Two Interspecific Amplexus of Smilisca Sila (Hylidae) with Strabomantis Bufoniformis and Craugastor Fitzingeri (Craugastoridae)
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Herpetology Notes, volume 11: 167-169 (2018) (published online on 10 February 2018) Two interspecific amplexus of Smilisca sila (Hylidae) with Strabomantis bufoniformis and Craugastor fitzingeri (Craugastoridae) Ángel Sosa-Bartuano1,2,*, Yostin Jesús Añino Ramos2,3, Víctor Martínez Cortés5,6; Rogemif Daniel Fuentes4 and Humberto Fossatti6 Anurans generally use auditory, chemical and visual versant from central Panama to northern Colombia signals for species and sex recognition (Wells, 2007). and the middle Magdalena Valley (Köhler, 2011). This Several studies on sympatric anurans that reproduce species generally breeds during the dry season (January synchronously have concluded that differences in the to April), and males of this species call at night along mating call can serve as an important reproductive streams, but they do not form dense choruses (da Silva isolation mechanism (Blair, 1964; Duellman, 1967; Nunes, 1988). However, at high elevations they may Crump, 1971; Höld, 1977), however the advertisement sometimes breed during the rainy season (Duellman and call of a male can be masked by a noisy environment Trueb, 1966). Craugastor fitzingeri (Schmidt, 1857) is or by the calls of other species, which may lead to a direct developing frog of the Craugastoridae family, interspecific amplexus (Shahrudin, 2016). Other distributed from northeastern Honduras to northwestern situations, including overlapping in reproductive period, Colombia (Köhler, 2011). Both sexes are frequently low female availability, confusion of chemical signals, found at night in the understory vegetation 0.5 to 1.6 m low male selectivity, and explosive breeding behavior above ground often along forest edges. Males usually may also result in interspecific amplexus (Pearl et al., vocalize from elevated spots on stumps, fallen logs, and 2005; Wogel et al., 2005; Mollov et al., 2010; Machado low vegetation. Even though this species is commonly and Bernarde, 2011; Vivek et al., 2014). observed along the margins of stream courses, and may Smilisca sila Duellman and Trueb 1966, is a Hylid avoid capture by jumping into the water and hiding on frog distributed from Pacific versant from southern the bottom, it is not a riparian species (Savage, 2002). Costa Rica to eastern Panama, and on the Atlantic Strabomantis bufoniformis (Boulenger 1896), is a direct developing frog also from the Craugastoridae family (Padial et al., 2014) distributed on the Atlantic versant from extreme southern Costa Rica to western Colombia (Köhler, 2011). It is a nocturnal, riparian, primary forest 1 Museo de Vertebrados de la Universidad de Panamá, Campus species of lowland moist and wet forest. Octavio Méndez Pereira, Ciudad de Panamá, Panama. Herein we report two field observations of interspecific 2 Red Mesoamericana y del Caribe para la Conservación de amplexus involving these species. The first was recorded Anfibios y Reptiles (Red MesoHerp). on 22 November 2013 at 18:48 h in a stream (9.133333° 3 Museo de Invertebrados G. B. Fairchild de la Universidad de Panamá, Campus Octavio Méndez Pereira, Ciudad de N, -78.885556° W, Datum WGS 84; elevation 100 m,) Panamá, Panama. in Plan Bonito, Chepo district, Panama province where 4 Los Naturalistas, P.O. Box 0426-01459, David, Chiriquí, a multiple amplexus was observed between an adult Panama. male of Smilisca sila and an adult male of Strabomantis 5 Departamento de Zoología, Escuela de Biología, Campus bufoniformis also in amplexus with a female of same Octavio Méndez Pereira, Universidad de Panamá, Ciudad de species (Figure 1A). The second observation was on Panamá, Panama. 11 January 2016 at 2048 h, during a field work in a 6 Centro para Investigaciones y Respuestas en Ofidismo, Campus Octavio Méndez Pereira, Universidad de Panamá, stream (8.956889° N, -78.582583° W, Datum WGS Ciudad de Panamá, Panama. 