Redescription of the advertisement call of Aplastodiscus arildae (Cruz & Peixoto) and description of the call of Aplastodiscus weygoldti (Cruz & Peixoto) with general notes about the genus in Southeastern Brazil (Anura, Hylidae)

Abstract

The study of anuran advertisement calls is very significant for it is an important premating premating mechanism. Herein we redescribe the advertisement call of Aplastodiscus arildae from an area near type-locality and describe the advertisement call of A. weygoldti comparing them to previously described advertisement calls of species of the genus Aplastodiscus. Both advertisement calls are simple, non-modulated calls, very similar to each other, but significantly different in what matters to call duration. We describe the first distress call registered for the genus, the distress call of A. arildae, that does not have rigid form and was only recorded for one individual. Some general notes of the genus Aplastodiscus are given.

The Green Clade grows: A phylogenetic analysis of Aplastodiscus (Anura; Hylidae)

“…(Cochran, 1955;Lutz, 1973;; among others). Some authors suggested a red-orange iris as a possible synapomorphy of the group (Carvalho-e-Silva and Carvalho-e-Silva, 2005;Orrico et al, 2006). However, we find that iris color varies among individuals of the same population; at the type locality of A. arildae, we recorded two individuals with coppercolored irises, whereas all other individuals had red irises.…”

“…Apparently, both species occur at this locality (Silva-Soares et al, 2011;Silva et al, 2012). Orrico et al (2006) described the call of A.…”

“…weygoldti from Domingos Martins and compared it with topotypic A. arildae, finding them to differ significantly in duration (details in Orrico et al, 2006). Wiens et al (2005) arildae is known from that locality (Cruz and Peixoto, 1987;Berneck, unpubl.…”

“…Wells (2007) noted that calling from inside burrows, subterranean nests, and rock crevices can interfere with sound transmission, but in some species, the burrow facilitates resonance. In Aplastodiscus, only males of the A. albosignatus Group call from burrows, and these species have the lowest frequency of advertisement calls of all members of the genus (calls descriptions in Haddad and Sawaya, 2000;Garcia et al, 2001;Hartmann et al, 2004;Abrunhosa et al, 2005;Conte et al, 2005;Orrico et al, 2006;Zina and Haddad, 2006b). Lower frequency advertisement calls usually are associated with sound propagation over long distances, and the call of A. cavicola has the lowest frequency of all species in the A. albosignatus group (Abrunhosa et al, 2005).…”

“…Aplastodiscus is distributed mainly in the Atlantic Forest of northeastern, southeastern, and southern Brazil, and adjacent Argentina, with one species reaching gallery forests in the Cerrado biome in central-eastern Brazil (Frost, 2014). All but one species are green, with usually colorful eyes with hues of copper, orange, pink, red, violet, and white Peixoto, 1985, 1987;Garcia et al, 2001;Orrico et al, 2006). Aplastodiscus formerly was included in the genus Hyla Laurenti, 1768; because of the coloration of the frogs, they have traditionally been called " the green species" of Hyla of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.…”