User:Humblebear1/Mimic poison frog

I would like to add more information about the reproductive and parental care behaviors that this species displays, as well as more information on the life history and evolution of this species.

Article Outline
Reproduction and Parental Care:


 * Sexual selection
 * Discuss common mate choice strategies, such as assortative mating patterns among different morphs.
 * Discuss alternative strategies of males, such as "cheating" on monogamous mates with other females.
 * Discuss choosiness between sexes, as both provide post-copulatory care and are a monogamous mating system.
 * Discuss what sex-specific traits are valued in mate choice, such as size and male calling quality and effort.
 * Parental care
 * Add to the description of parental care, providing thorough explanations of both male and female parental care.
 * Trophic egg-feeding from mother (briefly described in article, however I will add more info on why this form of parental care is necessary and how it contributes to other important aspects of this species, such as mating system).
 * Piggy-backing tadpoles and delivering them to rearing sites by male, as well as egg-guarding.

Evolution:


 * Discuss the different color morphs for this species and why they evolved (this species' color morphs mimic the color morphs of other poison frogs).
 * Discuss the evolution of this species, particularly the divergent evolution of breeding pool selection to rear offspring, and the novel necessity of egg-feeding parental care and its implications.
 * Discuss potential reproductive isolation of current populations where one color morph dominates in each population with a transition zone between populations (Twomey 2014 article).
 * Compare parental care and mating system to other poison frog behavior.

Color morphology
Among different populations of R. imitator, different color morphs are present to mimic other poison frog species. There are four color morphs among R. imitator populations that mimic closely related sympatric (existing in the same area) species: varadero (R. fantastica), striped (lowland R. variabilis), spotted (highland R. variabilis), and banded (R. summersi). The geographic distribution of these morphs primarily includes geographically isolated populations in different areas of Peru, however there are a number of "transition zones" between populations where different color morphs interact.

Interactions between different morphs
While populations of different color morphs are concentrated in different areas of Peru, there are transition zones between populations where different color morphs may interact. These transition zones have been particular areas of interest to study reproductive isolation and incipient speciation, and recent research suggests that color pattern is likely a driving factor in reproductive isolation, as some transition zones show evidence of assortative mating, where individuals of one morph prefer to mate with others of the same morph. Mating calls by males are an important factor in mating, and often need to be distinct in order to attract females of the same species. In R. imitator, male calls vary little among different color morphs, however it has been suggested that color pattern is the principal component that drives speciation.

Reproduction
The reproductive and parental care behaviors exhibited by this species have been of great interest to a variety of researchers, namely because R. imitator is the first amphibian to show evidence of monogamy, and because it independently evolved biparental care. Further, the occurrence of both of these factors supports the hypothesis that biparental care favors the evolution of monogamy, for which evidence has previously been restricted to other groups of vertebrates. The parental care provided to R. imitator offspring has been demonstrated to be vital for offspring growth and success.

Courtship and oviposition
To attract mates, males will initiate calls while approaching a female. If the female is receptive to the male's courtship, she will follow him to an oviposition site where they will mate. She will then deposit fertilized eggs on a plant to allow them to develop. The number of tadpoles that successfully hatch and make it to their breeding pool is relatively small, where one study observed a range of 1-4 tadpoles per mated pair.

Male parental care
After mating occurs, the male will guard the fertilized eggs. Upon hatching, the male will transport individual tadpoles to their own respective phytotelma, which are small pools of water within plants. Additionally, the male will strategically place tadpoles in certain rearing sites, specifically avoiding predators. After tadpoles are in their rearing sites, the male will call while next to tadpoles which signals to the mother to feed an individual. Tadpole begging, a behavior in which tadpoles vibrate their body, also encourages the mother to provide trophic (eggs specifically for nutrition) eggs.

Female parental care
Female parental care is provided in the form of trophic egg feeding to offspring. After mating, the female will have a surplus of unfertilized eggs, which she provisions to offspring as food that aids in offspring growth and development. This form of biparental care is not uncommon in poison frogs. Researchers have found that poison frogs that use phytotelma to rear offspring are more likely to exhibit egg-feeding parental care, and that this combination favors the evolution of biparental care in these species. The hormonal regulation of parental care in this species remains somewhat unknown.