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In most anuran species, vocalizations often consist of different notes with various temporal and spectral acoustic attributes which play a crucial role in their survival and reproductive success. Although the first call note might be necessary for anuran communication, we know little about how different notes of the calls influence female choice. The present study used phonotaxis experiments to examine the effects of the notes on female choice in the Anhui tree frog (Rhacophorus zhoukaiyae). The stimulus pair consisted of the original male advertisement call (OC) and one of four revised versions, where the first (WN1), second (WN2), or fifth (WN5) notes were replaced by band-limited white noise (WN), and the second note was replaced by a period of silence (SN2), played back antiphonally. The results showed that (1) the females preferred OC compared with WN1, suggesting the first call note plays an important role in female choice, and (2) the females preferred WN2 and SN2 compared with OC. We discuss the possibility that the second note might be the result of the combined effects of physiological constraint and avoiding backward masking of the second note on the first one over evolutionary time. These results support the notion that the first two functionally antagonistic call notes may influence female choice in this species. Significance statement: Vocalizations consisting of different components are a prerequisite for acoustic communication. However, the effect of different notes in anuran advertisement calls on female choice is still unknown. We adapted different notes of the original male advertisement call of the Anhui tree frog (R. zhoukaiyae) and played them back to females in order to explore the effects of these modifications on female choice. We found that females preferred male advertisement calls that contained the first note, but not the second one. These results support the idea that the first call note may play an important role in female choice, while the second note might have resulted from the combined effects of physiological constraint and avoiding backward masking of the second note on the first one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]