when amplected, and was also released at the pond. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of woodfrogs amplecting A. tigrinum.

Acknowledgements. We thank Brian Gall for critically reading the manuscript, and we greatly appreciate Glen and Jean Chivers for the use of their ponds. use was approved by the University of Saskatchewan (UCACS # 20060014).

References

Pearl, C.A., Hayes, M.P., Haycock, R., Engler, J.D., Bowerman, J. (2005): Observations of interspecific amplexus between western Figure 1. Dorsal and lateral views of three Lithobates North American ranid frogs and the introduced American sylvaticus amplecting Ambytoma tigrinum. bullfrog ( catesbeiana) and an hypothesis concerning breeding interference. The American Midland Naturalist 154: 126–134. Phillips, P., Wade, M. (1990): Life history notes: Rana sylvatica (wood ). Reproductive mortality. Herpetological Review 21: 59. 1 University of Saskatchewan, 112 Science Place, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5E2, Canada 2 University of Saskatchewan, 52 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, Accepted by Vaclav Gvozdik Saskatchewan S7N 5B4, Canada * Corresponding author E-mail: [email protected]