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Acris crepitans
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Walter Wilczynski – One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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responses of male cricket frogs Acris crepitans to attenuated and degraded advertisement calls
Ethology, 2017Co-Authors: Kurt R Venator, Michael J Ryan, Walter WilczynskiAbstract:: We examined the vocal and non-vocal responses of male cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) to conspecific advertisement calls that had been attenuated or degraded by reducing the depth of amplitude modulation (AM). Both are characteristic of changes to the call as it is transmitted through natural habitats. As stimulus calls became more intense or less degraded, male cricket frogs gradually decreased their call rate and increased the number of call groups and pulse groups in their calls, changes indicative of increased aggressive interactions. At the higher intensities and lower degradation levels, the probability that males would shift to one of two non-vocal behavioral responses, attacking the perceived intruder or ceasing calling and abandoning the call site, gradually increased. The results show that differences in signal attenuation and AM degradation levels are perceived by males and trigger both vocal and non-vocal behavioral responses consistent with their use in evaluating the distance to a challenging male. Furthermore, the results indicate that the male responses are graded, increasing as intensity rises and degradation falls, and hierarchical, with vocal responses preceding behavioral responses over the range of intensities and degradation levels presented.
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Call Patterns and Basilar Papilla Tuning in Cricket Frogs. I.Differences among Populations and between Sexes
Brain Behavior and Evolution, 2008Co-Authors: Walter Wilczynski, Anne C. Keddy-hector, Michael J RyanAbstract:Male cricket frogs (Acris crepitans ) produce a broad-band, high frequency advertisement call with a single spectral peak (the dominant frequency). We measured the dominant frequenci
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Call Patterns and Basilar Papilla Tuning in Cricket Frogs. II. Intrapopulation Variation and Allometry
Brain Behavior and Evolution, 2008Co-Authors: Anne C. Keddy-hector, Walter Wilczynski, Michael J RyanAbstract:We determined the influence of body size on the male advertisement call”s dominant frequency and basilar papilla”s (BP) tuning in male and female cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) in two Texas populations (Wimberley and Stengel Ranch). In both populations, call and tuning characters correlated negatively with body size; females were larger than males and their BPs were tuned to a lower frequency. Analysis of covariance showed that neither the sex difference in tuning nor the population differences in calls or tuning were due to the difference in body size alone, but instead represented differences in the allometric relationships of each character with body size. The analysis implied that differences between sexes or populations were due more to shifts in the Y-intercept rather than the slope of the relationship with body size. This suggests a developmental model in which sexes or populations possess resonant structures in the ear or larynx with similar growth rates but different starting points or initial growth phases, resulting in different frequency characteristics as adults. The examination of the relationship between female BP tuning and male call dominant frequency predicts potentially different patterns of sexual selection in the two populations, with the Wimberley population males subject to much greater directional selection for low frequency calls.
Michael J Ryan – One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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responses of male cricket frogs Acris crepitans to attenuated and degraded advertisement calls
Ethology, 2017Co-Authors: Kurt R Venator, Michael J Ryan, Walter WilczynskiAbstract:: We examined the vocal and non-vocal responses of male cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) to conspecific advertisement calls that had been attenuated or degraded by reducing the depth of amplitude modulation (AM). Both are characteristic of changes to the call as it is transmitted through natural habitats. As stimulus calls became more intense or less degraded, male cricket frogs gradually decreased their call rate and increased the number of call groups and pulse groups in their calls, changes indicative of increased aggressive interactions. At the higher intensities and lower degradation levels, the probability that males would shift to one of two non-vocal behavioral responses, attacking the perceived intruder or ceasing calling and abandoning the call site, gradually increased. The results show that differences in signal attenuation and AM degradation levels are perceived by males and trigger both vocal and non-vocal behavioral responses consistent with their use in evaluating the distance to a challenging male. Furthermore, the results indicate that the male responses are graded, increasing as intensity rises and degradation falls, and hierarchical, with vocal responses preceding behavioral responses over the range of intensities and degradation levels presented.
