Conspicuous displays in cryptic males of a polytypic poison-dart frog

Bolaños, Federico; Pröhl, Heike

doi:10.1007/s00265-013-1640-4

Cited by 12 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Ideally, comimic visual signals should be indistinguishable for predators but still distinguishable for frogs (Willink et al 2013). This result is consistent with the idea that the coloration of femoral patches was specifically shaped by natural selection represented by predators.…”

Section: Resemblance Under Variable Visual Systemssupporting

confidence: 84%

“…Two general explanations for the evolution of conspicuous traits are their value in intraspecific (often intersexual) communication, as in mate choice; and their value in interspecific communication, often addressed to potential predators. Ideally, comimic visual signals should be indistinguishable for predators but still distinguishable for frogs (Willink et al 2013). Our data support this idea, although the pattern did not replicate in all localities.…”

Section: Resemblance Under Variable Visual Systemscontrasting

confidence: 43%

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Conspicuousness, color resemblance, and toxicity in geographically diverging mimicry: The pan-Amazonian frogAllobates femoralis

et al. 2017

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Predation risk is allegedly reduced in Batesian and Müllerian mimics, because their coloration resembles the conspicuous coloration of unpalatable prey. The efficacy of mimicry is thought to be affected by variation in the unpalatability of prey, the conspicuousness of the signals, and the visual system of predators that see them. Many frog species exhibit small colorful patches contrasting against an otherwise dark body. By measuring toxicity and color reflectance in a geographically variable frog species and the syntopic toxic species, we tested whether unpalatability was correlated with between-species color resemblance and whether resemblance was highest for the most conspicuous components of coloration pattern. Heterospecific resemblance in colorful patches was highest between species at the same locality, but unrelated to concomitant variation in toxicity. Surprisingly, resemblance was lower for the conspicuous femoral patches compared to the inconspicuous dorsum. By building visual models, we further tested whether resemblance was affected by the visual system of model predators. As predicted, mimic-model resemblance was higher under the visual system of simulated predators compared to no visual system at all. Our results indicate that femoral patches are aposematic signals and support a role of mimicry in driving phenotypic divergence or mimetic radiation between localities.

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Section: Resemblance Under Variable Visual Systemssupporting

confidence: 84%

Section: Resemblance Under Variable Visual Systemscontrasting

confidence: 43%

Conspicuousness, color resemblance, and toxicity in geographically diverging mimicry: The pan-Amazonian frogAllobates femoralis

et al. 2017

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“…Observations of naturally occurring mating pairs of O. pumilio were conducted daily from 0600 to 1200 and 1500 to 1700, during the times in which male calling and male/female courtship are most common (Limerick ; Gardner & Graves ; Willink et al. ). Males were located by following the sounds of their advertisement calls.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If a female was present within 2 m of the male, behavioral observations of the pair immediately began and lasted for 15 min. The observer stood at least 2 m away from the pair to avoid disrupting natural interactions (e.g., Limerick 1980;Willink et al 2014). For each trial, we recorded the total time a male spent calling, the total number of calling bouts (short periods of intense calling, followed by a short break), the direction a male was facing while calling (toward or away from the female), distance and direction males moved between call bouts, and the distance and direction a female moved.…”

Section: Behavioral Observationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Color Assortative Mating in a Mainland Population of the Poison Frog Oophaga pumilio

2016

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Assortative mating is a reproductive strategy used by a diversity of animals, in which individuals choose a mate that shares similar characteristics. This mating strategy has the potential to promote the evolution of various sexual signals and has been a proposed mechanism driving and maintaining color variation in the anuran family Dendrobatidae. Most studies have examined this reproductive strategy in the polytypic poison frog, Oophaga pumilio, in the Bocas del Toro archipelago in Panama. Little attention, however, has been given to ancestral populations across this species’ mainland range, where dramatic color polytypism appears to lack. Additionally, most studies are exclusively experimental and investigate mate choice between allopatric populations, neglecting the behaviors of naturally occurring mates. This study observed natural mating pairs within a population of O. pumilio on mainland Costa Rica and tested the prediction that color phenotype of mating females and males would be correlated. Naturally occurring pairs were found to share similar coloration, suggesting that color assortative mating operates in nature, and in a mainland population. Our results indicate that coloration is an important trait in driving the natural mate choices of female O. pumilio, which provides valuable insight into realistic mate selection tactics of this dendrobatid frog.

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“…Modelling the sensory perception of various taxa has permitted the study of animal-animal interactions such as mate choice among color morphs in butterflies [1], the evolutionary trade-off between predator-driven crypsis and sexually-selected conspicuousness in Dendrobates frogs [2], the influence of insect warning coloration on the predatory behavior of foraging birds [3], and the rejection of brood parasite eggs by host species [4, 5]. Furthermore, visual modelling has been useful in studies of plant-animal interactions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Sexual Dicromatism: The Importance of Proper Parameterization in Tetrachromatic Visual Models

2017

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Perceptual models of animal vision have greatly contributed to our understanding of animal-animal and plant-animal communication. The receptor-noise model of color contrasts has been central to this research as it quantifies the difference between two colors for any visual system of interest. However, if the properties of the visual system are unknown, assumptions regarding parameter values must be made, generally with unknown consequences. In this study, we conduct a sensitivity analysis of the receptor-noise model using avian visual system parameters to systematically investigate the influence of variation in light environment, photoreceptor sensitivities, photoreceptor densities, and light transmission properties of the ocular media and the oil droplets. We calculated the chromatic contrast of 15 plumage patches to quantify a dichromatism score for 70 species of Galliformes, a group of birds that display a wide range of sexual dimorphism. We found that the photoreceptor densities and the wavelength of maximum sensitivity of the short-wavelength-sensitive photoreceptor 1 (SWS1) can change dichromatism scores by 50% to 100%. In contrast, the light environment, transmission properties of the oil droplets, transmission properties of the ocular media, and the peak sensitivities of the cone photoreceptors had a smaller impact on the scores. By investigating the effect of varying two or more parameters simultaneously, we further demonstrate that improper parameterization could lead to differences between calculated and actual contrasts of more than 650%. Our findings demonstrate that improper parameterization of tetrachromatic visual models can have very large effects on measures of dichromatism scores, potentially leading to erroneous inferences. We urge more complete characterization of avian retinal properties and recommend that researchers either determine whether their species of interest possess an ultraviolet or near-ultraviolet sensitive SWS1 photoreceptor, or present models for both.

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Conspicuous displays in cryptic males of a polytypic poison-dart frog

Cited by 12 publications

References 53 publications

Conspicuousness, color resemblance, and toxicity in geographically diverging mimicry: The pan-Amazonian frogAllobates femoralis

Conspicuousness, color resemblance, and toxicity in geographically diverging mimicry: The pan-Amazonian frogAllobates femoralis

Color Assortative Mating in a Mainland Population of the Poison Frog Oophaga pumilio

Assessing Sexual Dicromatism: The Importance of Proper Parameterization in Tetrachromatic Visual Models

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