A Field Study of the Kansas Ant-Eating Frog, Gastrophryne olivacea — John Shaqi
A Field Study of the Kansas Ant-Eating Frog, Gastrophryne olivaceaFitch, Henry S. (Henry Sheldon)
Science
A Field Study of the Kansas Ant-Eating Frog, Gastrophryne olivacea
Fitch, Henry S. (Henry Sheldon)
Frogs
Stebbins observed breeding choruses (_mazatlanensis_) at Peña Blanca
Springs, Arizona, and stated that sometimes three or four called more or
less together, but that they seldom started simultaneously. Occasionally
many voices would be heard in unison followed by an interval of silence,
but this performance was erratic. At the pond on the Reservation I noted
this same tendency many times. After a lull the chorus would begin with
a few sporadic croaks, then four or five or even more frogs would be
calling simultaneously from an area of a few square yards. Anderson
(_op. cit._: 34) found that in small groups of calling _G. carolinensis_
there was a distinct tendency to maintain a definite pattern in the
sequence of the calls. One "dominant" individual would initiate a series
of calls, and others each in turn would take up the chorus.
Pairing takes place soon after the breeding aggregations are formed. On
the night of June 4, 1954, a clasping pair was captured and kept in the
laboratory in a large jar of water. This pair did not separate, and
spawning occurred between noon and 1:30 P. M. on June 5. When the newly
laid eggs were discovered at 1:30 P. M. most of them were in a surface
film. Some were attached to submerged leaves and a few rested on the
bottom. The pair was still joined, but the male was actually clasping
only part of the time, and as the frogs moved about in the water, it
became evident that they were adhering to each other by the areas of
skin contact, which were glued together by their dermal secretion. They
were unable to separate immediately, even when they struggled to do so.
They were observed for approximately 15 minutes before separation
occurred, and during this time they were moving about actively. As they
separated, the area of adhesion was discernible on the back of the
female. It was U-shaped, following the ridges of the ilia and the
sacrum.
On August 2, 1954, after a rain of 3.22 inches, the previously mentioned
funnel trap in the ditch had caught 31 ant-eating frogs. Water had
collected to a depth of several inches in the depression where the trap
was situated. A dozen of the trapped frogs were clasping pairs. These
frogs struggled vigorously as they were removed from the traps, handled
and marked. As a result most of the clasping males were separated from
the females. In handling those of each pair I noticed that they were
glued together by dermal secretions, as were those of the pair observed
on June 5. The areas of adhesion were of similar shape and location in
the different pairs, and included the U-shaped ridge of the female's
back and the male's belly, and the inner surfaces of the male's forelegs
with the corresponding surfaces of the female's sides where the male
clasped.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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