Love bites: male frogs (Plectrohyla, Hylidae) use teeth scratching to deliver sodefrin precursor-like factors to females during amplexus.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Efficient transfer of chemical signals is important for successful mating in many animal species. Multiple evolutionary lineages of animals evolved direct sex pheromone transmission during traumatic mating-the wounding of the partner with specialized devices-which helps to avoid signal loss to the environment. Although such direct transmission modes of so-called allohormone pheromones are well-documented in invertebrates, they are considered rare in vertebrates. Males of several species of the frog genus Plectrohyla (Hylidae, Anura) have elongated teeth and develop swollen lips during the breeding season. Here we investigated the possibility that these structures are used to scratch the females' skin and apply allohormone pheromones during traumatic mating in several Ple

SUBMITTER: Schulte LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8613984 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature