Diet of Leptodactylus fuscus (Amphibia: Anura: Leptodactylidae) in the Pantanal of Miranda river, Brazil (original) (raw)
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Rev. Esp. Herp, 2004
The foraging strategies of amphibians allow them to capture a wide variety of prey, diet variation being generally associated with morphological, physiological, and behavioral traits that facilitate the location, identification, and digestion of food items. Herein we present the diet composition of L. podicipinus and variations regarding the number and type of prey consumed by juveniles, males and females during the wet and dry seasons, in the southern Pantanal, Brazil. Sampling was conducted at three different times during the dry season, and three different times during the wet season between June 1998 and May 1999. The quantitative analysis showed that the diet of L. podicipinus is composed mainly by Coleoptera (51.0%), Hymenoptera (9.1%), Diptera (8.7%), Aranae (5.3%), and Orthoptera (4.7%). In the wet season, males captured more prey than juveniles and females, but in the dry season there were no differences. Males and females ingested larger prey compared to juveniles. The frog L. podicipinus is an opportunist and generalist predator, and the availability of prey in the environment may be an important factor determining its diet composition in the Pantanal.
Biotemas, 2011
Aspectos da estrutura populacional e alimentar de Leporinus piau Fowler, 1941 (Actinopterygii, Characiformes, Anostomidae) do Açude Taperoá II, na região do semi-árido da Paraíba, Brasil. Objetivouse determinar a estrutura populacional, estabelecer a relação peso-comprimento, a proporção sexual, a relação entre a atividade alimentar e o período reprodutivo, e identificar a dieta e o regime alimentar de Leporinus piau. Foram realizadas seis coletas, nos meses de outubro e dezembro de 2005; março, junho, agosto e outubro de 2006, utilizando-se tarrafas, redes de espera e arrasto. Alguns exemplares foram enviados à Coleção Ictiológica da UFPB. Foram coletados 89 indivíduos de comprimentos que variaram de 6,2cm a 22,0cm. O crescimento foi do tipo alométrico negativo. Houve um predomínio significativo de machos. A dieta alimentar de L. piau se mostrou variada, sugerindo onivoria e oportunismo.
Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad, 2011
The aims of this study were (1) to analyze the diet of Rhinella scitula in different seasons (dry and rainy), and (2) to examine resource partitioning among sexes and body-size categories. Individuals were collected during active searches along a riverbank in the Serra da Bodoquena National Park, Brazil. Formicidae, followed by Coleoptera and Isoptera, had the highest importance index values for males, females, and all individuals combined. Diet composition was similar between males and females. Larger individuals consumed larger prey, although they fed on small prey as well. Similar-sized individuals had high dietary overlap. Smaller individuals had a diet as broad as larger individuals, although composed of different items. Formicidae was the most common prey item for animals collected in both the dry and rainy seasons, but was more important in the rainy season. During the dry season, R. scitula remained closer to the edge of the water bodies and showed the widest dietary niche, represented by similar importance index values.
The aim of this study was to characterize, for the central region of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, the reproductive biology of Leptodactylus fuscus (Schneider, 1799), based on the analysis of gonadal development of males and females, reproductive effort, size-fecundity relationships, and occurrence of sexual dimorphism in body size. Mature individuals were found from . The highest input of juveniles in the population was recorded in March 1997. There was a positive and significant correlation between the number of mature individuals and the mean monthly temperature. The population did not present sexual dimorphism in size. Males presented significant correlation only between snout-vent length and testes length. All females had oocytes at four different maturation stages and there were no significant correlations regarding size-fecundity variables. The correlation between ovarian size factor and females snout-vent length was not significant either. The main difference between this population and those that inhabit tropical climate was that temperature was responsible for stimulating the reproduction activity, instead of rainfall.
