Recent amphibian declines have been addressed with a variety of conservation tools, including translocations. It is important to evaluate the success of ongoing amphibian conservation programs. In Indiana, USA, because of the documented decline of the Eastern Hellbender (Cryptobranchus a. alleganiensis) population, translocations of wild-captured and captive-reared individuals have been implemented as a management strategy. Our study was developed to estimate the annual survivorship of translocated versus resident Eastern Hellbenders and to compare the efficacy of translocating wild adults and captive-reared juveniles. Adult residents, and translocated adult and juvenile subjects, were implanted with radio transmitters in a staggered entry design and tracked for up to 2 yr. A Cox proportional hazards model indicated that captive-reared, juvenile hellbenders had lower annual survival rates than did either resident or translocated adults. The relatively high survival rates of all groups indicated the potential utility of both types of translocations as a tool to increase local densities, although there might be room for improvement of the survival rates for captive-reared juveniles through either increased rearing periods or environmental conditioning prior to release.

Plethodontid salamander courtship is an elaborate yet conserved set of behaviors that involve many different sensory signals. Exocrine glands in the skin produce pheromones that facilitate courtship. These glands, known as courtship glands, are described as being sexually dimorphic, only present in males. Thus, we were surprised to discover glands in female Desmognathus brimleyorum that are histochemically and morphologically similar to male courtship glands. These glands are on the dorsal tail base and are sexually dimorphic in size; male glands are larger than those in females. Granular and mucous glands are not sexually dimorphic. The function of these glands in females is unknown, but could be involved in pheromone delivery to the male during courtship. Glands that are histochemically similar to courtship glands are present on the ventral tail surface in males and females as well. This is the first description of dorsal courtship-like glands in females and of ventral courtship-like glands in male and female D. brimleyorum.

Tympanic middle ears are key innovations in the evolution of terrestrial hearing. These structures facilitate sound transmission between air and the inner ear, across an impedance mismatch boundary. Nontympanic taxa present an opportunity to explore extratympanic hearing mechanisms, which could inform our understanding of terrestrial hearing evolution. Salamanders are useful models in this regard because they lack tympanic middle ears. Lung-based extratympanic auditory mechanisms have been demonstrated in earless anurans and are hypothesized to apply to salamanders, based on observations that the body walls overlying the lungs vibrate in response to airborne sound. We tested the hypothesis that body wall vibrations over the lungs aid aerial hearing in salamanders. We immersed the body walls and pectoral girdle below a water surface in two lunged species, Notophthalmus viridescens and Ambystoma talpoideum, predicting that this would elevate auditory thresholds (measured using evoked potentials) by inhibiting body wall motion. This submersion treatment did not significantly affect auditory sensitivities in either species. We conclude that lung-based aerial auditory pathways through the body walls are negligible or absent in the tested salamanders. Whereas lungs can potentially contribute to extratympanic hearing in small tetrapods, the extent to which these peripheral vibrations are transmitted to and detected in the ear varies across taxa. Over the course of experimentation, we discovered that modifying the positioning of both the speaker and salamander shifted thresholds (expressed relative to sound pressure) by up to 15 dB, indicating that vibration, rather than pressure, might be the appropriate acoustic measurement for aerial hearing. We discuss implications of a vibration-based auditory system for evaluating the terrestrial auditory capacities of salamanders.

Ovipositing amphibians select breeding sites that determine their offspring's larval habitat. Preference–performance theory predicts that adults will select habitat patches that match the expected performance of their offspring in those patches. Many amphibians breed in temporary ponds immediately after they fill, and one species, Hyla chrysoscelis (Cope's Gray Treefrogs), selects between breeding sites based on patch age differences of as little as 7 d. Prior work established that H. chrysoscelis have better larval performance in more recently filled ponds, but not in ponds less than 15 d after filling or among ponds that differed in age by less than 65 d. Our objective was to determine experimentally whether larval H. chrysoscelis performance varies across short time scales after filling (3- and 23-d-old ponds) and across two larval densities (15 and 30 larvae per mesocosm). Higher larval densities reduced metamorph mass and body condition, but did not otherwise affect larval performance. There were lower survival, shorter larval periods, and slightly lower mass and body condition among larvae from 3-d-old ponds than those in 23-d-old ponds. These mixed performance differences across our two levels of habitat age might not necessarily be representative of what happens in natural systems, however, where older ponds have more established communities of competitors and predators.