84; elevation 377 m) in the town of San José, district * Corresponding author: [email protected] of Chepo, province of Panama. Here an adult male of 168 Ángel Sosa-Bartuano et al. References Blair, W. F. (1958): Isolating mechanism and interspecies interaction in anuran amphibians. The Quarterly Review of Biology 39: 334-344. Crump, M. L. (1971): Quantitative analysis of the ecological distribution of a tropical herpetofauna. Occasional Papers Museum of Natural History, the University of Kansas 3: 1-62. Da Silva Nunes, V. (1988): Vocalizations of treefrogs (Smilisca sila) in response to bat predation. Herpetologica 44: 8-10. Duellman, W. E. and L., Trueb. (1966): Neotropical Hylid Frog, genus Smilisca. University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History 17:281-375. Duellman, W. E. (1967): Courtship isolating mechanism in costa rican hylid frogs. Herpetologica 3:169-183. Halliday, T. (1980). Sexual strategy. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 160 pp. Hödl, W. (1977): Call differences and calling site segregation in anuran species from central amazonian floating meadows. Oecologia 28: 351-363. Köhler, G. (2011): Amphibians of Central America. Herpeton Figure 1. A) Multiple amplexus involving one male of Verlag Elke Köhler, Offenbach, Germany, 378 pp. Smilisca sila with a pair of Strabomantis bufoniformis. Photo Machado, R. A. and Bernarde, P. S. (2011): Multiple and by Yostin Añino. B) male of Smilisca sila in amplexus with a Heterospecific Amplexi Between the Toads Rhaebo guttatus Craugastor fitzingeri. Photo by Rogemif Fuentes. and Rhinella marina (Anura: Bufonidae). Herpetology Notes 4: 167-169. Mollov, I. A. (2010): Cases of abnormal amplexus in anurans (Amphibia: Anura) from Bulgaria and Greece. Biharean Biologist 4: 121-125. Smilisca sila was amplexing an adult of Craugastor Padial, J. M., Grant, T., Frost, D. R. (2014): Molecular systematics fitzingeri (Figure 1B). In both cases, the individual of terraranas (Anura: Brachycephaloidea) with an assessment of being amplexed (or grasped) by the male of S. sila did the effects of alignment and optimality criteria. Zootaxa 3825: not produce release calls. Both observations occurred 1–132. in similar habitats, streams in secondary forest patches, Pearl, C. A., Hayes, M. P., Haycock, R., Engler, J. D., and with anthropogenic pressure of deforestation for the Bowerman, J. (2005): Observations of interspecific amplexus between western North American ranid frogs and the introduced creation of pastures for cattle. The specimens were not American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) and an hypothesis collected. concerning breeding interference. The American Midland In the genus Smilisca, interspecific amplexus have been Naturalist 154: 126-134. reported in S. phaeota and S. baudini (Streicher, 2010; Savage J. M. (2002): The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: Sosa Bartuano et al., 2014). Reports of interspecific A Herpetofauna between two Continents, between two Seas. amplexus have been documented in various frog species University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 934 pp. worldwide (Pearl et al., 2005; Mollov, 2010; Machado Shahrudin, S. (2016): Interspecific amplexus between male Rhacophorus prominanus and female Polypedates leucomystax and Bernarde, 2011; Shahrudin, 2016) but none for from Peninsular Malaysia. Natural History Notes. The frogs from Eastern Panama. Our records ad to these Herpetological Bulletin 135: 30-31. descriptions and anecdotal observations suggesting Sosa Bartuano, A.; De La Cruz, J. and L., Vásquez. (2014): a relatively low selectivity in males of Smilisca sila. 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A. and Pombal-Junior, J. P. (2005): Breeding Behaviour and Mating Success of Phyllomedusa rohdei (Anura, Hylidae) in South-eastern Brazil. Journal of Natural History 39: 2035-2045. Accepted by Ariel Rodríguez.