Alloparental care in glassfrogs: males care for unrelated clutches only when associated with their own

Abstract

Parental care is costly, thus theory predicts that parents should avoid caring for unrelated offspring. However, alloparenting has been reported in many taxa because it may increase the caregiver mating success or offspring survival. We experimentally investigated the existence of allopaternal care in two glassfrog species, Hyalinobatrachium chirripoi and Centrolene peristicta, and discussed possible costs and benefits. Males mated with multiple females and cared for clutches, while continued to call. In the field, we randomly placed unrelated clutches in the territory of males already caring for their clutches and in the territory of non-attending males. Attending males adopted unrelated clutches, whereas non-attending males abandoned their territories. Once males adopted unrelated offspring, they cared for all clutches in a similar frequency and gained new clutches. Alloparenting was context-dependent, as only males already caring for their clutches adopted unrelated ones. We suggest that steroid hormonal levels might mediate the adoption of unrelated offspring by attending males. Additionally, our results suggest that males do not directly discriminate between related and unrelated offspring. Alloparenting has been widely investigated in different vertebrates, except for amphibians. Thus, our study sheds light on the roles of alloparenting for offspring survival and mating success in this group.

Two new glassfrogs (Centrolenidae:Hyalinobatrachium) from Ecuador, with comments on the endangered biodiversity of the Andes

“…All species in the genus have ventral transparency ( Ruiz-Carranza & Lynch, 1991 ; Cisneros-Heredia & Mcdiarmid, 2007 ; Guayasamin et al, 2009 ) and extended paternal care⁠—a derived trait that has evolved at least twice in the family ( Delia, Bravo-Valencia & Warkentin, 2017 ). Although Hyalinobatrachium species have been the focus of numerous behavioral and ecological studies ( Vockenhuber, Hödl & Karpfen, 2008 ; Delia et al, 2010 ; Mangold et al, 2015 ; Delia, Bravo-Valencia & Warkentin, 2017 ; Valencia-Aguilar, Guayasamin & Prado, 2021 ), their taxonomy is complex because they exhibit remarkable morphological conservatism ( Castroviejo-Fisher et al, 2009 , 2011 ; Guayasamin et al, 2009 ). Additionally, locating Hyalinobatrachium spp.…”

Evolutionary trade-offs between testes size and parenting in Neotropical glassfrogs

“…Clutch guarding, for example, might constrain the number of females a male can mate with during the care period. In the genera Hyalinobatrachium and Centrolene, attending males simultaneously care for up to six and two clutches (from different females), respectively, for several weeks [71,[73][74][75]. Hence, males that do not invest in clutch guarding (e.g.…”

What Amphibians Can Teach Us About the Evolution of Parental Care

“…Mutualistic alloparenting, such as communal breeding as an adaptive strategy, has been reported in the northern two-lined salamander: Multiple females breed in synchrony in a joint nest and benefit from taking turns in providing care to the entire nest (LeGros 2011). From observational studies and clutch foster experiments in anurans, we know that parents might provide care to unrelated eggs or larvae (Cabeza-Alfaro et al 2021, Rodrigues et al 2011, Valencia-Aguilar et al 2021. However, these studies describe cases of misdirected alloparenting and do not provide evidence of an adaptive strategy under natural conditions.…”