Neotropical Hylid Frogs, Genus SmiliscaDuellman, William Edward
Science
Neotropical Hylid Frogs, Genus Smilisca
Duellman, William Edward
Amphibians -- Central America; Frogs; Smilisca
_Notes per call-group._--Except for _S. puma_ and _S. sila_, the series
of notes produced in any given call of a species of _Smilisca_ is
essentially the same; there is no differentiation into primary and
secondary notes. _Smilisca cyanosticta_ and _S. phaeota_ emit only one
or two relatively long notes per call-group, whereas _S. baudini_ and
_S. sordida_ produce as many as 15 and 6 notes, respectively. Males of
_S. puma_ and _S. sila_ often produce only the primary note; sometimes
this is done several times before the secondary notes are produced. For
example, one _S. puma_ (KU 91711; tape No. 379) produced the following
number of notes in consecutive call-groups: 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 1, 4;
secondary notes are present in only four of the nine call-groups. A
typical series of consecutive call-groups in _S. sila_ (KU 91852; Tape
No. 385) has 1, 1, 1, 2, 4, 2 notes per call-group; secondary notes are
present in only half of the call-groups. _Smilisca puma_ apparently
always produces at least two primary notes before emitting secondary
notes; sometimes only primary notes are produced in one series of calls.
The number of secondary notes following a given primary varies from one
to nine; the modal number is one, and the mean is three in 27
call-groups. _Smilisca sila_ frequently begins a series of calls with
two or more primary notes, but sometimes the first primary note is
followed immediately by two or more secondary notes. The number of
secondary notes following a given primary varies from one to five; the
modal number is one, and the average is two in 13 call-groups.
_Duration._--The average duration of call-groups consisting of two or
more notes is 1.18 seconds in _S. baudini_; 1.02 in _cyanosticta_, 0.91
in _phaeota_, 1.32 in _puma_, 1.48 in _sila_, and 1.29 in _sordida_.
Although there is considerable variation in the lengths of the notes
(only primary notes in _S. puma_ and _sila_ are considered here), _S.
cyanosticta_, _phaeota_, and _sordida_ have noticeably longer notes than
do the other species (Table 8). The secondary notes are longer than the
primary notes in _S. puma_ (average 0.27 secs. as compared with 0.13
secs.) and in _S. sila_ (average 0.25 secs., as compared with 0.16
secs.).
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