A new species of the genus Megophrys is described from Guizhou Province, China. Molecular phylogenetic analyses supported the new species as an independent clade nested into the Megophrys. The new species could be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following characters: body size moderate (SVL 49.3–58.2 mm in males); vomerine ridges present distinctly, vomerine teeth present; tongue feebly notched behind; tympanum distinctly visible, oval; two metacarpal tubercles in hand; toes with one-third webbing and wide lateral fringes; heels overlapped when thighs are positioned at right angles to the body; tibiotarsal articulation reaching the level between tympanum and eye when leg stretched forward; an internal single subgular vocal sac present in male; in breeding male, the nuptial pads with large and sparse black nuptial spines present on the dorsal bases of the first two fingers.
Studies on breeding biology enable us to broaden our understanding of the evolution of life history strategies. We studied the breeding biology of the Green-backed Tit (Parus monticolus) to provide comprehensive data on nest and egg characteristics, parental behavior throughout egg laying and nestling periods, and reproductive outcome. Our study reveals adaptive behavioral patterns and reproductive strategies for P. monticolus.
As a text-book example of coevolution, the escalating interactions between egg mimicry by parasitic cuckoos and egg recognition by their hosts constitute a key battlefield for parasitism and anti-parasitism strategies. However, some parasite–host systems have deviated from this coevolutionary trajectory because some cuckoos do not lay mimetic eggs, while the hosts do not recognize them, even under the high costs of parasitism. The cryptic egg hypothesis was proposed to explain this puzzle, but the evidence to date is mixed and the relationship between the two components of egg crypticity, egg darkness (dim egg coloration) and nest similarity (similarity to host nest appearance), remains unknown. Here, we developed a ‘field psychophysics’ experimental design to dissect these components while controlling for undesired confounding factors. Our results clearly show that both egg darkness and nest similarity of cryptic eggs affect recognition by hosts, and egg darkness plays a more influential role than nest similarity. This study provides unambiguous evidence to resolve the puzzle of absent mimicry and recognition in cuckoo–host systems and explains why some cuckoo eggs were more likely to evolve dim coloration rather than similarity to host eggs or host nests.
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