Building a home from foam - tungara frog foam nest architecture and three-phase construction process

Dalgetty, L. and Kennedy, M.W. (2010) Building a home from foam - tungara frog foam nest architecture and three-phase construction process. Biology Letters, 6(3), pp. 293-296. (doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.0934)

Abstract

Frogs that build foam nests floating on water face the problems of over-dispersion of the secretions used and eggs being dangerously exposed at the foam : air interface. Nest construction behaviour of t+¦ngara frogs, , has features that may circumvent these problems. Pairs build nests in periodic bursts of foam production and egg deposition, three discrete phases being discernible. The first is characterized by a bubble raft without egg deposition and an approximately linear increase in duration of mixing events with time. This phase may reduce initial over-dispersion of foam precursor materials until a critical concentration is achieved. The main building phase is marked by mixing events and start-to-start intervals being nearly constant in duration. During the final phase, mixing events do not change in duration but intervals between them increase in an exponential-like fashion. Pairs joining a colonial nesting abbreviate their initial phase, presumably by exploiting a pioneer pair's bubble raft, thereby reducing energy and material expenditure, and time exposed to predators. Finally, eggs are deposited only in the centre of nests with a continuously produced, approximately 1 cm deep egg-free cortex that protectively encloses hatched larvae in stranded nests.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Kennedy, Professor Malcolm
• Authors: Dalgetty, L., and Kennedy, M.W.
• Subjects: Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Life Sciences
• Journal Name: Biology Letters
• ISSN: 1744-9561
• ISSN (Online): 1744-957X
• Published Online: 27 January 2010

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
34031	1	Foam nests of the frog Leptodactylus fucus	Malcolm Kennedy	Carnegie UK Trust (CARNEGIE)	UNSPECIFIED	Life Sciences Animal Biology
24051	1	Froth, Foam and Bubble 2: The Biochemistry and Biophysical Behaviour of Native and Recombinant Foam-Forming Proteins	Malcolm Kennedy	Wellcome Trust (WELLCOME)	048747/Z/96/B	Life Sciences Animal Biology