Reproductive behavior of Cycloramphus dubius Miranda-Ribeiro (Amphibia, Anura, Leptodactylidae)

Giaretta, Ariovaldo A; Cardoso, Adão J

doi:10.1590/S0101-81751995000200002

Abstract

Cycloramphus dubius Miranda-Ribeiro. 1920 is a frog species from the coastal Atlantic Forest in Southeastern Brazil. It uses waterfalls of forested rivulets as breeding sites. The eggs are placed outside of water, between rock crevices or roots constantly wetted by water dripping. Clutches have about 60 eggs, and the tadpoles grow attached to rocks, out of water. Males of this species exhibit parental care, biting and/or pushing away strange objects approaching the egg masses. Two types of calls were identified in the spectrograms. The "advertisement calls" consist of juxtaposed pulses lasting 200ms; the "aggressive calls", also have the short pulses structure, and last around 300ms. The aggressive calls are emitted during territorial invasion.

Amphibia; Anura; Atlantic Forest; breeding site; territoriality; parental care

Reproductive behavior of Cycloramphus dubius Miranda-Ribeiro (Amphibia, Anura, Leptodactylidae)

Ariovaldo A. Giaretta; Adão J. Cardoso

Departamento de Zoologia. Universidade Estadual de Campinas. Caixa Postal 6109, 13083-970 Campinas, São Paulo, Brasil

ABSTRACT

Cycloramphus dubius Miranda-Ribeiro. 1920 is a frog species from the coastal Atlantic Forest in Southeastern Brazil. It uses waterfalls of forested rivulets as breeding sites. The eggs are placed outside of water, between rock crevices or roots constantly wetted by water dripping. Clutches have about 60 eggs, and the tadpoles grow attached to rocks, out of water. Males of this species exhibit parental care, biting and/or pushing away strange objects approaching the egg masses. Two types of calls were identified in the spectrograms. The "advertisement calls" consist of juxtaposed pulses lasting 200ms; the "aggressive calls", also have the short pulses structure, and last around 300ms. The aggressive calls are emitted during territorial invasion.

Key words: Amphibia. Anura, Atlantic Forest, breeding site, territoriality, parental care

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. W.W. Benson and W.R. Heyer provided comments on early drafts: E. Ramirez helped the field works: I. Sazima made the black and white pictures from slides: C.F.B. Haddad presented helpful comments K. Facure helped in the project. FAPESP financially supported the study (Grant IC 89/2628-6 to AAG and AP 86/2455-6 to AJC) and the Smithsonian Institution (Short Term Visitor Program) permitted examination of the original records of

C. dubius

and

C. boracciencis

.

Recebido em 20.XI.1994; aceito em 25.VI.1995.

Cardoso. A.J. & C.F.B. Haddad. 1984. Variabilidade acústica em diferentes populações e interações agressivas de Hyla minuta (Amphibia, Anura). Ciência e Cultura 36 (8):1393-1399.
Gosner, K.L. 1960. A simplified table for staging anuran embryos and larvae with notes on identification. Herpetologica 16:183-190.
Heyer, W.R. & C.C. Mello. 1979. Description of the advertising call of Cycloramphus asper and Cycloramphus dubius (Amphibia, Leptodactylidae). Pap. Avuls Depto Zool., São Paulo, 32:193-200.
Lutz, A. 1929. Taxonomia e biologia do gênero Cycloramphus Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz 22:5-16.
Lutz. B. 1972. Geographical and ecological notes on cisandine to platine frogs. J. Herpetol. 6:93-100.
Miranda-Ribeiro. A. de. 1926. Notas para servirem ao estudo dos gymno-batrachios (Anura) brasileiros. Arch. Mus. Nac. Rio Janeiro 27:1-227.
Nussbaun. R.A. & D.L. Schultz. 1989. Coevolution of parental care and egg size. Am. Nat. 133:591-603.
Rose, M. & R.E. Lemon. 1974. The vocal behavior of spring peppers. Hyla crucifer. Copeia 1974(4):940-950.
Wells, K.D. 1977. The social behavior of anuran amphibians. Anim. Behav. 25:666-693.
______. 1981. Parental behavior of male and female frog, p. 184-197. In: R.D. Alexander & D.W. Tinke (eds). Natural Selection and Social Behavior. New York, Chiron Press.
Wells, K.D. & J.J. Schwartz. 1984. Vocal communication in a neotropical treefrog, Hyla ebraccata: aggressive calls. Behaviour 91:128-145.
Williams, G.C. 1975. Sex and Evolution. Princeton. Princeton Univ. Press.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
21 July 2009
Date of issue
1995

History

Received
20 Nov 1994
Accepted
25 June 1995

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

[1] Cardoso. A.J. & C.F.B. Haddad. 1984. Variabilidade acústica em diferentes populações e interações agressivas de Hyla minuta (Amphibia, Anura). Ciência e Cultura 36 (8):1393-1399.

[2] Gosner, K.L. 1960. A simplified table for staging anuran embryos and larvae with notes on identification. Herpetologica 16:183-190.

[3] Heyer, W.R. & C.C. Mello. 1979. Description of the advertising call of Cycloramphus asper and Cycloramphus dubius (Amphibia, Leptodactylidae). Pap. Avuls Depto Zool., São Paulo, 32:193-200.

[4] Lutz, A. 1929. Taxonomia e biologia do gênero Cycloramphus Mem. Inst. Oswaldo Cruz 22:5-16.

[5] Lutz. B. 1972. Geographical and ecological notes on cisandine to platine frogs. J. Herpetol. 6:93-100.

[6] Miranda-Ribeiro. A. de. 1926. Notas para servirem ao estudo dos gymno-batrachios (Anura) brasileiros. Arch. Mus. Nac. Rio Janeiro 27:1-227.

[7] Nussbaun. R.A. & D.L. Schultz. 1989. Coevolution of parental care and egg size. Am. Nat. 133:591-603.

[8] Rose, M. & R.E. Lemon. 1974. The vocal behavior of spring peppers. Hyla crucifer. Copeia 1974(4):940-950.

[9] Wells, K.D. 1977. The social behavior of anuran amphibians. Anim. Behav. 25:666-693.

[10] ______. 1981. Parental behavior of male and female frog, p. 184-197. In: R.D. Alexander & D.W. Tinke (eds). Natural Selection and Social Behavior. New York, Chiron Press.

[11] Wells, K.D. & J.J. Schwartz. 1984. Vocal communication in a neotropical treefrog, Hyla ebraccata: aggressive calls. Behaviour 91:128-145.

[12] Williams, G.C. 1975. Sex and Evolution. Princeton. Princeton Univ. Press.