Foam-generating behaviour in tadpoles of Leptodactylus latinasus (Amphibia, Leptodactylidae): significance in systematics

Abstract

This work reports the capability of Leptodactylus latinasus tadpoles to generate foam. During numerous visits to El Ceibal, Tucumán, Argentina, we noticed that adults of L. latinasus were calling in choruses on humid and cleared ground. Five subterranean chambers with foam nests were excavated and transferred to the laboratory. In three nests, aquatic coleopteran larvae were found inside the foam after predating on the eggs. Tadpoles from the two other nests were placed in an artificial incubation chamber. Twenty hours later, a substantial amount of foam was observed. This character was analyzed in a phylogenetic analysis that showed that tadpole foam-making behaviour is a feature that corroborates a close phylogenetic relationship between Leptodactylus of the subgenus Lithodytes and of the fuscus and pentadactylus groups.