Meeting Abstract

86.2  Sunday, Jan. 6  Signal plasticity and mate recognition in the pine woods treefrog, Hyla femoralis MERRICKS, J.A.*; GERHARDT, H.C.; Univ. of Missouri, Columbia; Univ. of Missouri, Columbia jawfz2@mail.missouri.edu

Both female preference and male competition shape the evolution of acoustic sexual signals. In the complex acoustic environment of anuran breeding aggregations, signalers are challenged to transmit signals that receivers must recognize and then respond to appropriately. Often signal traits are classified as static or dynamic based on the amount of within-individual variation. Static traits have little variation, while dynamic traits can vary drastically within a single calling bout. For North American hylids, fine-scale temporal patterns are generally static. In several species, females show a strong preference for a narrow range of variation; therefore, the static nature of certain temporal traits is presumed to be crucial for mate choice. The advertisement signal of Hyla femoralis is characterized by a highly unusual, irregular series of pulses. Our research is the first to explicitly investigate pulse period irregularity in this group of hylids and may reveal new recognition mechanisms in females of this species, in which females attend to subpulse structure. Our results show that competition among males as well as female preference for fast and regular pulse rates may enhance signal detection in noisy choruses.