Beyond Sexual Dimorphism and Habitat Boundaries: Coloration Correlates with Morphology, Age, and Locomotor Performance in a Toad

Zamora‐Camacho, Francisco Javier; Comas, Mireia

doi:10.1007/s11692-018-9466-7

Cited by 12 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…This finding is aligned with the assumption that female toads are under milder predation pressure ( Frétey et al, 2004 ), and can thus afford riskier behaviours. E. calamita males in this system are faster ( Zamora-Camacho, 2018 ), brighter ( Zamora-Camacho & Comas, 2019 ), and have larger parotoid glands than females ( Zamora-Camacho, 2021 ), which could be interpreted as antipredator defences triggered by a harsher predation pressure. Remarkably, other toads, such as R. marina ( Gruber et al, 2018 ) or Sclerophrys gutturalis ( Baxter-Gilbert, Riley & Measey, 2021 ) do not appear to differ in these behavioural traits.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…Toads were captured by hand while active in nights of suitable weather, then transported to the laboratory in plastic buckets with well-ventilated lids and a substrate of humid earth. When they were in the laboratory, I used their sexual dimorphism in coloration (females have browner backs and greyish throats, whereas males have greener backs and purplish or pinkish throats; Zamora-Camacho & Comas, 2019 ) and the presence of blackish nuptial pads on male forelimbs ( Gomez-Mestre, 2014 ), to sex them. Next, I allocated them to individual plastic terraria (20 × 13 × 9 cm) with wet peat as a substrate and an opaque plastic shelter.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The relationships between toad behaviour, antipredator defences, and spatial and sexual variation in predation pressure

Zamora‐Camacho

2022

PeerJ

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Background Animal behaviour is under strong selection. Selection on behaviour, however, might not act in isolation from other fitness-related traits. Since predators represent outstanding selective forces, animal behaviour could covary with antipredator defences, such that individuals better suited against predators could afford facing the costs of riskier behaviours. Moreover, not all individuals undergo equivalent degrees of predation pressure, which can vary across sexes or habitats. Individuals under lower predation pressure might also exhibit riskier behaviours. Methods In this work, I tested these hypotheses on natterjack toads (Epidalea calamita). Specifically, I gauged activity time, exploratory behaviour and boldness in standard laboratory conditions, and assessed whether they correlated with body size and antipredator strategies, namely sprint speed, parotoid gland area and parotoid gland colour contrast. Additionally, I compared these traits between sexes and individuals from an agrosystem and pine grove, since there is evidence that males and agrosystem individuals are subjected to greater predation pressure. Results Sprint speed as well as parotoid gland contrast and size appeared unrelated to the behavioural traits studied. In turn, body mass was negatively related to activity time, boldness and exploration. This trend is consistent with the fact that larger toads could be more detectable to their predators, which are mostly gape unconstrained and could easily consume them. As predicted, females exhibited riskier behaviours. Nonetheless, agrosystem toads did not differ from pine grove toads in the behavioural traits measured, despite being under stronger predation pressure.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationships between toad behaviour, antipredator defences, and spatial and sexual variation in predation pressure

Zamora‐Camacho

2022

PeerJ

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“…I caught these toads by hand while they were active on rainy nights, after which I transported them to the laboratory in plastic buckets with a lid with holes and damp earth as a substrate. Once in the laboratory, I sexed these toads based on colour sexual dimorphism (males are greener and have pinkish or purplish vocal sacs, whereas females are browner and have greyish throats [46]) and on the presence of dark and rough nuptial pads only in males [43]. Then, I housed the toads in individual plastic containers (20 × 13 × 9 cm) with humid peat substrate and a piece of opaque plastic as a refuge.…”

Section: Toad Capture and Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do Active and Passive Antipredator Defences in the Toad Epidalea calamita Differ between Males and Females from Natural Habitats and Agrosystems?

Zamora‐Camacho

2021

Diversity

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Due to their assumed costs, simultaneous antipredator strategies are expected to face trade-offs, which, however, could be milder in individuals subjected to a more intense predator pressure. In this work, I studied the relationship between locomotion and parotoid glands in the natterjack toad, Epidalea calamita. Specifically, I predicted that individuals with reduced sprint speed would rely more on their chemical defences, having larger and more aposematically coloured parotoid glands. In addition, I expected this trade-off to be more evident in females and toads from pine grove habitats, because, according to previous work, males and toads from agrosystems are under greater predator pressure. However, sprint speed showed no relationship with coloration, but toads with proportionally greater parotoid glands were also proportionally faster. Thus, the costs of these antipredator traits might not be high enough to make them interfere, or the benefits of simultaneous optimisation of sprint speed and parotoid gland size might outweigh the costs of it in some individuals. In any case, habitat and sex did not affect these relationships, so the trends detected are valid across sexes and the habitats studied.

