We studied the calling behavior of male mink frogs, Rana septentrionalis, and how their calling activity varied through nightly calling periods. We observed focal males during their summer breeding season for 1 h periods during chorus activity, which extends from midnight until 0900h, and recorded call types and rates. During this period, male R. septentrionalis produced a repertoire of single and multi-note calls composed of one or two note types, referred to as cuk and rumble notes. Calls that included series of both note types were most frequent between 0100 and 0330h, while single cuks were primarily produced early and late in the chorus period. Call rate peaked between 0200h and 0300h, declined until dawn, then increased until 0900h. Call properties were analyzed from recordings of male vocalizations; temporal properties, such as call and note duration, were the most variable, both within and among males, whereas spectral properties, such as dominant frequency, varied the least. In general, males produced the most complex and variable calls during a peak period of calling activity.
‘Bubbling’ behavior, or the regurgitation of liquid from the crop through droplet formation on the proboscis, has been observed in many nonblood feeding dipterans. One factor that has been identified as a cause for ‘bubbling’ is the concentration of the solution flies ingest. The hypothesis presented in this paper states that male flies ingesting more dilute solutions will exhibit more bubbling behavior than those that ingest a less dilute solution. Concentrations tested were a high concentration of 80% sucrose solution and a low concentration of 20% sucrose solution. Males only were tested to avoid any confounding effect of the females need for energy sources for reproduction. Male flies that ingested the 80% sugar solution showed 45% of the flies tested bubbling, which was significantly different from the flies that ingested 20% solution, which had only 5% of the flies bubbling. No significant weight loss or percentage of weight loss was observed between bubbling and nonbubbling flies for either sugar solution concentration. Results comparing a high and low concentration of sucrose do not support the theory of elimination of excess water loss to concentrate dilute solutions or the “dilute solution hypothesis”. Other factors, not identified previously, that could contribute to bubbling, are changes in osmolality, utilization of blood sugar (i.e., trehalose), and the regulation of the proventricular valve.
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