{"title":"New records and a notable observation of potentially predator-avoiding amplectic behaviour in Boophis erythrodactylus from Madagascar","authors":"R. Abraham, C. Hutter","doi":"10.1080/21564574.2022.2055653","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Red-fingered Bright-eyed Frog Boophis erythrodactylus is an endemic, range-restricted arboreal frog found only in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar. We report new localities for this species, along with locality records for its sister species B. tasymena, including localities where they occur in sympatry, which has never been reported before. We also document evidence for the existence of a colour variant of B. tasymena that is identical to B. erythrodactylus in appearance. We also observed never before documented breeding behaviour in the poorly known B. erythrodactylus, where the male and female in amplexus used a submerged site in a river potentially for oviposition. We also explore why this may be a predator-avoidance strategy considering the presence of aquatic invertebrate predators active near the surface and absence of fully aquatic vertebrate predators, such as fish in headwater stream habitats. Predator-avoidance strategies are a vital component of organismal survival, particularly for amphibians with complex life cycles. Natural history observations are key to revealing such strategies and behaviour, and they form the basis of evolutionary biology and is also fundamental for conservation management.","PeriodicalId":49247,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Herpetology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2022-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"African Journal of Herpetology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21564574.2022.2055653","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"ZOOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT The Red-fingered Bright-eyed Frog Boophis erythrodactylus is an endemic, range-restricted arboreal frog found only in the eastern rainforests of Madagascar. We report new localities for this species, along with locality records for its sister species B. tasymena, including localities where they occur in sympatry, which has never been reported before. We also document evidence for the existence of a colour variant of B. tasymena that is identical to B. erythrodactylus in appearance. We also observed never before documented breeding behaviour in the poorly known B. erythrodactylus, where the male and female in amplexus used a submerged site in a river potentially for oviposition. We also explore why this may be a predator-avoidance strategy considering the presence of aquatic invertebrate predators active near the surface and absence of fully aquatic vertebrate predators, such as fish in headwater stream habitats. Predator-avoidance strategies are a vital component of organismal survival, particularly for amphibians with complex life cycles. Natural history observations are key to revealing such strategies and behaviour, and they form the basis of evolutionary biology and is also fundamental for conservation management.
期刊介绍:
African Journal of Herpetology (AJH) serves as an outlet for original research on the biology of African amphibians and reptiles. AJH is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes original articles and reviews from diverse fields and disciplines, such as conservation, phylogenetics, evolution, systematics, performance, physiology, ecology, behavioural ecology, ethology, and morphology.
The Journal publishes two issues a year. There are no page charges .