We provide detailed descriptions of the poorly known advertisement calls of Eleutherodactylus abbotti, E. flavescens and E. inoptatus, three rain frogs endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. We compare these three advertisement calls to those of closely related and/or geographically proximate Eleutherodactylus species. The call of E. abbotti lasts 0.5–6 s and consists of four notes that differ in amplitude and duration, with a mean dominant frequency of 4527 Hz. In turn, the call of E. flavescens, endemic to the Dominican Republic, lasts 0.02–0.09 s and consists of two different notes with dominant frequencies of 2288 and 3025 Hz. In contrast, the call of E. inoptatus lasts 0.25–0.39 s and is composed of a single multi-pulsed note with two harmonics, the first one with a dominant frequency of 660 Hz and the second one with a dominant frequency of 1220 Hz. These congeneric species occur sympatrically over large areas below 1000 m elevation and are commonly encountered together, which suggests that, in addition to interspecific variation (e.g. body size), the remarkable differences in their calls (e.g. dominant frequency) may be due to partitioning of the acoustic environment.
Bioacoustics, Hispaniola, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Eleutherodactylus abbotti, E. flavescens, E. inoptatus, rain frogs, vocalizations