Pedal luring in the leaf-frog Phyllomedusa burmeisteri (Anura, Hylidae, Phyllomedusinae)

Abstract

93 Luring behavior as a strategy of prey capture has evolved independently in several squamate lineages, including pygopodid lizards (Murray et al. 1991), and boid (Murphy et al. 1978, Radcliffe et al. 1980), viperid (Greene and Campbell 1972, Heatwole and Dawson 1976, Henderson 1970, Sazima 1991), elapid (Carpenter et al. 1978), and colubrid snakes (Sazima and Puorto 1993). Bavetz (1994) reported pedal luring related to predation in ambystomatid salamanders. In anurans, this feeding behavior has been described only for the terrestrial leptodactylid frogs Ceratophrys calcarata (Murphy 1976) and C. ornata (Radcliffe et al. 1986). Pedal luring apparently does not occur in the terrestrial leptodactylids Caudiverbera caudiverbera and Odontophrynus americanus tested by Radcliffe et al. (1986). Hodl and Amezquita (2001) reviewed visual signaling in anuran amphibians including signals addressed toward potential prey. Here I describe for the first time pedal luring behavior in a hylid frog, the highly arboreal leaf-frog Phyllomedusa burmeisteri. Observations were made of a captive adult female (82 mm snout-vent length) collected on 03 November, 2001 in the Serra do Caraca, an Atlantic forest reserve of Southeastern Brazil; Pedal luring in the leaf-frog Phyllomedusa burmeisteri (Anura, Hylidae, Phyllomedusinae)