The advertisement call of two species of the Rhinella granulosa group (Anura: Bufonidae)

The advertisement call of two species of the Rhinella granulosa group (Anura: Bufonidae). The group of Rhinella granulosa presently harbors 14 species distributed in Central and South America. The advertisement calls of 12 species have been described. Herein, we provide data on the calls of R. granulosa and R. merianae recorded in populations far from locations of previous call descriptions, and we discuss possible causes of differences found. We used recordings of R. granulosa from the interior of Bahia State and recordings of R. merianae from Roraima. For both, calls consist of a long-lasting trill of four-pulsed notes. Rhinella granulosa calls last 3.7–9.6 s, have 121–283 notes, each lasting 19–25 ms released at a rate of 29.2–34.7/s, and with dominant frequency peaking between 2472–2809 Hz. Rhinella merianae calls last 4.0–7.1, have 153–217 notes, each lasting 17–20 ms, released at a rate of 37.7–39.5/s, and with dominant frequency peaking between 2959–3189 Hz. Both species are distinguished from most other species of the R. granulosa species group by the combination of pulse number and dominant frequency. Our data on R. granulosa differed (p < 0.05) in call duration and/or in dominant frequency from specimens from Natal (Rio Grande do Norte state) and Cabaceiras (Paraíba state). Our data on R. merianae appear to differ in dominant frequency from the only call (a single male) known from the Amazon River bank. The differences we found between our data and published call data suggest that further study of calls of additional populations of these species is warranted.