The first two functionally antagonistic call notes influence female choice in the Anhui tree frog

The present study used phonotaxis experiments to examine the effects of the notes on female choice in the Anhui tree frog (Rhacophorus zhoukaiyae). The stimulus pair consisted of the original male advertisement call (OC) and one of four revised versions, where the first (WN1), second (WN2), or fifth (WN5) notes were replaced by band-limited white noise (WN), and the second note was replaced by a period of silence (SN2), played back antiphonally. The results showed that (1) the females preferred OC compared with WN1, suggesting the first call note plays an important role in female choice, and (2) the females preferred WN2 and SN2 compared with OC. We discuss the possibility that the second note might be the result of the combined effects of physiological constraint and avoiding backward masking of the second note on the first one over evolutionary time. These results support the notion that the first two functionally antagonistic call notes may influence female choice in this species. The data is provided in Excel (.xlsx) format.