Individual variation in male vocal traits and female mating preferences in Bufo americanus

We investigated the amount of variation in mating behaviour between and within individual male and female American toads, because both sources of trait variation can influence the course of sexual selection. Males varied in all four call parameters investigated (dominant call frequency, pulse rate, call rate and call duration). Individual males lowered the dominant frequency of their call when they interacted vocally with nearby males. Dominant call frequency was more highly correlated with body size in vocally interacting males than in non-interacting males. Pulse rate of calls primarily varied with water temperature. Call rate and call duration showed the most variation of the four call properties, but this variation was unrelated to male morphology or social interactions. Females varied in three aspects of mating behaviour: two measures of pair formation and their preference for dominant frequency of male calls. The body size of paired males varied between females both in pairings initiated by either sex and in pairings initiated only by females. Males chosen by females were usually larger than average, although age and prior breeding experience of females did not affect mate choice. Playback experiments indicated that female preference for calls of low dominant frequency depended on the temporal patterning of alternative calls presented. Each of the four male vocal properties showed significant repeatability, but only one of the three aspects of female mating behaviour was repeatable. We discuss how different degrees of repeatability in sexual traits of males and females may influence the action and detection of sexual selection in this and other species. (C) 1998 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.