Date: October 20, 2016
Source: Springer
Special chemicals covering the
skin of a tiny yellow-striped Amazonian frog provide a protective shield that
wards off leaf-cutting ants allowing it to live comfortably among them.
"It helps the frog blend in, because it imitates the ants own chemical
signals," says André Barros of the National Institute of Amazonian
Research in Brazil. He led a study in Springer's journal Behavioral Ecology and
Sociobiology. The ants do not give it even a single bite, but will quite
aggressively attack all other types of frogs or other animals that cross their
path.
This type of chemical-based
mimicry and camouflage is often used by parasitic invertebrates and allows them
to live unhindered within the protective confines of social insect-colonies.
However, the strategy is not often seen in vertebrates, much less among frogs,
and is only known in two other African frog species.
Lithodytes lineatus is a South
American frog that is mainly found in the Amazon region. In Spanish the frog is
known as "Sapito Listado." It shelters, breeds and builds its nest
peacefully in the midst of leaf-cutting ants of the genus Atta without ever
being attacked by them.
Leaf-cutting ants use chemical
odors, such as pheromones, to recognize and communicate with members of their
colony. Barros' team therefore speculated that the skin of Lithodytes lineatus
must also be covered with a similar type of chemical that makes leaf-cutting
ants recognize them as "friendly" and cheats them into allowing the
frog into their midst.
They ran two sets of field
experiments to test this. First Lithodytes lineatus frogs and four similar
species were held in a glass vessel for ten minutes along with leaf-cutting
ants. The Lithodytes lineatus frogs made no escape plans, in contrast with the
members of the four other species that tried to jump or climb out and that were
attacked by the ants.
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