Publications

Bernardy, José Vinícius, Llusia, Diego & Bastos, and Rogério Pereira, 2025, Trends in anuran mate choice (Amphibia) in the scientific literature, Zoologia (e 24021) 42, pp. 1-16 : 4-6

Publications per species

There is a considerable concentration of studies around a small number of species: almost 40% of the records pertain the 10 most studied species ( Fig. 5 ). Engystomops pustulosus (Cope, 1864) and Dryophytes versicolor (LeConte,

1825) appeared in 63 and 60 studies, respectively. Additionally, because the most productive authors in our records focus on one species, those species are amongst the most studied ( Fig. 5 , Table 3). For instance, Ryan, M.J., the most prolific author according to our data, published 64 articles, of which 54 were about E. pustulosus , representing more than 85% of the publications mentioning this species.

Our records embrace a considerable number of species (203). However, more than half (104) appear in a single study ( Fig. 6 ). Most studies involved members of the family Hylidae ( Table 4), encompassing the greatest number of species (49, representing less than 5% of the family total diversity) and most publications (233, approximately 4.75 publications per species on average). Considering the proportion of species studied, Mantellidae was the least represented, with two out of the approximately 271 known species studied (less than 1% studied). In contrast, three out of six known species (50%) of Pelobatidae are represented in our data.

Although the most studied species ( E. pustulosus ) is tropical in distribution, most species in our records are from temperate zones (85 species, totaling 387 appearances in studies). Even though the number of tropical species studied is close to that (81), they were present in only 230 studies. On average, there were approximately 60% more publications on species from temperate zones than on tropical species (4.55 versus 2.83 studies per species, respectively; Mann-Whitney: W = 4075, p = 0.026). Thirty-four species occurred both in temperate and tropical zones.

Only a small portion of the diversity of most countries is covered in our records ( Fig. 7 ). Tropical zone countries, with an average of less than 10% of their diversity studied, are particularly disfavored in studies. In temperate zone countries, by contrast, more than 50% of the diversity is represented in studies. Additionally, on average, temperate zone countries have more species studied (~7.45 against ~4.77) with more publications than tropical countries (~42.3 against ~20.4 studies per species). Some countries had a single species studied with only one publication (31), mostly from tropical zones (21). The greatest number of studied species was in China, with 55 (average of 2.33 studies per species), representing ~10% of the country’s anuran diversity. Considering countries with 100 or more anuran species, Cameroon had the smallest proportion of its’ diversity covered in our records, with less than 0,5% of its diversity explored (1 out of 218). In contrast, the United States had the most significant proportion among those countries, with more than 31% of the species studied (36 out of 115).

Figures

Figure 5. Anuran species most studied regarding intersexual selection and their zones of occurrence, considering those with five or more publications.

Figure 6. Number of publications on anuran intersexual selection per species and zones.

Figure 7. Number of studied species and average publication per species by country. Circle size represents the proportion of anuran diversity studied in the country. Circle shade represents the standard deviation of publications among species. The circle color represents the zone in which each country is located (tropical, temperate, or mixed). The following countries are highlighted: the country with the most species studied (China); countries with at least 100 anuran species with the highest and lowest proportion of their diversity studied (United States and Cameroon respectively); all countries with at least 400 known anuran species (Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, and Madagascar); most diverse countries from Oceania and Europe (Australia and Spain respectively).