Abstract

Females of the Strawberry Poison Frog (Oophaga pumilio) are known to be aggressive toward other females. However, the function of this behavior in females has not been identified. We hypothesized that females are territorial, occupying and defending specific areas in defense of food resources. To test this hypothesis, we calculated the position and size of core areas and home ranges for each female in the study area and the frequency of aggressive and feeding behavior exhibited by females in these areas. We provide evidence, for the first time, that females are territorial; they defend their core area against other intruding females. To determine the potential resource defended by females, we examined aggressive behavior associated with defense of mates, oviposition, and tadpole-rearing sites. We found no evidence that females defended areas with males, or that oviposition and tadpole-rearing sites were limited and defended by females. Instead, our observations suggest that female territoriality is most likely associated with the defense of feeding areas.

Abstract

The evolution of hermaphroditism in fishes has intrigued scientists for over a century, but few have studied fine-scale evolutionary transitions between sexual patterns within the context of detailed hypotheses regarding phylogenetic relationships. Our phylogenetic reconstruction of sexual patterns in the seabasses (Teleostei: Serranidae) using a composite tree of 47 species is consistent with the hypothesis that protogyny is the ancestral condition in the family from which other sexual patterns evolved. Under this scenario, members of the Anthiinae retained protogynous hermaphroditism, as did the serranine genera Centropristis and Cheilidoperca. Gonochorism evolved once in the genus Paralabrax, and simultaneous hermaphroditism evolved once in the lineage that includes species of Hypoplectrus, Serranus, Serraniculus, and Diplectrum. Androdioecy evolved once within the genus Serranus and was derived from simultaneous hermaphroditism. Results from this study differ from previous hypotheses on the evolution of sexual patterns in seabasses and suggest that sexual patterns in fishes can evolve in several directions within single lineages and do not require functional intermediates.

Abstract

Call surveys used to monitor breeding choruses of anuran amphibians generate index values that are frequently used to represent the number of male frogs present, but few studies have quantified this relationship. We compared abundance of male Boreal Chorus Frogs (Pseudacris maculata), estimated using capture–recapture methods in two populations in Colorado, to call index values derived from automated recordings. Single index values, such as might result from large monitoring efforts, were unrelated to population size. A synthetic call saturation index (CSI), the daily proportion of the maximum possible sum of index values derived from multiple recordings, was greater in larger populations, but the relationship was not highly predictive.

In the preface the authors note that they developed this book “in response to a need for a comprehensive, current, and compact field guide to fishes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.” The authors certainly have achieved this goal with this informative and user-friendly guide. This text will prove beneficial to a wide audience, ranging from scientists to fishermen.

The book is organized into three sections: Introduction, Families, and Species. The first section is a brief (8 p.) but informative and well-written introduction that a general audience will find useful. It includes information on topics such as diversity and classification,