Myxosporean parasites Cystodiscus axonis and C. australis are pathogens of native and exotic Australian frog species. The pathology and ecological outcomes of infection with these parasites were investigated in this study. Gliosis was correlated to Cystodiscus axonis plasmodia in the brains of (9/60) tadpoles and (3/9) adult endangered Green and golden bell frogs using ordinal regression. Sever...

Mitochondria are known to play a central role in life history processes, being the main source of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which promote oxidative constraint. Surprisingly, although the main role of the mitochondria is to produce ATP, the plasticity of mitochondrial ATP generation has received little attention in life history studies. Yet, mitochondrial energy transduction represents the ...

A literature survey for the external morphology of tadpoles species in genus Cycloramphus Tschudi, 1838, which is mainly represented by larval descriptions, resulted finding some inconsistent character descriptions. In a few cases, information either not presented or mistakenly reported; illustrations provided present Here we use sample an insular population identified as boraceiensis, descript...

Abstract: Many tropical anurans use forest streams to deposit their eggs, but resource and selection by tadpoles in forests are poorly known. In the present research, we hypothesized that leaf litter water depth affect tadpole assemblages due adult habitat for oviposition and/or microhabitat tadpoles. Fieldwork was carried out Estação Biológica de Boracéia, an Atlantic Rainforest reserve São Pa...

Given their well-developed systems of innate and adaptive immunity, global population declines of amphibians are particularly perplexing. To investigate the role of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in conferring pathogen resistance, we challenged Xenopus laevis tadpoles bearing different combinations of four MHC haplotypes (f, g, j, and r) with the bacterial pathogen Aeromonas hydroph...

Basal activity of the hypothalamo-pituitary-interrenal (HPI) axis changes over development in larval amphibians, but development of the responsiveness of this axis to an external stressor has not been studied. We compared developmental changes in whole-body corticosterone content of two anuran amphibian species, Rana pipiens (family Ranidae) and Xenopus laevis (family Pipidae). We also examined...

Many organisms confront intermittent nutrient restriction (NR), but the mechanisms to cope with nutrient fluctuations during development are not well understood. This is particularly true of the brain, the development and function of which is energy intensive. Here we examine the effects of nutrient availability on visual system development in Xenopus laevis tadpoles. During the first week of d...

Butachlor is the most commonly used herbicide on paddy fields in Taiwan and throughout Southeast Asia. Since paddy fields provide habitat for pond breeding amphibians, we examined growth, development, time to metamorphosis, and survival of alpine cricket frog tadpoles (Fejervarya limnocharis) exposed to environmentally realistic concentrations of butachlor. We documented negative impacts of but...

Kin selection theory predicts that organisms should behave favourably toward their relatives, if the benefits of such behaviour, devaluated by relatedness, are larger than its costs. Under good environmental conditions, the costs of kin-biased behaviour are likely to be low, and kin-biased behaviour may lead to better average performance of related than non-related individuals. However, under p...

American toad (Bufo americanus) tadpoles were exposed to cadmium from shortly after hatching through metamorphosis. Cadmium at 540 microg/L decreased percentage survival and metamorphosis; 5 and 54 microg/L increased growth relative to controls. Amphibians exposed to cadmium as tadpoles may be less tolerant of natural stressors in the terrestrial environment.