Caring fathers of glass frogs have smaller testicles than those that run away after mating. This has to do with different reproductive strategies of different species of glass frogs, as shown by a study at the University of Bern. Accordingly, egg guarding reduces selection pressure and thus sperm production and testicle size.
In frogs from the glass frog family, fertilization takes place outside the body: the females lay unfertilized eggs on the leaves and the males distribute their sperm over them. In some species of glass frogs, the males guard and care for their offspring, while others do not care for the offspring, as the University of Bern announced on Thursday.
Brood care and size of the testicles
The researchers have now shown in a study in the journal ‘Proceedings of the Royal Society B’ that there is a link between this brood care and the size of the testicles. “We were surprised at how clearly these connections are seen in glass frogs,” co-author Eva Ringler, professor of behavioral ecology at the University of Bern, said in the statement.
In total, the research team examined 37 different species of glass frogs native to the tropical rainforests of Central and South America. In eleven of these species the males care for the offspring, in the others they do not.
“Reduces the risk of cross-pollination”
The researchers suspect that the reason for this is evolution. “When a male guards his own clutch, he reduces the risk of fertilization by other males,” Ringler explains. Because external fertilization carries the risk of ‘spawn piracy’. So that other male frogs manage to distribute their own sperm over a fresh clutch of eggs and thus fertilize those eggs that have not yet been fertilized by the sperm of the original mating male.
Guarding and caring for the eggs reduces the selection pressure for greater sperm production and therefore for larger testicles, the researcher explains. The smaller the testicles, the lower the potential for producing sex cells.
Source: Krone
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