Temporal pattern cues in vibrational risk assessment by embryos of the red-eyed treefrog, Agalychnis callidryas

Abstract

The embryos of red-eyed treefrogs, Agalychnis callidryas, use vibrations transmitted through their arboreal egg clutch to cue escape hatching behavior when attacked by egg-eating snakes. Hatching early increases the risk of predation in the water, so embryos should avoid it unless they are in danger. We exposed egg clutches to intermittent vibrations with different combinations of vibration duration and spacing to examine the role of simple temporal pattern cues in the escape hatching response. Stimuli were bursts of synthetic white noise from 0 to 100 Hz, including the range of frequencies with substantial energy in snake attacks, and had approximately rectangular amplitude envelopes. Embryos hatched in response to a small range of temporal patterns and not in response to many others, rather than hatching to most vibrations except for certain patterns perceived as safe. Neither cycle length nor duty cycle predicted hatching response, except at extreme values where no hatching occurred; the highest energy stimuli elicited little or no hatching. Both vibration duration and inter-vibration interval strongly affected the hatching response. The highest levels of hatching were to durations of 0.5 s combined with intervals of 1.5-2.5 s, and hatching decreased gradually with increasing difference of either duration or interval from these most effective stimuli. Vibration duration and interval appear to function as two necessary elements of a composite cue, rather than as redundant cues. This increases response specificity and reduces the range of stimuli that elicit hatching, likely reducing the chance of hatching unnecessarily in a benign disturbance. Vibration-cued hatching in A. callidryas embryos offers an opportunity to experimentally assess the behavioral decision rules underlying an effective and costly anti-predator defense.