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Call Patterns and Basilar Papilla Tuning in Cricket Frogs. I.Differences among Populations and between Sexes
Brain Behavior and Evolution, 2008Co-Authors: Walter Wilczynski, Anne C. Keddy-hector, Michael J RyanAbstract:Male cricket frogs (Acris crepitans ) produce a broad-band, high frequency advertisement call with a single spectral peak (the dominant frequency). We measured the dominant frequenci
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Call Patterns and Basilar Papilla Tuning in Cricket Frogs. II. Intrapopulation Variation and Allometry
Brain Behavior and Evolution, 2008Co-Authors: Anne C. Keddy-hector, Walter Wilczynski, Michael J RyanAbstract:We determined the influence of body size on the male advertisement call”s dominant frequency and basilar papilla”s (BP) tuning in male and female cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) in two Texas populations (Wimberley and Stengel Ranch). In both populations, call and tuning characters correlated negatively with body size; females were larger than males and their BPs were tuned to a lower frequency. Analysis of covariance showed that neither the sex difference in tuning nor the population differences in calls or tuning were due to the difference in body size alone, but instead represented differences in the allometric relationships of each character with body size. The analysis implied that differences between sexes or populations were due more to shifts in the Y-intercept rather than the slope of the relationship with body size. This suggests a developmental model in which sexes or populations possess resonant structures in the ear or larynx with similar growth rates but different starting points or initial growth phases, resulting in different frequency characteristics as adults. The examination of the relationship between female BP tuning and male call dominant frequency predicts potentially different patterns of sexual selection in the two populations, with the Wimberley population males subject to much greater directional selection for low frequency calls.
Stanley E. Trauth – One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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growth reproduction and life span in blanchard s cricket frog Acris blanchardi with notes on the growth of the northern cricket frog Acris crepitans
, 2011Co-Authors: Malcolm L Mccallum, Cassondra Brooks, Rebecca Mason, Stanley E. TrauthAbstract:Blanchard’s Cricket Frog (Acris blanchardi) and the Northern Cricket Frog (Acris crepitans) are small frogs commonly found along water bodies in eastern North America. We determined growth and seasonal size classes from museum specimens of the Northern Cricket Frog (from Georgia and Florida) and Blanchard’s Cricket Frog (from Arkansas and Missouri). We characterized the male and female reproductive phenophases of Blanchard’s Cricket Frog using histological technique and gross examination and assessed its age and growth using skeletochronology. Our results show that male and female Blanchard’s Cricket Frogs metamorphose in the summer, and snout-vent (SVL) length quickly reaches adult size. Body mass (BM) follows SVL with female BM growing faster than males from spring through oviposition. Male and female reproductive phenophases follow growth patterns. Some males are reproductively viable by late summer. Most ovarian development occurs in the spring and summer with oviposition occurring sometime between late May and June. Growth, reproductive and skeletochronological evidence suggest that very few Blanchard’s Cricket Frogs live more than one year. The growth data for the Northern Cricket Frog was insufficient to support either semelparity or iteroparity. As a semelparous species, Blanchard’s Cricket Frog may be susceptible to transient and temporary stressors that interfere with reproduction or recruitment.
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physiological trade offs between immunity and reproduction in the northern cricket frog Acris crepitans
Herpetologica, 2007Co-Authors: Malcolm L Mccallum, Stanley E. TrauthAbstract:Investigations of natural history trade-offs between reproduction and immunity are common throughout the literature. Most previous studies of such trade-offs have focused on how resources can be drawn from immune response to fuel reproduction. Our results demonstrate that resources also can be shifted from reproduction to immunity. Immunologically-challenged male northern cricket frogs (Acris crepitans) expressed reduced investment in reproduction. Spermatic cyst diameter, germinal epithelium depth, and gonadosomatic index were smaller in antigen-injected males relative to those injected with a sham (saline injected) and noninjected control animals. Although body size increased in all groups during this study, linear growth and body mass did not appear to be significantly different among these three treatment groups. These results demonstrate indirectly that in A. crepitans immune response may increase metabolic demand for resources and fuel that need from the stores normally used to support male reproduction. We speculate that anything eliciting an immune response in this species may reduce male fertility, so pathogens and toxins at levels that are currently believed to be relatively harmless may impact populations in ways we could not previously predict.
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an evaluation of the subspecies Acris crepitans blanchardi anura hylidae
Zootaxa, 2006Co-Authors: Malcolm L Mccallum, Stanley E. TrauthAbstract:We investigated the validity and distribution of the subspecies Acris crepitans blanchardi. Currently Acris crepitans contains three subspecies: the northern cricket frog ( A. c. crepitans), Blanchards cricket frog (A. c. blanchardi) and the coastal cricket frog ( A. c. paludicola). We examined the diagnostic characters of 1441 specimens from the center of the range (Arkansas, Missouri, and Mississippi), 161 specimens from the extreme northwest portion of this species range (South Dakota and Nebraska), and 85 from the extreme southeast portion of the species range (Florida and Georgia). Discriminate analysis was applied to the tabulated data and no significant differences between portions of the range could be discerned. No concrete evidence was found to support designation of specimens from South Dakota and Nebraska or from Smallens Cave (origin of the type specimen) as A. c. blanchardi. This information places the subspecies A. c. blanchardi in a status of doubtful validity suggesting that no delineation between A. c. blanchardi and A. c. crepitans should be made at this time.