Trends in anuran mate choice (Amphibia) in the scientific literature

Abstract

Anura, one of the most studied taxa regarding intersexual selection, has been considered a model for experiments on female preferences for decades. Despite this, there is still much to learn about most species and different topics. We describe the current state of knowledge on anuran intersexual selection (e.g., most studied taxa, themes, types of signals, and traits) through a scientometric review. Our survey identified and classified 521 studies published between 1975 and 2022, and a yearly publication rate of 10.85 articles. Most studies were classified into the research themes of mating preferences (314) or mating success (180), while only a few fit into selection analysis (52) or signal recognition (22). In studies on mating preferences, acoustic features were the most explored, especially the female’s preference for the dominant frequency (79). Even though a considerable diversity was embraced in our survey (203 species), we found that most efforts concentrate on a small set of species (nearly 40% of the records are about the 10 most studied species). Of those, Engystomops pustulosos (63) and Dryophytes versicolor (60) are by far the most studied. Considering the type of signal, acoustic communication was explored more often (292 studies) in comparison to visual (35), acoustic-visual (23), and chemical (2) signals. Our findings in this review point to a considerable bias in anuran intersexual selection studies regarding species, themes, and types of signals studied, which we discuss. We also make recommendations for future studies.