Credit: Leo R. Malagoli
Paranapiacaba Treefrogs (
Bokermannohyla astartea) mate and lay spawn in small pools of water inside the tanks of bromeliad plants, Leo Ramos Malagoli from the Universidade Estadual Paulista in Brazil and colleagues report in the open-access journal
PLOS ONE. The 3cm-long tadpoles must then make their way to a stream to complete development. The study, publishing February 17, is the first to report this unusual reproductive strategy in frogs.
The researchers spent 11 years collecting data on the courtship behaviours, mating, spawning, and tadpole development in this little-known species, which is endemic to the Atlantic Forests of Brazil. They observed Paranapiacaba Treefrog males calling from bromeliad ponds (known as leaf-tanks ) located on the banks of streams. Females mated with males inside the leaf-tanks and laid their spawn there, but the researchers found that the tadpoles did not complete their entire development in the tanks. Tadpoles at or bey