Editing Spring peeper (section)

== Mating ==

=== Mate searching behavior ===
{{Listen
| type         = sound
| pos          = right
| filename     = Pseudacris-crucifer-002.ogg
| title        = Single spring peeper calling
| description  = The call in relative isolation from others.
| filename2    = Springpeepers.ogg
| title2       = Collective spring peepers calling
| description2 = A few hundred in a single pond.
}}

As their common name implies, the spring peeper has a [[Pitch (music)|high-pitched]] call similar to that of a [[Chicken|young chicken]], only much louder and rising slightly in tone. They are among the first frogs in the regions to call in the spring.<ref>{{cite web |title=''Pseudacris crucifer'' |url=http://www.dnr.state.md.us/wildlife/Plants_Wildlife/herps/Anura/NorthernSpringPeeper.asp |publisher=Maryland Department of Natural Resources }}</ref> Unlike ''[[American toad|A. americanus]]'' and ''[[Upland chorus frog|P. feriarum]]'' whose call activity is dependent on seasonality, 63% of variance in ''P. crucifer'' call is explained by temperature.<ref name="brill.com"/> Calling rate can be modified by interactions among neighboring males, which tend to alternate calls with one another.<ref name="brill.com"/> The mating calls of the spring peeper consist of a sound very similar to a "peep" and are repeated by males up to 13,500 times per night.<ref name="Zimmitti-1999"/> As a chorus, they resemble the sounds of [[sleigh bell]]s.<ref name="BioKIDS">{{cite web |title=Spring Peeper |url=http://www.biokids.umich.edu/critters/Pseudacris_crucifer/ |access-date=19 November 2009 |work=The Regents of the University of Michigan |publisher=BioKIDS}}</ref> They are heard early in spring not long after the ice melts on the wetlands.<ref name="HN" /> The males usually call from the edges of the bodies of water in which they breed, hidden near the bases of shrubs or grasses. Even when calling, they may be difficult to locate and are most easily seen when in [[amplexus]] in the shallows. As in other frogs, an aggressive call is made when densities are high. This call is a rising trill closely resembling the breeding call of the [[southern chorus frog]] (''Pseudacris nigrita nigrita'').<ref name="GS" />

=== Female/male interactions ===

==== Courting ====
[[File:Spring Peeper mating.jpg|thumb|Spring Peeper mating]]
Females choose mates based on the speed and volume of these male calls. Interestingly, females also discriminate between distinct genetic lineages, with females preferring males of their own lineage,<ref name="Stewart-2016">{{Cite journal |last1=Stewart |first1=K. A. |last2=Austin |first2=J. D. |last3=Zamudio |first3=K. R. |last4=Lougheed |first4=S. C. |date=February 2016 |title=Contact zone dynamics during early stages of speciation in a chorus frog (''Pseudacris crucifer'') |journal=Heredity |volume=116 |issue=2 |pages=239–247 |doi=10.1038/hdy.2015.96 |pmc=4806893 |pmid=26626576 |doi-access=free }}</ref> possibly due to the detrimental effects of hybridization.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Stewart |first1=Kathryn A. |last2=Lougheed |first2=Stephen C. |date=2013 |title=Testing for intraspecific postzygotic isolation between cryptic lineages of ''Pseudacris crucifer'' |journal=Ecology and Evolution |volume=3 |issue=14 |pages=4621–4630 |doi=10.1002/ece3.851 |pmc=3867898 |pmid=24363891 |bibcode=2013EcoEv...3.4621S }}</ref> Older, larger males tend to have faster and louder calls that are preferred by the females. A segment of the male population, known as 'satellite males' do not make these calls, but instead position themselves near loud males and attempt to intercept females drawn in by these calls.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Harding |first1=James H. |title=Amphibians and reptiles of the Great Lakes Region |date=1997 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-09628-2 |location=Ann Arbor |page=133}}</ref> Males can switch between satellite-ing and calling. The satellite tactic is not associated with size or inferiority.<ref name=":1" /> Males normally call between 15 and 25 times per minute to attract mates starting in the evening and continuing through the night.<ref name=Lovett2013/> Though only weighing a few grams, the Spring Peeper can produce a call as loud as songbirds that weigh 10-100 times as much.<ref>Lovett, Gary M. “When Do Peepers Peep? Climate and the Date of First Calling in the Spring Peeper (Pseudacris Crucifer) in Southeastern New York State.” Northeastern Naturalist, vol. 20, no. 2, 2013, pp. 333–40. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/43287117. Accessed 12 Feb. 2024.</ref> Male spring peepers have also been found to increase the duration and frequency of aggressive calls in response to increased calling intensity from others.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schwartz |first=Joshua J. |date=1989 |title=Graded Aggressive Calls of the Spring Peeper, ''Pseudacris crucifer'' |journal=Herpetologica |volume=45 |issue=2 |pages=172–181 |jstor=3892159 }}</ref> These satellite males are also known to circumvent female choice and increase rates of hybridization between spring peeper lineages.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Stewart |first1=K. A. |last2=Hudson |first2=C. M. |last3=Lougheed |first3=S. C. |date=2017 |title=Can alternative mating tactics facilitate introgression across a hybrid zone by circumventing female choice? |journal=Journal of Evolutionary Biology |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=412–421 |doi=10.1111/jeb.13017 |pmid=27862550 |s2cid=42215306 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Males produce both advertisement calls, long-range calls that signal a male's position to other males and to attract females, and courtship calls, short-range calls that are directed toward nearby females to inform them that the male is ready to mate.<ref name=":1" />
[[File:Spring peeper male mating.jpg|thumb|229x229px|A  male, spring peeper with its vocal sac inflated as it performs its mating call.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}}]]

==== Mate choice ====
It has been established that the mating call of male spring peepers acts as an [[etiological]] isolating mechanism. As a potential agent of sexual selection, the mating call has many variations that may come into play as a major factor in mate choice by females. During mating, females monitor body size in correlation to the frequency of calls in an inverse matter.<ref name="Lykens-1987" /> The [[basilar papilla]] of the inner ear is responsible for decoding and detecting mating calls. The basilar papilla units within the female ear are tuned between 2100 and 3700&nbsp;Hz and are dependent on intensity. Females tend to select low-frequency calls over high-frequency ones because the calls at the lower end of the spectrum are easier to detect.<ref name="Lykens-1987" /> The calls of spring peepers are often repeated, which has been deemed essential concerning the evolution of the mate choice of females reacting to particular mating and courtship behavior.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>