The complex calls of Leptodactylus pustulatus (Amphibia, Anura, Leptodactylidae)

Abstract

Leptodactylus pustulatus is one of the most dis-tinctive species in the genus because of its ven-tral pattern of large bright red to yellow spotsonadarkbackground.Althoughthespecieswasdescribed in 1870 and there has been no confu-sion regarding its taxonomic identity, there hasbeenverylittlepublishedaboutthespecies,par-ticularly with respect to its biology. The lackof biological information for L. pustulatus islikely due to the fact that the species occursin very inaccessible areas ( ooded plains) inpoorly sampled regions of Brazil at transitionzones of Cerrado, Caatinga, and Amazon do-mains. Herein, we describe the advertisementand response calls of L. pustulatus , which turnout to be very different and more complex thanforanyotherspeciesof Leptodactylus forwhichthe advertisement calls are known.We use terms to describe the calls that aremeant to be functionally neutral, as we have noevidence for the biological function of the calls.We use the terms advertisement and responsecalls for the two types of calls we report on.Otherauthorshaveascribedvariousfunctionstoresponse calls, terming them as encounter callsor aggressive calls. We also use the term “unit”to describe what we nd to be rather discreteportions within the advertisement call. Theseunits are intended only to provide a meaningfulway to describe the structure and variation ob-