Building a home from foam - Túngara frog foam nest architecture and
three-phase construction process
Laura Dalgetty and Malcolm W. Kennedy
Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Faculty of Biomedical and Life Sciences, Graham
Kerr Building, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, UK
Electronic supplementary information (ESM)
Figure 1. Effect of disturbance during the main construction phase on mixing event
duration and start-to-start intervals.
Figure 2. Comparison of communal nestings when pairs begin successively or
simultaneously.
Figure 3. Additional images showing the egg-free cortex
Video clips are in separate files, as follows.
Video 1. A mixing event recorded during the main building face showing the process of
egg and foam fluid collection, that the male keeps his lungs inflated, and the degree to
which he changes his posture to accommodate for the enlarging nest.
Video 2. Time lapse filming of nest construction showing male weaving side to side. The
video appears to show continuous mixing by the male, but this is an artifact of time lapse
sampling.
Video 3. A communal pair of nests viewed from below after all the larvae have hatched,
illustrating communication between the nest cores without breaching of the egg-free
cortex.
Electronic supplementary material
Foam nest construction by túngara frogs
Page 1 of 4
Start to start intervals (s)
Duration of events (s)
5
A
4
3
2
1
200
180
160
140
120
B
100
20
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Mixing event number
Figure S1. Effect of disturbance on nesting. Durations (A) and intervals between starts
(B) of mixing events throughout a single nesting in which the pair was disturbed by
movement and lights in the laboratory at around mixing event number 195. In this case
the pair did not leave the nest. Times expressed in seconds (s).
Electronic supplementary material
Foam nest construction by túngara frogs
Page 2 of 4
350
Duration of mixing events (s)
5
A
4
3
2
1
0
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Mixing event number
6
Duration of mixing events (s)
B
5
4
3
2
1
0
0
50
100
150
200
250
Figure S2. Comparison of communal nestings when pairs begin successively or
simultaneously. (A) Three pairs contributing to the same communal nest, but starting at
different times, showing that the follower pairs (green then magenta) increase the
duration of their mixings progressively more rapidly than did the pioneer pair (blue). (B)
Two pairs producing a communal nest and beginning almost simultaneously exhibit
similar progressive changes in the duration of their mixing events in phase 1. In both
graphs the event numbers start at the first mixing by the pioneer pair. Times expressed in
seconds (s).
Electronic supplementary material
Foam nest construction by túngara frogs
Page 3 of 4
Figure S3. Egg-free cortex. A nest viewed at different orientations and lighting to show
the egg-free cortex, eggs confined to the core of the nest, and an apparent discontinuity in
the consistency of the foam at the core:cortex boundary.
Electronic supplementary material
Foam nest construction by túngara frogs
Page 4 of 4