Body size, age and growth in males populations of Boana pulchella (Anura, Hylidae)

BARAQUET, MARIANA; POLLO, FAVIO; OTERO, MANUEL; GRENAT, PABLO; SALAS, NANCY E.; MARTINO, ADOLFO LUDOVICO

ANAIS DA ACADEMIA BRASILEIRA DE CIENCIAS.

ACAD BRASILEIRA DE CIENCIAS

Lugar: Rio de Janeiro; Año: 2021 vol. 93

0001-3765

Age determination in amphibians is crucial to the investigation of life-history traits. In thiscontext, we studied, for the first time, the life-history traits of Boana pulchella from asample (63 adult males) of three populations (Las Acequias, Río Cuarto, Alejandro Roca)in central Argentina using the skeletochronological method. All adults of B. pulchellastudied showed recognizable bone structures that allowed age determination. The averagesnout-vent length of sexually mature males was 43.39 mm. The maximum observedlongevity was 5 years (5 Las Acequias, 4 Río Cuarto, 3 Alejandro Roca) and minimum ageat sexual maturity was 2 year (same in the three populations), with mean of 2.96 years.Body size and age were positively correlated (except in Alejandro Roca populations). Thegrowth patterns, estimated by the von Bertalanffy growth equation, do not show differencesbetween populations, and the growth rate decrease after the attainment of sexual maturity.In conclusion, the determination of the individual age of the different populations of B.pulchella allowed us for the first time to establish the characteristics of the life history ofthe species, important for future comparisons whit others populations and futureconservation biology studies.