Home Page for Rick Lehtinen

In July of this year, I attended the 2013 Joint Meeting of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At this fun and engaging conference on the biology of fish, amphibians and reptiles, I presented a synopsis of my recent research (with co-author Jessica Pringle ’13) on the Tobago glass frog entitled “Impacts of paternal care on offspring survival: An experimental study on a glass frog from Tobago, West Indies”. I was accompanied to Albuquerque by recent Wooster grads Meredith Eyre (’13) and Jess McQuigg (’13), who presented posters describing their I.S. research. Meredith’s poster was entitled “Exploring the microhabitats of marsupial frogs: A study of the forces driving habitat selection for Flectonotus fitzgeraldi on the island of Tobago”. Jess’ poster was “A reassessment of the conservation status of a critically endangered Neotropical frog (Mannophryne olmonae) using occupancy modeling techniques”.

In addition to hearing interesting talks, re-engaging with old friends, and meeting new colleagues, Meredith, Jess and I were able to sneak away from the conference for a half day. Departing Albuquerque at 5 am in a rental car, we drove south to the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge. Arriving at daybreak, we hiked up to the top of the mesa (~ 4 miles round trip) and were treated to a spectacular view of the Rio Grande Valley to our east.

Beneath our feet, desert lizards were scurrying and above our heads desert birds were soaring. We were treated to views of black-chinned hummingbirds, scaled quail, Say’s phoebes, and blue grosbeaks, to name but a few.  A very nice addendum to a day in a conference hall!

Hi all,

Below is some collected advice and information about our upcoming trip.  We depart June 2 (arriving late that night) and return June 13.  Zak and I will go to Trinidad from Tobago on the morning of the 1oth and we’ll all meet back at the Trinidad airport on the morning of the 13th. I’ll send you an email soon with the particular flights I’ll be on, so you can hopefully get on the same ones (once we know about your Copeland funding).

Before departing the US, make sure that you check out the Transportation Security Administration’s website for lists of items you cannot bring on a airplane or an airport and information on how to get through security with a minimum of hassle (http://www.tsa.gov/). When you arrive in Trinidad, you will have to fill out some paperwork to pass customs upon arrival. They usually hand out the forms before landing, so its a good idea to fill it out while you’re still in the air. You’ll need your valid passport, information on your flights, and an address where we’ll be staying. You can give the following: Castara Cottage, Castara, Tobago. Phone: 868-757-1044.

Upon arrival, we’ll probably change some US dollars for T&T dollars, get some cell phones activated, grab some coffee/breakfast and wait for our flight to Tobago.

Health and Vaccinations

On my recent trip to Trinidad and Tobago, I was studying the potential benefits of paternal care in the Tobago glass frog (Hyalinobatrachium orientale). My student Jessica Pringle, was the first to show that fathers who provide parental care to their offspring (in the form of egg attendance) get benefits in the form of increased embryo survival.

Why might this be? In following up on Jessica’s work, I found that eggs without male egg attendance were more likely to be eaten by predators and also more likely to dry out. More on this study soon!

This week, my colleagues Franco Andreone, Frank Glaw, Maciej Pabijan, Miguel Vences and I published a paper describing a previously unknown species of frog from Madagascar (click here for paper).  This species is known so far only from Ranomafana National Park and its vicinity. This puts the number of known mantellid frogs from Madagascar at 201 – all of which are endemic to this remarkable island. By comparison, there are currently 108 frog species known from the entire United States. We named the new species Guibemantis tasifotsy; in Malagasy “tasy” means “spot” and “fotsy” means “white” and this refers to the typical series of white spots on the flanks of this small, green frog.

(Photos by Frank Glaw and Miguel Vences)

This new species is part of a lineage of mostly specialized plant-breeding frogs (subgenus Pandanusicola of the genus Guibemantis), however, current evidence suggests that the new species is a pond breeder (it has always been found calling near large swamps, not in the leaf axils of Pandanus plants as in the case with most other members of this group). Whether this is a retention of an ancestral condition or a reversal will be the subject of upcoming work. Several other unrecognized species are known or suspected based on current data. Look for additional species descriptions in the coming months!

I have a gharial in my office. What is a gharial you ask? Something Dr. Seuss dreamed up? No, actually it is a very distinctive crocodilian only found in a few river basins on the Indian subcontinent. They are highly aquatic, eat primarily fish and can reach over 20 feet in length and weigh over 2,000 pounds.

How do I get any work done with a hungry gharial in my office, you ask? Don’t I spend all day just avoiding it’s snapping jaws instead of grading tests or responding to email? Well, as you can see below, this particular gharial is rather dead.

I honestly have no idea what this huge gharial skull is doing in Wooster, Ohio. It appears to have been here for some years, but where it came from and who collected it has been lost to the mists of time. What I do know is that this is the skull of a male, as the bulbous growth on the tip of the snout is only found in males.  Apparently, male gharials use this structure to amplify “hisses” that come out of the nostrils to attract females. On a still day, the sound of a gharial “hiss” can be heard for up to a kilometer. Unfortunately, gharial hisses are very infrequently heard these days as the species is listed as critically endangered. Fewer than 300 individuals are thought to currently exist and their current distribution is less than 2% of their former geographic range.

So, even if you went to India to try and see this ancient fish-eater, you’d be unlikely to see one. Come by my office instead, really, it won’t bite.