12月7日，中科院成都生物所两栖爬行动物研究室唐业忠课题组在英国皇家学会《生物学快报》上发表了他们最新的一项研究成果"Real estate ads in Emei music frog vocalizations: female preference for calls emanating from burrows”。研究人员通过对仙琴蛙长达两年的研究发现，有巢穴的雄性仙琴蛙更容易吸引雌蛙。
通常情况下，青蛙在水塘里繁衍后代，很少有筑窝的习性。该课题组博士崔建国却在一次野外调查中偶然发现，到了繁殖季节，雄性仙琴蛙会在水塘边建造“房屋”，然后在洞内鸣叫，以吸引雌蛙前来交配产卵。于是，崔建国大胆假设：雄蛙是利用鸣声向雌蛙传递巢穴的信息，而雌蛙通过鸣声选择有“房”的雄蛙作为配偶。
为验证雄蛙的鸣叫中是否包含有巢穴信息，崔建国做了两组设计实验。第一组录制了30只雄蛙洞内鸣叫声和20只雄蛙洞外鸣叫声，经过比较发现，洞内雄蛙鸣叫声音低沉浑厚且鸣叫持续时间更长。第二组录制了7只雄蛙在洞内洞外的鸣叫声，其结果与第一组类似。
崔建国还发现，巢穴洞口越小，雄蛙鸣叫频率越低，洞穴越深音节则持续时间越长。“鸣叫在一定程度上反映了巢穴的特征。”崔建国说。
那么，雌蛙又是如何选择雄蛙的？是否更倾向于有“房”的雄蛙作为配偶呢？崔建国对47只雌蛙做了趋声性实验。他将雌蛙放在大塑料箱里，在塑料箱两侧一定距离内分别用音响轮流播放雄蛙洞内鸣叫和洞外鸣叫，结果发现，70%的雌蛙会选择洞内鸣声。
“这表明雌蛙通过鸣声信息判断雄性是否有房来选择配偶，以增加适应度。”崔建国告诉记者，下一步课题组将对雌蛙是否能精确估计“房子”的质量进行研究。（生物谷Bioon.com）
doi:10.1098/rsbl.2011.1091
PMC:
PMID:
Real estate ads in Emei music frog vocalizations: female preference for calls emanating from burrows
Cui, Jianguo; Tang, Yezhong; Narins, Peter M.
During female mate choice, both the male's phenotype and resources (e.g. his nest) contribute to the chooser's fitness. Animalsother than humans are not known to advertise resource characteristics to potential mates through vocal communication; althoughin some species of anurans and birds, females do evaluate male qualities through vocal communication. Here, we demonstratethat calls of the male Emei music frog (Babina dauchina), vocalizing from male-built nests, reflect nest structure information that can be recognized by females. Inside-nest callsconsisted of notes with energy concentrated at lower frequency ranges and longer note durations when compared with outside-nestcalls. Centre frequencies and note durations of the inside calls positively correlate with the area of the burrow entranceand the depth of the burrow, respectively. When given a choice between outside and inside calls played back alternately, morethan 70 per cent of the females (33/47) chose inside calls. These results demonstrate that males of this species faithfullyadvertise whether or not they possess a nest to potential mates by vocal communication, which probably facilitates optimalmate selection by females. These results revealed a novel function of advertisement calls, which is consistent with the widevariation in both call complexity and social behaviour within amphibians.
