Faculty Profiles

Christopher G. Murphy

Professor and Chair

Ph.D., Cornell University

Phone: 812-237-2400

E-mail: Christopher.Murphy@indstate.edu

Office:  Science Building 283A

Research Interests: Animal behavior, sexual selection, acoustic communication, mate choice, mating systems.

I am interested in the evolution of animal behavior, with special interest in the process of sexual selection. My research with treefrogs focuses on mate choice and acoustic communication.

My recent research has focused on understanding mate sampling tactics, i.e., how individuals gather information about potential mates. Observations of female barking treefrogs choosing mates in natural choruses and eight-speaker playback experiments show that females sample 4-8 males simultaneously from a distance, and that females are able to judge both the distance to potential mates and the amplitude of their calls at the source

My students have conducted research on the effect of energy on call rate, the effect of speaker arrangement on mate choice in playback experiments, alternation of calling by males, the timing of oviposition by females, the effect of call intensity on male spacing in choruses, the mechanisms by which larger males achieve greater mating success than smaller males, and how females use multiple male traits to choose mates.use multiple male traits to choose mates

Selected Publications

Reprints for some publlications are available as PDF files. By accessing the PDF file, the user agrees to abide by all copyright laws and education fair-use regulations

Murphy, C.G. 2012.  Simultaneous mate-sampling by female barking treefrogs (Hyla gratiosa). Behavioral Ecology.  Advanced Access. doi:10.1093/beheco/ars093.

Murphy, C. G. 2008. Assessment of distance to potential mates by female barking treefrogs, Hyla gratiosa. Journal of Comparative Psychology 122: 264-73

Burke, E. M.** and C. G. Murphy. 2007. How female barking treefrogs (Hyla gratiosa) use multiple call characteristics to select a mate. Animal Behaviour 74: 1463-1472

Gerhardt, H. C.., Martínez-Rivera1, C. C., Schwartz, J. J., Marshall, V. T. and C. G. Murphy. 2007. Preferences based on spectral differences in acoustic signals in four species of treefrogs (Anura: Hylidae) Journal of Experimental Biology 210: 2990-2998

Poole, K.G.** and C. G. Murphy. 2007. Preferences of female barking treefrogs, Hyla gratiosa, for larger males: univariate and composite tests. Animal Behaviour 73: 513-524.

Murphy, C. G. and S. B. Floyd.* 2005. The effect of call amplitude on male spacing in choruses of barking treefrogs (Hyla gratiosa). Animal Behaviour 69: 419–426.

Scarlatta, J. K* and C. G. Murphy. 2003. Timing of oviposition by female barking treefrogs (Hyla gratiosa). Journal of Herpetology. 3: 580–582

Murphy, C. G. 2003. The cause of correlations between nightly numbers of male and female barking treefrogs (Hyla gratiosa) attending choruses. Behavioral Ecology 14: 274-281.