Aquatic eggs are fertilised by multiple males not engaged in amplexus in a stream-breeding frog

Abstract

In anuran amphibians, multiple males amplexing a single female to fertilise her eggs has been found for less than 25 species, whereas matings without amplexus are known for less than five species. Here we provide a new example of simultaneous polyandry with multiple males not engaged in amplexus, in Feirana taihangnicus, a stream-dwelling, explosive breeder endemic to central China. Laboratory experiments showed that when one female was kept with one male in a vessel with elevated, flat stones, the female stood on her head with her swollen cloaca against the undersurface of the stone substrate to lay eggs (clutch size ranged from 371 to 533, n=7 females). Then, 10–102min after oviposition began, the male stood on his head and released sperm over the eggs distributed as a single layer on the stone surfaces. It took about 3h for the female to finish oviposition and for the male to finish fertilisation. On average, 96% of eggs were fertilised. In natural oviposition habitats, stream sections with slow flowing, we observed that 1 up to 15 males (8.7±6.6, n=6 cases), none in amplexus, participated in fertilising the eggs deposited by a single female. Evolutionary implications of this unusual reproductive strategy remain to be explored.