Revista Brasileira de Zoologia, 2007
Scinax angrensis is an endemic species, which occurs in low altitude hillside forests, distributed from the municipalities of Mangaratiba to Parati in the south of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The aim of this study was to compare the morphology of Scinax angrensis tadpoles in two different stages of development, and verify their feeding spectrum. The mouth morphology of the two stages studied (27 and 37) appeared similar, with an increase in the size of the oral opening as well as an increase in the dimensions of the body. The examined species presented a trophic spectrum comprised of algae, protozoan, rotifers, microcrustaceans, nematodes, vegetation and invertebrate remains, fungus hyphae, and sand grains. Significant differences were found between dimensions of the two stages, but not between diets, although a differentiated preference with regards to planktonic items has been verified. The results suggest that the partitioning of feeding resources is not only related to morphology and occupation of different microhabitats but also to the feeding behaviour of tadpoles. The relevance of important food items to the natural diet of S. angrensis tadpoles, especially the diatoms and filamentous algae, reveal the importance of the periphytic community to the conservation of this species in the Atlantic Forest.
Cuadernos de Herpetología, 2020
The use of trophic resources by anurans may be influenced by sexual dimorphism, ontogenetic variation and resources available in the environment. However, most studies on anuran feeding behavior lack of environmental prey availability data. In this study, the dietary composition and the feeding strategy of Leptodactylus fuscus were evaluated considering the availability of potential prey in a suburban area of the Colombian Caribbean Region. Additionally, differences in diet composition between adult and juvenile' frogs were assessed. Prey items were obtained through forced regurgitation technique and prey availability was assessed using pitfall traps. The importance of each prey category and prey selectivity were evaluated through a relative importance index and a food selection index, respectively. Twenty-four stomachs were analyzed, being Hymenoptera the most important prey category and the most abundant resource in the environment. The population of L. fuscus showed a low prey selectivity and prey size was associated with frog's body size. However, there was no variation in numeric and volumetric dietary composition related to ontogeny. Considering the relationship between the diet and prey availability, our results evidenced L. fuscus exhibits a generalist and opportunistic feeding behavior, which highlight the importance of including information on prey availability to better understand the anurans dietary behavior.
Journal of Herpetology, 2009
Amphisbaenians are important predators of tropical ecosystems, yet the ecology of most species is poorly known. We studied the reproduction and diet of two species of amphisbaenian from the Brazilian Cerrado. Also, we investigated whether snout-vent length is sexually dimorphic and whether differences existed in the soil depth at which the two species were found. Adults of Leposternon polystegum were larger than adults of Amphisbaena ibijara. Male L. polystegum were larger than females, but A. ibijara did not show sexual dimorphism. Amphsibaena ibijara individuals were encountered significantly closer to the surface than individuals of L. polystegum, although there was some overlap in the soil depth used between species. Termites and larvae Coleoptera predominated in frequency of occurrence and termites in number of prey in juveniles and adults of both sexes in A. ibijara. In the diet of juvenile L. polystegum individuals, there was no dominant prey group. In male L. polystegum, ants and earthworms occurred most frequently, and termites and ants were most important numerically. In females, earthworms and ants dominated in frequency of occurrence and in number of individuals, respectively. The mean number of prey items in stomachs of A. ibijara was high and did not differ either ontogenetically or sexually. In L. polystegum, the mean number of prey items in stomachs was low. We showed that the diet of A. ibijara at Urbano Santos did not differ between sexes or size classes, whereas in L. polystegum there is a small shift in these aspects.
We studied ecological attributes of Leptodactylus natalensis in a coastal lagoon in the state of Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil, based on specimens taken from November 1995 to March 1996. We collected 103 individuals: 24 males, 6 females, and 73 juveniles. Sex ratio was 4:1, biased toward males. We observed sexual size dimorphism, females being much larger than males. Males ranged in snout-vent length (SVL) from 25.0 to 35.7 mm, and females ranged from 34.5 to 38.1 mm. The number of mature oocytes varied from 992 to 1721, and it was positively correlated to SVL. We found four prey item groups in the stomachs of L. natalensis (Insecta, Arachnida, Crustacea, and Amphibia), belonging to seventeen prey categories. Arthropods were the most diverse food item. In terms of frequency, the most common food item was Formicidae, followed by Isoptera, which predominated also in terms of number of prey ingested. Small frogs predominated in terms of wet prey mass. Individuals smaller than 30.0 mm SVL fed mainly on Formicidae, Isoptera, and Coleoptera (adults and larvae), whereas individuals larger than 30.0 mm SVL fed mainly on small anuran species, indicating strong trophic ontogeny in L. natalensis.