Topic
Hypocnemis cantator
About: Hypocnemis cantator is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 8 publications have been published within this topic receiving 285 citations.
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TL;DR: It is suggested that females adjust their vocal behavior in relation to the level of perceived threat to the partnership, and duet with males in order to repel same-sex rivals.
Abstract: Despite the widespread occurrence of avian duets, their adaptive significance is poorly understood. It is generally assumed that they function in the joint defense of territories, but no study has successfully distinguished between this hypothesis, which invokes cooperation between the sexes, and mate defense, which invokes conflict. Further, most duetting studies have focused on oscine passerines, the songs of which are learnt and relatively complex. We therefore tested the mate defense hypothesis in the warbling antbird (Hypocnemis cantator), an Amazonian suboscine that produces simple sex-specific songs and duets. Acoustic analysis of songs showed (1) that solos were often produced by males, but rarely by females; (2) that duets consisted of a male song and a female reply; and (3) that, although female song was invariable, a swift reply resulted in males producing shorter songs with fewer notes. These results suggest that duetting, and the structure of duets, is chiefly a product of female behavior, a scenario more suggestive of conflict than cooperation. To investigate this idea we carried out playback experiments, which showed that (4) the response to solo songs was sex specific (i.e., male solos elicited a strong response from paired males, and female solos elicited a strong response from paired females); (5) males and females responded to same-sex solos more strongly than to duets; and that (6) females answered their partner's songs more often, and more rapidly, in response to female solos than male solos or duets. Although it can be argued that sex-specific responses to solo song result from intrasexual territorial defense, we cannot use the same reasoning to explain (5) or (6). Instead, these observations imply that solitary intruders were more threatening than paired intruders, and thus that the perceived threat was to the partnership rather than the territory. Taken together, findings (1) to (6) suggest that females adjust their vocal behavior in relation to the level of perceived threat to the partnership, and duet with males in order to repel same-sex rivals. This study therefore strengthens support for the mate defense hypothesis, and suggests that conflict--rather than cooperation--may have played a major role in the evolution and maintenance of avian duets. Copyright 2006.
90 citations
TL;DR: The finding that common calls were as diversified as Songs in this species-group suggests that calls may be as important as songs in reproductive isolation and future field studies should focus on clarifying the function of different types of thamnophilid vocalizations and elucidating their role in speciation.
Abstract: Six populations of Warbling Antbird (Hypocnemis cantator) currently considered subspecies are more appropriately recognized as species, given the multiplicity of vocal differences that distinguishes them. These vocal differences are as great or greater than vocal differences documented between syntopic species-pairs in the family Thamnophilidae (Isler et al. 1998). Evidence is also provided that two forms currently considered subspecies are syntopic and that two others are parapatric without apparent physical barriers. Vocally, the pair of syntopic taxa were distinguished dramatically, but solely, by common calls. The finding that common calls were as diversified as songs in this species-group suggests that calls may be as important as songs in reproductive isolation. Future field studies should therefore focus on clarifying the function of different types of thamnophilid vocalizations and elucidating their role in speciation. This is the first contribution to a multifaceted analysis of the vocal...
88 citations
TL;DR: Weighted parsimony and maximum-likelihood analyses supported Hypocnemis as the sister taxon to Drymophila; the genus Myrmotherula was not monophyletic, supporting previous allozyme analyses and finding that spacer regions between genes also provided phylogenetically informative characters from the level of suboscine families to within the biological species that the authors studied.
Abstract: We assessed levels of genetic differentiation based on mitochondrial DNA sequences (portions of the cytochrome-b and ND2 genes) at several taxonomic levels in thamnophilid antbirds. Our focus was to investigate genetic differentiation among populations of two species in the genus Drymophila and to identify the sister genus to Drymophila. In addition, we present evidence of high levels of population subdivision in Hypocnemis cantator (Warbling Antbird). This widespread Amazonian taxon co-occurs, on a local scale, with D. devillei (Striated Antbird). Sequence divergences among populations of D. devillei and D. caudata (Long-tailed Antbird), two bamboo-specialists, often exceeded 2% between populations. Divergences within H. cantator, a species with more generalized habitat requirements and a more continuous distribution, were even higher, including 5.7% divergence between samples separated by 350 km of apparently continuous Amazonian forest. At higher taxonomic levels, genetic distances suggest that antbird genera and biological species are old. Genetic divergence between the two species that comprise the genus Hypocnemis was 9.3%, and divergence between D. devillei and D. caudata averaged 7.2%. Weighted parsimony and maximum-likelihood analyses supported Hypocnemis as the sister taxon to Drymophila; the genus Myrmotherula was not monophyletic, supporting previous allozyme analyses. In addition to the protein-coding sequences, we found that spacer regions between genes also provided phylogenetically informative characters from the level of suboscine families to within the biological species that we studied. Received 31 March 1998, accepted 7 April 1999.
86 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present nesting records for five species of antbirds found in Tinigua National Park, Colombia. But none of them have been described in French Guiana and Peru.
Abstract: Few nests of Amazonian antbirds (Thamnophilidae and Formicariidae) have been described. Here we present nesting records for five species of antbirds found in Tinigua National Park, Colombia. A pouch-shaped pensile nest of the Warbling Antbird (Hypocnemis cantator) in a treefall gap within seasonally flooded forest contained two eggs colored like those found in French Guiana but different from those in Amazonian Brazil and Peru. The Black-spotted Bare-eye (Phlegopsis nigromaculata) also nested in seasonally flooded forest; it constructed a cup-shaped nest inside a hollow rotten stump and laid two eggs. Two naked nestlings with bright yellow bills disappeared soon after hatching. Two cup-shaped nests of the Scale-backed Antbird (Hylophylax poecilinota) were in mature terra firme forest. Both contained two eggs similar in color to those of other subspecies; nestlings were naked and had conspicuous yellow bills. Those found in one nest disappeared 11 days after hatching. A nest of the Amazonian Streaked-Antwren (Myrmotherula multostriata) containing one egg was in seasonally flooded forest close to the river bank. This egg differed in coloration from others found in Brazil and from those of other members of the M. surinamensis complex, with which it was formerly considered conspecific. A Striated Antthrush (Chamaeza nobilis) nested in an unlined natural cavity some 3 m above the ground. The nestling closely resembled the adult but was smaller, had yellow bill commissures, and a shorter tail.
17 citations
01 Jan 2000
TL;DR: Nesting records for five species of antbirds found in Tinigua National Park, Colombia are presented and one egg differed in coloration from others found in Brazil and from those of other members of the M. surinamensis complex, with which it was formerly considered conspecific.
Abstract: Few nests of Amazonian antbirds (Thamnophilidae and Formicariidae) have been described. Here we present nesting records for five species of antbirds found in Tinigua National Park, Colombia. A pouch- shaped pensile nest of the Warbling Antbird (Hypocnemis cantator) in a treefall gap within seasonally flooded forest contained two eggs colored like those found in French Guiana but different from those in Amazonian Brazil and Peru. The Black-spotted Bare-eye (Phlegopsis nigromaculata) also nested in seasonally flooded forest; it constructed a cup-shaped nest inside a hollow rotten stump and laid two eggs. Two naked nestlings with bright yellow bills disappeared soon after hatching. Two cup-shaped nests of the Scale-backed Antbird (Hylophvlax
14 citations