Shaded coffee plantations are of conservation value for many taxa, particularly for resident avifauna in the face of extensive landscape changes. Yet, little is known about the value of coffee plantations for amphibians because there are scant demographic data to index their value among species with different habitat preferences. We estimated the probability of occupancy of three frog species: Eleutherodactylus wightmanae, a forest species; E. brittoni, a grassland species; and E. antillensis, an open habitat species. Occupancy was estimated in sun and shaded plantations, and in secondary forest, in the west-central mountains of Puerto Rico. We also estimated the probability that a survey station was occupied by no individuals, one, or >1 individual, as a proxy of abundance. The aforementioned parameters, and local colonization and extinction probability, were modeled as a function of weather conditions (temperature, humidity) and vegetation cover at the sampling station (5 m) and contextual (100 m) scales. Encounter histories were obtained with passive acoustic recorders between February and July in 2015. Consistent with known habitat preferences, the highest occupancies were associated with secondary forests for E. wightmanae and sun plantations for E. brittoni. Occupancy probability for E. antillensis was similar across habitat types, indicating no aversion to shaded–forested habitats. Shaded plantations harbored moderate levels of occupancy for all species, indicating their potential value for multispecies conservation. Local colonization rates increased with forest cover for E. wightmanae, and with open habitats for E. brittoni and E. antillensis. Open habitats harbored a higher abundance of E. brittoni and E antillensis, but lower values for E. wightmanae. Sun and shaded plantations could provide quality habitat for Eleutherodactylus spp. if managed for features that promote local colonization and abundance.

Environmental factors play an important role in structuring communities. In heterogeneous environments, where habitat structure might vary considerably, understanding how these factors shape communities is one of the most important issues in community ecology. In this context, we investigated how environmental factors contributed to the composition of five frog communities on the sandy coastal plains (restinga ecosystem) of southeastern Brazil. We sampled these ecosystems over a 2-yr period and compared five sites in relation to their habitat structure, frog species composition, species abundance, and their distribution in different mesohabitats. We found that the composition of the amphibian communities was not related systematically to habitat structure in general, but rather to the availability of spawning sites (sources of freestanding water), which appears to be the most important ecological factor structuring these communities.

The phenology of egg production and oviposition in organisms affects survival and development of neonates and thus, both offspring and maternal fitness. In addition, in organisms with environmental sex determination, clutch phenology can affect hatchling sex ratios with attendant effects on population demography. The rapid rate of contemporary climate change might disrupt reproductive phenologies that evolved to match environmental conditions. To better understand the response of clutch phenology to annual and long-term changes in climate, we studied a population of Sonoran Desert Tortoises (Gopherus morafkai) in Arizona in 1993 and 1997–2005, specifically quantifying three phenophases, including (1) the estimated time of appearance of shelled eggs in females, (2) the estimated time that eggs were last visible in X-radiographs, and (3) the duration of the interval between the first two events. The mean date for appearance of shelled eggs was 6 June, and the mean date they were last visible was 26 June. After controlling for individual female effects, these dates were different among years. The total number of days that eggs were visible across all females within a year differed among years, but the mean duration of time that clutches were visible, after controlling for individual female effects, was similar among years. Three of 18 females exhibited interannual egg retention on 5 occasions from 52 clutches. Although G. morafkai ovulates only one clutch per year, they might oviposit up to two because of interannual egg retention. Most females produced shelled eggs through heat-unit accumulation achieving 8.3 degree days within a 14-d moving average. The ability to vary the timing of egg formation and oviposition might buffer G. morafkai from some of the effects of predicted increases in temperatures, but species-specific information on developmental temperatures and nesting behavior are needed to determine whether or not the species will be able to produce viable clutches of mixed sex ratios in a warmer climate.

