Biología reproductiva de Pleurodema guayapae (Anura: Leptodactylidae: Leiuperinae)

Abstract

Abstract:Pleurodema guayapae is a species that inhabits saline environments and semidesert zones from central Argentina. To date, the knowledge about the reproductive biology of this species is very poor, and our aim is to contribute to its knowledge with the description of some important reproductive aspects. For this, field work was undertaken in an area near to Patquía, La Rioja province. Sampling was undertaken during three summer periods (2006-2007; 2007-2008; 2008-2009) in Chamical-Patquía area, where we could find reproductively active populations. We observed and described breeding sites, type of clutch, process of foam nest construction, clutch and egg number and sizes, and hatching time and stage. Behaviour observations were performed from the time that males began to call until the pairs ended up the foam nests building, and layed the eggs. Additionally, one amplected pair was observed and filmed in the process of foam nest construction, and four amplectant pairs were collected and separatelly placed in plastic containers, for nests observations in the laboratory. Hatching time was based on three different foam nests of known age. We found that P. guayapae populations were acoustically active only after a rainfall. Its breeding sites were represented by ephemeral ponds of fresh water, product of rains. The males emitted their calls inside or outside these ponds. A detailed description of the foam nest construction process by both females and males was made. The clutches were in dome-shaped foam nest type of 6-9cm in diameter and 1-3cm in height, some of which were in communal nests. The nests had an average of 1 137 pigmented eggs. This species showed a short hatching time. Our results allow us to conclude that this species should be considered an extreme explosive breeder. Our results are discussed with others obtained for related species. Rev. Biol. Trop. 62 (1): 173-181. Epub 2014 March 01.Key words: communal nest, ephemeral environment, explosive breeder, foam nest construction.The reproductive mode in amphibians was defined by Salthe & Duellman (1973) as "a combination of traits that includes oviposition site, ovum and clutch characteristics, rate and duration of development, stage and size of hatchling, and type of parental care, if any". Thirty-nine reproductive modes have been recorded for anurans around the world (Haddad & Prado, 2005). Altig & McDiarmind (2007) provide a generalized framework for diversity of amphibian eggs and ovipositional modes and introduce a standardized terminology for clutch structures.The genus Pleurodema Tschudi (Leptodactylidae: Leiuperinae) is distributed from Panama throughout South America to Southern Chile and Argentina, and currently is represented by 15 species (Cei, 1980;Valetti, Salas & Martino, 2009; Maciel & Nunez, 2010;Kolenc et al., 2011;Faivovich et al., 2012). This genus has very variable ovipositional modes. The eggclutch structure in the Southern Chilean populations of P. thaul and P. bufoninum is strings in water (Weigandt, Úbeda & Díaz, 2004). ...

Environmental drivers of anuran calling phenology in a seasonal Neotropical ecosystem

“…Ceratophrys cranwelli , O. americanus and S. nasicus oviposit their eggs directly in the water (Cei ; Perotti ), whereas P. guayapae constructs a flattened foam nest, but its eggs are often exposed even while in the foam nest and vulnerable to predators (Schalk ; Valetti et al . ). Many tadpoles in the tropics have omnivorous or carnivorous feeding habits and are known to prey upon eggs and tadpoles of heterospecifics (Heyer et al .…”

“…The highly fossorial species can remain inactive for long periods (Cei ; Valetti et al . ), and therefore, they likely need several days of rain to stimulate their emergence and migration to their breeding sites. Similarly, the hylid S. nasicus needs to migrate from their arboreal refugia to their breeding sites, which may explain a similar pattern in its calling activity.…”

Foam nest construction and first report of agonistic behaviour in Pleurodema tucumanum (Anura: Leptodactylidae)

“…Foam nest construction processes employed by Pleurodema tucumanum were analogous to those described for P. diplolister (Hödl, 1990) and P. guayapae (Valetti et al 2014) and other Leiuperinae (e.g. Heyer and Rand, 1977;Dalgetty and Kennedy, 2010;Schaefer and Kehr, 2010).…”

“…The genus Pleurodema is notable for its particularly large variety of oviposition modes (Duellman and Veloso, 1977;Faivovich et al 2012;Valetti et al 2014). Faivovich et al (2012) reported four egg-clutch structures proposed by different authors.…”

“…There are several studies that describes this process in some Pleurodema species and other Leiuperinae (e.g. Hödl, 1990;1992;Halloy and Fiaño, 2000;Valetti et al 2014). However, there is no information about the process of construction in P. tucumanum.…”