Repeatability of mate choice: the effect of size in the African painted reed frog, Hyperolius marmoratus

Abstract Female painted reed frogs were offered a choice between artificial advertisement calls differing in frequency. Repeatability of mate choice was assessed by multiple testing of females. When the difference between the stimuli was 400 Hz, almost all females, regardless of size, consistently chose the low frequency call. When the frequency difference between the calls was smaller (200 Hz), females as a group appeared to choose at random. However, individual females seemed to show repeatability of mate choice. There was also a relationship between female size and the number of times they chose the lower frequency stimuli. This suggests that the manner in which females respond to stimuli that differ in frequency may be size-dependent. Larger females may be more sensitive to variation in call frequency, and therefore more likely to express a mating preference for low frequency calls.

[1]  M. Ryan,et al.  Coevolution of Sender and Receiver: Effect on Local Mate Preferecnce in Cricket Frogs , 1988, Science.

[2]  M. Ritchie.  Variation in male song and female preference within a population of Ephippiger ephippiger (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) , 1992, Animal Behaviour.

[3]  M. Ryan,et al.  Call patterns and basilar papilla tuning in cricket frogs. II. Intrapopulation variation and allometry. , 1992, Brain, behavior and evolution.

[4]  M. Majerus,et al.  Genetics and evolution of female choice , 1986, Nature.

[5]  H. Carl Gerhardt,et al.  The Vocalizations of Some Hybrid Treefrogs: Acoustic and Behavioral Analyses , 1974 .

[6]  H. Gerhardt.  Sound Pattern Recognition in Some North American Treefrogs (Anura: Hylidae): Implications for Mate Choice , 1982 .

[7]  O. Taylor,et al.  Disruptive sexual selection in Colias eurytheme butterflies. , 1990, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[8]  J. Endler,et al.  Correlated Evolution of Female Mating Preferences and Male Color Patterns in the Guppy Poecilia reticulata , 1990, Science.

[9]  M. Ryan,et al.  Directional Patterns of Female Mate Choice and the Role of Sensory Biases , 1992, The American Naturalist.

[10]  Michael J. Ryan,et al.  Auditory Tuning and Call Frequency Predict Population-Based Mating Preferences in the Cricket Frog, Acris crepitans , 1992, The American Naturalist.

[11]  M. Kirkpatrick,et al.  The evolution of mating preferences and the paradox of the lek , 1991, Nature.

[12]  H. Gerhardt,et al.  Female mate choice in treefrogs: static and dynamic acoustic criteria , 1991, Animal Behaviour.

[13]  N. Passmore,et al.  Two-choice phonotaxis in Hyperolius marmoratus (Anura: Hyperoliidae): the effect of temporal variation in presented stimuli , 1988, Animal Behaviour.

[14]  H. Carl Gerhardt,et al.  Conducting Playback Experiments and Interpreting their Results , 1992 .

[15]  P. Barnard.  Ornament and body size variation and their measurement in natural populations , 1991 .

[16]  K. Norris.  Heritable variation in a plumage indicator of viability in male great tits Parus major , 1993, Nature.

[17]  M. Ritchie.  Female preference for ‘song races’ of Ephippiger ephippiger (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) , 1991, Animal Behaviour.

[18]  M G Ritchie,et al.  Setbacks in the search for mate-preference genes. , 1992, Trends in ecology & evolution.

[19]  N. Passmore,et al.  Male behaviour and correlates of mating success in a natural population of African Painted Reed frogs (Hyperolius marmoratus) , 1992 .

[20]  A. Hedrick.  Female Choice and the Heritability of Attractive Male Traits: An Empirical Study , 1988, The American Naturalist.