TY - JOUR T1 - A new frog of the Leptodactylus fuscus species group (Anura: Leptodactylidae), endemic from the South American Gran Chaco JF - PeerJ Y1 - 2019 A1 - Schneider, Rosio G. A1 - Dario E. Cardozo A1 - Brusquetti, Francisco A1 - Kolenc, Francisco A1 - Borteiro, Claudio A1 - Célio F. B. Haddad A1 - Basso, Nestor G. A1 - Baldo, Diego VL - 7 UR - https://peerj.com/articles/7869 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - A new species of terrestrial frog of the genus Noblella Barbour, 1930 (Amphibia: Strabomantidae) from the Llanganates-Sangay Ecological Corridor, Tungurahua, Ecuador JF - PeerJ Y1 - 2019 A1 - Reyes-Puig, Juan Pablo A1 - Reyes-Puig, Carolina A1 - Ron, Santiago A1 - Ortega, Jhael A. A1 - Guayasamin, Juan M. A1 - Goodrum, Mindee A1 - Recalde, Fausto A1 - Vieira, Jose J. A1 - Koch, Claudia A1 - Yánez-Muñoz, Mario H. AB -

We describe a new species of terrestrial frog of the genus Noblella from the eastern versants of the Ecuadorian Andes in the upper Pastaza watershed. Noblella naturetrekii sp. n. differs from its Ecuadorian congeners by the presence of a differentiated tympanic membrane and a weakly defined tympanic annulus, and eyelids with rounded tubercles. In addition, the new species is characterized by its blackish–dark brown ventral coloration scattered with little white dots and the absence of papillae at the tip of the fingers and toes. We provide a detailed description of the call and osteology of the new species. Finally, we present the most complete phylogeny of the genus, which confirms that Noblella is a non-monophyletic group.

VL - 7 UR - https://peerj.com/articles/7405 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Reproduction and metamorphosis in the Myristica Swamp tree frog, Mercurana myristicapalustris (Anura: Rhacophoridae) JF - PeerJ Y1 - 2018 A1 - Abraham, Robin Kurian A1 - Mathew, Jobin Kuruvilla A1 - Raju, David Valiaparampil A1 - Rao, Ramprasad A1 - Zachariah, Anil KW - Amphibia KW - Animal Behavior KW - Conservation biology KW - Developmental Biology KW - ecology KW - India KW - Myristica swamp KW - Reproductive mode KW - Rhacophoridae KW - zoology AB -

The reproductive biology of the Myristica Swamp tree frog (Mercurana myristicapalus- tris), a monotypic rhacophorid frog endemic to the foothills of the Western Ghats mountains of India, has remained unknown since the description of the genus and species. We monitored individuals from parental generation amplexus to the comple- tion of offspring generation tadpole metamorphosis. Surprisingly, our observations revealed that this species exhibits many previously unknown characteristics, including the first ever record of the female, and a diverse call repertoire, consisting of five different call types (the functions of which remain incompletely known). We were also able to determine that reproductive activity peaked during the late pre-monsoon season, that males engaged in intraspecific aggressive encounters to occupy and to defend desirable territories, and that oviposition took place in terrestrial nests made by females. Embryonic development in the unattended nest was followed by tadpole development, which concluded within 40 days. The specific breeding mode employed by Mercurana, which restricts its range to the endangered Myristica swamp ecosystem, likely renders it susceptible to multiple threats, which should be considered jointly in future conservation planning.

VL - 6 UR - https://peerj.com/articles/5934 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Body size information in large-scale acoustic bat databases JF - PeerJ Y1 - 2018 A1 - Penone, Caterina A1 - Kerbiriou, Christian A1 - Julien, Jean-François A1 - Marmet, Julie A1 - Le Viol, Isabelle AB -

Background
Citizen monitoring programs using acoustic data have been useful for detecting population and community patterns. However, they have rarely been used to study broad scale patterns of species traits. We assessed the potential of acoustic data to detect broad scale patterns in body size. We compared geographical patterns in body size with acoustic signals in the bat species Pipistrellus pipistrellus. Given the correlation between body size and acoustic characteristics, we expected to see similar results when analyzing the relationships of body size and acoustic signals with climatic variables.

Methods
We assessed body size using forearm length measurements of 1,359 bats, captured by mist nets in France. For acoustic analyses, we used an extensive dataset collected through the French citizen bat survey. We isolated each bat echolocation call (n = 4,783) and performed automatic measures of signals, including the frequency of the flattest part of the calls (characteristic frequency). We then examined the relationship between forearm length, characteristic frequencies, and two components resulting from principal component analysis for geographic (latitude, longitude) and climatic variables.

Results
Forearm length was positively correlated with higher precipitation, lower seasonality, and lower temperatures. Lower characteristic frequencies (i.e., larger body size) were mostly related to lower temperatures and northern latitudes. While conducted on different datasets, the two analyses provided congruent results.

Discussion
Acoustic data from citizen science programs can thus be useful for the detection of large-scale patterns in body size. This first analysis offers a new perspective for the use of large acoustic databases to explore biological patterns and to address both theoretical and applied questions.

VL - 6 UR - https://peerj.com/articles/5370 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - First description of underwater acoustic diversity in three temperate ponds. JF - PeerJ Y1 - 2015 A1 - Desjonquères, Camille A1 - Rybak, Fanny A1 - Depraetere, Marion A1 - Gasc, Amandine A1 - Le Viol, Isabelle A1 - Pavoine, Sandrine A1 - Sueur, Jerome AB -

The past decade has produced an increased ecological interest in sonic environments, or soundscapes. However, despite this rise in interest and technological improvements that allow for long-term acoustic surveys in various environments, some habitats' soundscapes remain to be explored. Ponds, and more generally freshwater habitats, are one of these acoustically unexplored environments. Here we undertook the first long term acoustic monitoring of three temperate ponds in France. By aural and visual inspection of a selection of recordings, we identified 48 different sound types, and according to the rarefaction curves we calculated, more sound types are likely present in one of the three ponds. The richness of sound types varied significantly across ponds. Surprisingly, there was no pond-to-pond daily consistency of sound type richness variation; each pond had its own daily patterns of activity. We also explored the possibility of using six acoustic diversity indices to conduct rapid biodiversity assessments in temperate ponds. We found that all indices were sensitive to the background noise as estimated through correlations with the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). However, we determined that the AR index could be a good candidate to measure acoustic diversities using partial correlations with the SNR as a control variable. Yet, research is still required to automatically compute the SNR in order to apply this index on a large data set of recordings. The results showed that these three temperate ponds host a high level of acoustic diversity in which the soundscapes were variable not only between but also within the ponds. The sources producing this diversity of sounds and the drivers of difference in daily song type richness variation both require further investigation. Such research would yield insights into the biodiversity and ecology of temperate ponds.

VL - 3 ER -