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“…Animal coloration influences behavioral interactions within a species and predator–prey interactions among species. Within a species, color is important during inter‐ and intrasexual selection, as it can signal reproductive status, age, or individual quality (e.g., birds [Part and Qvarnström 1997, Keyser and Hill 1999, Badyaev and Duckworth 2003, Hanssen et al 2006], mammals [Setchell et al 2006, Bergman et al 2009], amphibians [Brenes‐Soto et al 2017, Zamora‐Camacho and Comas 2019], fish [Hippel 1999], reptiles [Cuadrado 2000, Weiss 2006], insects [Kemp 2007, Willink et al 2019], reviewed in Cuthill et al [2017]). Among species, color can honestly advertise unpalatability levels to predators (Boyden 1976, Schlee 1986, Maan and Cummings 2012) or, alternatively, deceive predators through background matching, masquerade, or Batesian mimicry (reviewed in Stoddard 2012, Merilaita et al 2017, Rojas 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We tested whether color correlates to metrics of individual quality, and whether it varies ontogenetically (i.e., with age and sex). For example, in the natterjack toad ( E. calamita ) individuals become lighter in color as they age (Zamora‐Camacho and Comas 2019). In other anuran species, color correlates with nutritional status (Brenes‐Soto and Dierenfeld 2014, Brenes‐Soto et al 2017) and hormone levels (Brown 1976, Camargo et al 1999, Tang et al 2014, reviewed in Nilsson Sköld et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary trade‐offs may interact with physiological constraints to maintain color variation

Goedert

Clement

Calsbeek

2020

Ecological Monographs

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Animal coloration is a multifaceted trait with many ecological roles and related to a variety of developmental and physiological processes. Consequently, coloration is often subject to a variety of selective pressures, leading to the evolutionary maintenance of variation. In this study, we investigated hypotheses related to the maintenance of dorsal color variation in wood frogs (Rana sylvatica). First, we tested for multimodality, and whether color correlates with body size or condition or varies by sex or age-class. We combined behavioral trials with visual modeling to test for sex recognition. We also considered visual models for predators and tested for an interaction between discriminability indexes (JND) of color channel (chromatic vs. achromatic) and predator type (birds vs. snakes), as well as for a within individual trade-off between the JND of chromatic and achromatic coloration. Finally, we tested for disruptive viability selection on color using predation trials, and for antagonistic directional selection between viability selection and reproductive investment of females. We found that wood frogs present continuous color variation that does not correlate with body size or condition, but that changes with age. Wood frogs present subtle sexual dichromatism, but we found no evidence for a role of color in sex recognition. Instead, we discuss the possibility that sex differences might, at least in part, have a demographic explanation. Predator visual models indicated that wood frogs cannot solely rely on dorsal coloration for camouflage. Moreover, different predators might present selective pressures in different color channels, while individuals' achromatic and chromatic coloration trade-off in JND. Therefore, different selective pressures caused by different predators might interact with ontogenetic changes and developmental/physiological trade-offs to maintain color variation. We found no relationship between color and survival or reproductive investment, suggesting further work is required to fully understand selection on color. Our results highlight the importance of understanding evolutionary trade-offs and developmental/physiological constraints in combination with one another, and suggest the potential for an interaction between these proximate and ultimate mechanisms in the evolutionary maintenance of variation. These results likely extend beyond color expression in amphibians, and exemplify a more general process for such evolutionary outcomes.

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Beyond Sexual Dimorphism and Habitat Boundaries: Coloration Correlates with Morphology, Age, and Locomotor Performance in a Toad

Cited by 12 publications

References 81 publications

The relationships between toad behaviour, antipredator defences, and spatial and sexual variation in predation pressure

The relationships between toad behaviour, antipredator defences, and spatial and sexual variation in predation pressure

Do Active and Passive Antipredator Defences in the Toad Epidalea calamita Differ between Males and Females from Natural Habitats and Agrosystems?

Evolutionary trade‐offs may interact with physiological constraints to maintain color variation

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