Variation of the advertisement call ofPhysalaemus centralisBokermann, 1962 (Anura: Leptodactylidae) in the Cerrado of central Brazil

Individual variation in advertisement calls of the pale-shouldered horned toad (Xenophrys boettgeri)

“…Prior to DFA, we reduced the dimensionality of the data using a principal component analysis (PCA). The first three PCA scores were used as input variables for the DFA, following the methods described by Guerra et al (2017). The level of statistical significance for all tests was set at P = 0.05.…”

“…In anurans, species recognition and female preference typically depend on acoustic signals (Rodríguez-Tejeda et al 2014;Toledo et al 2015;Forti et al 2016;Viuchelozano et al 2018). Five typical kinds of vocalization namely reciprocation calls, release calls, distress calls, territorial calls, and advertisement calls (Bee and Perrill 1996) play important roles in the social context of this species, including in territory defense, mating attraction, breeding status, and predation alarms (Batista et al 2015;Toledo et al 2015;Galvis et al 2016;Guerra et al 2017). Of these, advertisement calls have been widely studied because they characterize species-specific courtship signals (Chuang et al 2016;Da Veiga Teixeira et al 2016;Galvis et al 2016;Modak et al 2016;Serrano 2016;Bosch et al 2017).…”

“…There are three levels of variation in call properties: within a single individual, among individuals of the same species, and among individuals of different species (Gerhardt 1991;. Variation in call properties between individual conspecific males may provide effective cues for female choice, whereas variation at the species level may be investigated from an evolutionary perspective with regard to choruses (Searcy and Nowicki 2005;Guerra et al 2017). Based on the different levels of variation, acoustic properties are categorized as static or dynamic.…”

“…Static properties (e.g., dominant frequency) are more likely to be used for species recognition because the values are at or near the population mean (Pettitt et al 2013), whereas dynamic properties (e.g., call duration) can potentially be used to determine individual identity because of the high level of among-individual variation (Bee et al 2001;. Call signals change along the continuum from static to dynamic due to different selection pressures on the vocalizations (Rodríguez et al 2010;Guerra et al 2017). Therefore, for individual signal distinctiveness, it is necessary that the acoustic variability among individuals of a species is greater than that within individuals (Gerhardt 1991;Pröhl 2003;Guerra et al 2017).…”

“…Call signals change along the continuum from static to dynamic due to different selection pressures on the vocalizations (Rodríguez et al 2010;Guerra et al 2017). Therefore, for individual signal distinctiveness, it is necessary that the acoustic variability among individuals of a species is greater than that within individuals (Gerhardt 1991;Pröhl 2003;Guerra et al 2017).…”