Breeding activity of Dendropsophus counani (Anura: Hylidae) in eastern Brazilian Amazonia

Abstract

The current knowledge on the natural history are still scarce for most species of Amazonian anurans. Among these, the hylid Dendropsophus counani has incipient data on its breeding biology. Herein, we studied the breeding biology of D. counani in the breeding seasons at Cancão Municipal Natural Park, municipality of Serra do Navio, Amapá state. Males of D. counani often start calling in the late afternoon (17:45 pm) and continue at night. All clutches had been deposited on tree leaves (n = 8) and branches (n = 9) above the water, and after a few days the eggs hatching into exotrophic tadpoles that dropped from the gelatinous clutch in lentic waters. The number of eggs per egg clutch ranged from 40 to 153 eggs. Our study adds necessary data about the natural history of this species, in addition to increasing the knowledge of the breeding biology of Dendropsophus species.