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Frog perfume? Madagascar frogs communicate via airborne pheromones Jeremy Hance mongabay.com January 25, 2012
By looking at the glands of the species Mantidactylus multiplicatus researchers found that it produced two pheromones, or volatile compounds, one of which was similar to that produced by an Australian beetle. The pheromones, when mixed, attract other Mantidactylus multiplicatus. "In fact, volatile compounds are widespread among the Mantellinae, but occur in species-specific mixtures," says co-author Stefan Schulz with the Technical University of Braunschwe in a press release. "The volatile compounds could play a previously underrated role in species recognition over short distances in these very species-rich communities." In other words, the pheromones may help an individual identify another member of its own species in a diverse and crowded amphibian community, numbering over 100 species in the region. The pheromones likely make it less likely that two frogs from different species would attempt mating. CITATION: Dennis Poth, Katharina C. Wollenberg, Miguel Vences, Stefan Schulz. Volatile Amphibian Pheromones: Macrolides of Mantellid Frogs From Madagascar. Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 2012. DOI: 10.1002/anie.201106592.
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