Emei Music Frog

We need a species account! Contact us if you are interested in writing for AmphibiaWeb.This species was highlighted in News of the Week:April 2, 2018: Xue et al. (2018) recently revealed the brain regions in frogs that are responsible for allocating attention to important sounds. Animals encounter a wide variety of sounds in their environment but some sounds are more important and catch our attention more readily than others. In other animals (mammals, birds, and other tetrapods) the forebrain plays an important role in drawing attention to important sounds in the environment; however, amphibians have a far less developed forebrain. Xue et al. show the telencephalon may mediate attention to mating calls in frogs. In music frogs (Nidirana daunchina), males call from underground burrows to attract females and these calls are an important mating signal. Further, they found males and females differ in the neural connections responsible for sound attention, perhaps reflecting differences in mating strategies between the sexes. When male music frogs call, other males may prepare to respond/compete. Meanwhile, females dynamically assess and monitor many acoustic cues, perhaps enabling females to choose the best mate.