Choosing a Mate in a Cocktail Party‐Like Situation: The Effect of Call Complexity and Call Timing between Two Rival Males on Female Mating Preferences in the Túngara Frog Physalaemus pustulosus

Abstract

Signal detection, recognition, and localization are hampered when multiple signalers coincide in time and space, a problem known as ‘cocktail party effect’. In many taxa, senders utter complex calls consisting of two or more elements which often vary in the ease with which they can be assessed in different signaling environments. Receivers’ selective attention to different cues may increase the probability of correctly assigning a signal to its source (localization) in face of conspecific interference. Túngara frogs, Physalaemus pustulosus, produce complex calls consisting of an initial whine, followed by zero up to seven broad‐banded, amplitude‐modulated chucks. Under ideal conditions (without interference or noise), females prefer whines followed by chucks over whines alone, but the preference is not linear; females do not discriminate between whines with one or two chucks. When whines lack chucks, call overlap elicits random responses in females, with no preference for leading calls. In this study, I explored the combined effect of call timing and call complexity on female preferences in a two‐choice paradigm—a simplification of the cocktail party scenario. I tested the hypothesis that the effect of call overlap can be reduced when the calls of one of the two rivals have chucks, specifically more chucks than those of the rival. I gave females a choice between whines alone and with chucks (one or two) presented at three time relations (alternated, abutted, and partially overlapped) and two emission orders (whine with less chucks leading and whine with more chucks leading). I found that the preference for one chuck over no chuck was preserved in all the experimental treatments, but when a w + 2chk preceded a w + chk, either overlapped or abutted, a preference existed for the whine with more chucks. Therefore, an interaction between call order and the number of chucks was obtained. The results only partially supported the hypothesis, and call order emerges as an opportunistic component of signaling in P. pustulosus.

A multi-scale model for fluid transport through a bio-inspired passive valve

“…As the density impacts the permeability (Eqs. (6) and 7), there is about a six-order of magnitude difference between the permeability for evaporation and absorption ( Fig. 6 C).…”

“…To do so, we combine Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations (GCMC) with Non-Equilibrium Molecular Dynamics (NEMD) [22]. Particles interact solely through a LJ potential U (r) = 4 (σ/r) 12 − (σ/r) 6 for r < r c , where is the depth of the potential well, σ is its cross-section, and r c = 2.5σ is the interaction cut-off. The pore is a cylinder of radius R and length L, that is made effectively infinite by the use of periodic boundary conditions.…”

“…where and the local chemical potential µ i , and is calculated from the permeability of a single pore as given by Eqs. (6) and (7). Then, the local chemical potential µ i is updated with respect to the calculated concentration ρ i , according to the adsorption isotherm obtained from GCMC simulations (for ads = 0.2 ) ( Fig.…”

“…Note that we may have expected the scaling to be |Q abs | ∝ R 4 and |Q eva | ∝ R 2 since the flux is proportional to the permeability (Eqs. (6) and 7respectively) multiplied by the pore total surface area N p πR 2 , with N p the total number of pores. However the porous medium is of imposed volume V m and imposed porosity p = 0.5 = N p πR 2 L m /V m .…”

“…In those regions, rainfalls are rare thus making atmospheric water the most important source of water. Moreover, at many sites, the relative humidity reaches saturation on a regular basis as a consequence of nightly radiative cooling [5], allowing liquid water to appear cyclically in the form of fog or dew [6,7]. Yet, collecting water from the atmosphere is a challenge as this source of water is diffuse, and extensive structures are needed to collect acceptable amounts [8].…”