The advertisements are true. By applying the right scent you can get the girls even if you are a frog. Proof comes with a report in the journal Nature, by researchers from the University of Adelaide, South Australia, who have identified what may be the first known frog pheromone.
Many creatures use chemical signals called pheromones to communicate with others of their kind. They can be used to warn off enemies or attract members of the opposite sex.
The Australian team believes it has isolated the first amphibian pheromone from the male magnificent tree frog, Litoria splendida. The pheromone, which the researchers titled splendipherin, is a powerful attractant for female L splendida frogs.
Like the best aftershaves, only a little drop is all the male tree frog needs. In a sterling example of scientific diligence, the team described its three-year study of the substances produced and released by glands in the frogs' heads every month.
They found that during the breeding season about 1 per cent of the total content of the secretions is splendipherin. Outside the breeding season it is just a tenth of that amount.
The male's pheromone is watersoluble and works remarkably well even when highly diluted in water, the researchers point out. Within 20 seconds of them putting just 40 billionths of a gram of splendipherin into a tank, female frogs sitting a metre away began to respond.
They became alert and then walked towards the source of the chemical, but finding no male they just sat down on the spot where it was dropped into the tank. Smaller quantities of the pheromone had no effect but larger amounts seemed to confuse the females, the researchers found.
Only male L splendida frogs had the scent and only females of that species responded to it. Other closely related tree frogs did not respond to the male's attractions.
What does all this research mean? Not a lot if you are a human hoping to meet someone but a great deal if you are a male magnificent tree frog.
