The territoriality, vocalizations and aggressive interactions of the red-spotted glassfrog, Nymphargus grandisonae, Cochran and Goin, 1970 (Anura: Centrolenidae)

In many frog species, males defend a territory through direct male-to-male interactions and/or aggressive calling behaviour. We describe the site fidelity, vocalizations, aggressive interactions, and male combat behaviour of the glassfrog Nymphargus grandisonae. We show high specificity of males’ calling and mating sites. We then describe the temporal and spectral differences for six types of vocalizations. We link these vocalizations to behavioural observations, describing their aggressive and reproductive contexts. Additionally, we show that combat is highly variable and includes three previously described and two unreported variations. We describe injuries resulting from combat and we report the first observation of a multiple night fight between the same two males. Our observations on site fidelity and aggression provide evidence for territoriality among males. Furthermore, our results suggest that combat behaviour in glassfrogs is more complex than previously hypothesized and that hypotheses on the evolution of combat behaviour need re-evaluation.

在诸多蛙类物种中，雄性个体通过雄性间直接互动或攻击性鸣唱行为捍卫自身领地。本研究针对格氏玻璃蛙（Nymphargus grandisonae，glassfrog）的领地忠诚性、鸣唱行为、攻击性互动与雄性格斗行为展开描述。研究结果显示，该物种雄性的鸣唱与交配位点具有高度特异性。随后，本研究分析了六种鸣唱类型的时域与频谱特征差异，并将上述鸣唱类型与行为观测结果相结合，阐明了其对应的攻击性与繁殖行为场景。此外，研究发现雄性格斗行为具有高度多样性，涵盖三种已有文献记载的格斗模式，以及两种尚未见报道的新型格斗形式。本研究还描述了格斗行为导致的躯体损伤，并首次报道了两只雄性个体间跨多晚的格斗行为观测结果。本次关于领地忠诚性与攻击性行为的观测，为雄性个体存在领地性提供了实证依据。进一步而言，本研究结果表明，玻璃蛙的雄性格斗行为远比此前学界假设的更为复杂，相关格斗行为演化的假说亟需重新评估。