Data from: Camouflage, conspicuousness, and inducible color change in a polymorphic, sexually dichromatic frog

Sexual dichromatism is relatively rare in anuran amphibians (frogs and toads) but is striking and prevalent in the African reed frogs (Hyperoliidae). In sexually dichromatic hyperoliids, males and females exhibit shared coloration post-metamorphosis, but at the onset of maturity, females undergo a change in color and/or color pattern, whereas males typically retain the juvenile coloration. Hypothesized functions of dichromatism in reed frogs include sexual niche partitioning such that males and females use different habitats and their different colorations provide more effective camouflage in their respective habitats, or alternatively, that color patterns play a role in sex and/or mate recognition in dense breeding choruses. To test these hypotheses, we characterized several aspects of natural history, ecology, and physiology in a population of the sexually dichromatic forest reed frog (Hyperolius tuberculatus) on Bioko Island, Equatorial Guinea. This dataset includes 1) dorsal reflectance measurements for male and female H. tuberculatus and reflectance measurements of the substrates the frogs were found on, 2) microspectrophotometry measurements of H. tuberculatus photoreceptors, and 3) code and custom visual models used to conduct visual modeling analyses using the R package pavo (Maia et al. 2019). # Data from: Camouflage, conspicuousness, and inducible color change in a polymorphic, sexually dichromatic frog Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.hdr7sqvwn](10.5061/dryad.hdr7sqvwn) ## Description of the data and file structure Microspectrophotometry of reed frog (*Hyperolius tuberculatus*) photoreceptors, reflectance measurements of reed frogs and the substrates they occur on, and code to conduct visual modeling analyses using the package *pavo* in R.  ### Files and variables #### File: ReedfrogMSP.zip **Description:** Microspectrophotometry measurements of rod and cone photoreceptors for one male and one female *Hyperolius tuberculatus*. For detailed methods refer to corresponding publication. Data presented here include 1) a summary of the characteristics of each cell scanned in each individual, and 2) raw and processed data from each scan. **1. Htuberculatus_msp.csv** This file contains summary data from each rod and cone scanned in each specimen of *H. tuberculatus* . Each row represents data from a single scan of a single rod or cone. Columns are as follows: * Specimen: Specimen number of archived specimen at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates * Stage (Sex): Life-history stage (here, all adult) and sex of the specimen for each scan. * Prep: Preparation of the retina used for MSP scans - here, all scans were taken from the first prep of each specimen’s eye and further preparations were not made. * Specimen: Tally of frog individual specimens examined for each species, stage, and sex. Here, only 1 individual male and 1 individual female were examined. * Class: Region of the visual spectrum where the scanned visual pigment peaks. G = green, Y = yellow, B = blue * Cell type: Type of photoreceptor cell scanned, identified under the microscope by morphology of the cell. C = cone, R = rod. * Data_file: File name of the raw data file associated with each scan. * Left: Weighting on left side of spectral sensitivity curve in MSPA program * Right: Weighting on right side of spectral sensitivity curve in MSPA program * Baseline: Wavelength where relative optical density is set to 0. * Normalize: Wavelength where relative optical density is set to 1 (maximum within spectral sensitivity curve) * GA1_lambda: The lambda max when the curve was fitted to an A1 chromophore visual pigment based on Govardovskii et al. (2000) template * GA1_fit: Goodness of fit of the data to the A1 template (0-1) * GA2_lambda: The lambda max when the curve was fitted to an A2 chromophore visual pigment based on Govardovskii et al. (2000) template * GA2_fit: Goodness of fit of the data to the A2 template (0-1) * Best_Fit: denotes whether an A1 or an A2 chromophore showed the best fit with the spectral sensitivity template * Comments: notes two scans of photoreceptors that were then bleached and re-scanned with bleach scans available in the raw data (bleached photoreceptors are not included in the MSP summary data). **2. *H tuberculatus* raw MSP scan data and MSPA program outputs** This folder contains raw MSP scan data and MSPA program outputs (files ending in -A) for two specimens of *Hyperolius tuberculatus*, which are summarized in the file ‘Htuberculatus_msp.csv’ Each specimen is separated into a separate folder  labeled with “Field number_genus_species_sex”. Within each specimen folder, raw scans are organized into folders according to the type of photoreceptor scanned. These include: green cones, yellow cones, green rods, red rods. Each scanned photoreceptor produces two files with identical names and different extensions - a JPG file showing a plot of the raw scan data, mean (black line) and template fits (colored lines), and an XLS file showing raw data for the scan. These XLS files can be opened in excel or in a text editor.  In each raw data file, the first row is blank. The second row has headers and the third row input for identifying the specimen and cell the scan belongs to. These include: species, common name, age (AD = adult, TAD = tadpole, SUB = subadult), Prep# (retinal preparation number from the specimen), Specimen# (specimen number from the species, here generally 1), Class (area of the spectrum with peak sensitivity; B = blue, G = green, Y = yellow, R = red), Cell Type (R = rod, C = cone). The fourth row contains headers for the data, and all following rows contain data. Wavelength is in nanometers. Baseline and signal are used to normalize the scan. Absorbance gives raw absorbance values. NormalizeABS gives normalized absorbance. Curve fit shows smoothed normalized absorbance data. The MSPA output files (those ending with -A) include a .JPG depicting the fitted curves and a .XLS with the fitted curve values for the A1 and A2 chromophore visual pigment based on Govardovskii et al. (2000) template #### File: Reflectance.zip **Description:** Reflectance measurements of *Hyperolius* *tuberculatus* frogs and the foliage substrates they were found on. Data are organized by experimental setting. WildFrogs are measurements taken at the field site. LabFrogs are measurements taken for the hormone exposure experiment in the laboratory. The first column is the wavelength and the second column is the reflectance. Files are named "fieldnumber.subject.sex.color.replicate" such that RCB305.frog.F.O.A.txt corresponds to the reflectance of field sample RCB305, frog, female, orange, replicate A. R code to analyze reflectance data as implemented in *pavo*. #### File: VisualModeling.zip **Description:** R code and custom visual models (Bird_rod, Dog_rod, Frog_rod_template, Snake_cone) as implemented in pavo. Frogs+Plants are the representative frog and foliage measurements used in the visual modeling analyses. For custom visual models, wl refers to wavelength and the subsequent column(s) are the templates fitted to the peak absorption (λmax) for the corresponding photoreceptor.