Beyond color and pattern: elucidating the factors associated with intraspecific aggression in the mimic poison frog (Ranitomeya imitator)

Abstract

Assortative or disassortative aggression – when individuals display more aggression towards conspecifics with similar or different phenotypic characteristics – can either maintain polymorphisms or facilitate gene flow between populations depending on which direction the aggression is aimed. Deciphering which factors elicit or prevent aggression is crucial to improving our knowledge of the origin and maintenance of reproductive barriers and subsequent speciation. The Peruvian mimic poison frog, Ranitomeya imitator, is a monogamous and territorial species that has evolved into four distinct color-pattern morphs in a mimetic radiation. Here we use historical landscape genetic data and competition trials between male individuals sourced from different populations and color-pattern morphs to show that the level of aggression between individuals is not associated with color morph or body size but rather with source population. Individuals spent more time in combat with individuals from their own deme (genetically homogeneous population), irrespective of color morph or size. These findings indicate that genotypic similarity is correlated with increased aggression in R. imitator, though the mechanism by which R. imitator males identify conspecifics as territorial threats remains unclear. As body size and color morph were not significantly associated with aggression levels, this study emphasizes the necessity of further research to identify whether other phenotypic traits are influencing territorial behavior between male frogs, and if these factors play a role in increasing gene flow, or conversely, the formation of reproductive barriers between populations.