Females of some lizard species exhibit conspicuous coloration during the breeding cycle (“nuptial coloration”) that elicits male courtship. We conducted two field experiments with San Cristóbal Lava Lizards (Microlophus bivittatus) in the Galápagos Islands to determine how the presence and extent of nuptial coloration on lizard robots affected responses of adult males and females. Robots programmed to perform conspecific bobbing displays had a morphological appearance that mimicked (1) a conspecific female without nuptial coloration (non-red control stimulus); (2) a conspecific female with nuptial coloration (normal red stimulus); or (3) a female with an extent of nuptial coloration beyond the range of conspecific variation (super-normal red stimulus). In Experiment 1, subjects witnessed two stimuli in sequence, being presented first with the side of a robot that exhibited conspecific nuptial coloration or with the opposite side of the same robot that lacked nuptial coloration. Results showed no effect of subject sex or stimulus order, but subjects exhibited more display and shorter display latencies in response to the normal red stimulus than to the non-red stimulus. In Experiment 2, new subjects were shown either non-red, normal red, or super-normal red stimulus. In contrast to Experiment 1, results of this experiment revealed sex differences in the amount of display elicited from subjects. Among the findings, males exhibited less display to the super-normal stimulus than to the non-red and normal red stimuli whereas the quantity of display elicited from females by the super-normal stimulus was similar to that evoked by the other two stimuli. We discuss our results in the context of prior studies and offer suggestions for future research.

This is the first report of antipredator nest defense by iguanian lizards. Female Texas Horned Lizards (Phrynosoma cornutum) and Round-tailed Horned Lizards (P. modestum) consistently exhibited vigorous nest-site defensive behaviors (butting, open-mouth attacks, and biting attacks) when experimentally approached in the field by a potential predator of reptilian eggs, Western Patch-nosed Snakes (Salvadora hexalepis). During both prenesting and postnesting snake trials, such defensive attack behaviors by the female lizards were absent. Females of a viviparous congener, Greater Short-horned Lizards (Phrynosoma hernandesi), failed to exhibit postpartum defensive behaviors to S. hexalepis, and newborns did not associate in proximity to their mothers. Nest-site defense is suggested to be the ancestral behavior in the genus Phrynosoma, and it might have been lost during the evolution of viviparity in certain species. Previous failures to detect nest defense behavior in Phrynosoma, and in related clades of iguanian lizards, might be attributable to the absence of observations at nest sites after egg laying by such lizards, especially because these behaviors occur only during brief time windows of potential nest detection by egg-hunting snakes. Similar trials with other iguanian lizards and potential nest predators could reveal further examples of parental care in this diverse lineage of lizards.

We describe three new species of centipede-eating snakes in the Tantilla taeniata species group. These new species come from the vicinities of three river drainage valleys in Honduras. One of the new species has a narrow vertebral stripe and comes from foothills of Sierra de Botaderos and Sierra de Agalta, on both sides of the lower drainage of the Río Sico Tinto in the Agalta Valley. A second species, with a relatively high number of ventral scales, inhabits lowlands and foothills near the Río Ulúa drainage valley, from Lago de Yojoa, Cortés, to northwestern Atlántida. The third new species, with a relatively low number of ventral scales, inhabits the upper and middle drainage system in the vicinity of the Río Choluteca, from near Danlí, El Paraíso, to Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazán. All three species can easily be distinguished morphologically from other members of the genus, and in particular from other members of the T. taeniata group.

Atractus flammigerus was described on the basis of two specimens from Java (in error). Subsequently, its lectotype was designated and the type locality restricted to Paramaribo in Suriname. Although this species has been repeatedly recorded throughout western Amazonia (mainly from Brazil and Peru), all of these records were erroneously assigned to A. flammigerus because of a considerable level of confusion with two widespread congeners (A. snethlageae and A. torquatus). To date, only nine individuals of A. flammigerus (sensu stricto) are reported in the literature on the basis of vouchered specimens. During the examination of scientific collections and fieldwork we found 12 additional specimens of this poorly known snake, expanding our knowledge on its morphological variability and distribution. In this paper, we report new localities and data on meristic, morphometric, color pattern in life and, after preservation, macro- and micro-ornamentation of dorsal scales, cranial osteology, and hemipenis morphology of A. flammigerus. We provide new diagnostic features and additional data for detailed comparisons with morphologically similar and sympatric congeners, and update the species boundaries of A. flammigerus.