Systematics and the evolution of calls and mating preferences on Túngara frogs (genus Engystomops)

Sexually selected traits are among the most costly, complex, and conspicuous elements of the phenotype. In polygynous reproductive systems, they evolve under strong selection by females. Why females favor those traits, however, is an on-going debate. Here, I use túngara frogs as a model system to study the evolution of communication under sexual selection. The wealth of available information on the behavior, neurophysiology, and reproductive biology of túngara frogs make them an ideal system to understand the patterns of signal evolution and explore the processes that have shaped them. In chapter 1 and 2, I review the taxonomy of túngara frogs (Engystomops) from western Ecuador. I describe three new species including their external morphology and advertisement calls. In chapter 3, I explore the phylogenetic relationships of túngara frogs, testing the support for alternative relationships previously reported for this group. The new phylogeny provides the framework for the comparative analysis carried out in chapters 4 and 5. In chapter 4, I present new female preference and male advertisement call data to test the sensory exploitation hypothesis of sexual selection. Using ancestral character reconstruction, I found that female preferences for complex calls did not originated before the appearance of complex calls, as predicted by sensory exploitation. Instead, my results suggest that the origin of complex calls and their preference originated at similar times. Finally, in chapter 5, I analyze the macroevolutionary patterns of call variation in male túngara frogs. A generalized least squares model demonstrates that advertisement calls have a strong phylogenetic signal. Although most species in Engystomops have distinctive calls, they share a common acoustic structure with two components that evolve at different rates. I did not found evidence of greater call differentiation among sympatric species relative to allopatric species.