Summary
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1.
Four hundred and ninety-nine females ofHyla cinerea made 820 responses in two-choice playback experiments conducted at sound pressure levels (SPL's) between 48 and 85 dB. About one-third of the animals responded at 48 dB, and the percentage increased as a function of SPL.
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2.
Females did not show a preference for a standard synthetic call with two components (0.9 + 3.0 kHz) of equal relative amplitude over a single-component (0.9 kHz) call at 48 dB SPL, but chose the bimodal stimulus at 54 dB and higher SPL's (Table 1).
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3.
Females chose the standard call over calls in which the high-frequency peak was attenuated by 12 or 6 dB only when the playback level (overall SPL) of the two sounds was 72 dB or higher (Figs. 1 and 2).
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4.
Females chose the standard call over one in which the low-frequency peak was attenuated by 12 dB over the entire range of playback levels (48 to 85 dB); when the low-frequency peak was attenuated by 6 dB, females preferred the standard call at low to moderate but not high SPL's (Figs. 3 and 4).
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5.
The behavioral results are related to acoustic communication in the natural environment and to basic neurophysiological data from the auditory system ofH. cinerea.
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References
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Gerhardt, H.C. Mating call recognition in the green treefrog (Hyla cinerea): Importance of two frequency bands as a function of sound pressure level. J. Comp. Physiol. 144, 9–16 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00612792
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00612792