Advertisement call of species of the genus <em>Frostius</em> Cannatella 1986 (Anura: Bufonidae)

Abstract

Frostius pernambucensis and F. erythrophthalmus are cryptic bufonid species recognized mainly by the iris color: yellow in F. permambucensis and red in F. erythrophthalmus. However, field studies showed that the iris color of F. erythrophthalmus could vary between yellow and red. To improve the recognition of these species we described the advertisement call of Frostius pernambucensis and Frostius erythrophthalmus and we tested if call characteristics are influenced by temperature, male size and perch height. We also report on a physical interaction between two males of F. pernambucensis and the associated vocalization, suggesting that F. pernambucensis has not a territorial call or encounter call. Comparing the advertisement calls, the call of F. pernambucensis was lower, shorter and with a smaller number of notes than the call of F. erythrophthalmus. Dominant frequency and fundamental frequency variation of the F. pernambucensis advertisement call were related to the male’s size, while the call emission rate was related to air temperature. However, we could not find relationship among the acoustic characteristic of F. erythrophthalmus and male size or temperature.