Diet and Reproductive States in a High Altitude Neotropical Lizard Species,Liolaemus ramirezae(Iguania: Liolaemidae)

Microhabitat use, daily activity pattern, and diet of Liolaemus etheridgei Laurent, 1998 (Reptilia: Liolaemidae) in the Andean Polylepis forests of Arequipa, Peru

“…The IRI is used mainly in fishery studies but is also recommended in other taxa, such as reptiles (Hart et al, 2002 ). We used the hierarchized %IRI values according to the categories proposed by Montori ( 1991 ), which have been used in diet studies in other Liolaemus species (see Semhan & Halloy, 2016 ). Thus, prey categories were ordered under the following dietary hierarchy: fundamental ( F : %IRI > 75%), secondary (S: 75% > %IRI > 50%), accessory (A: 50% > %IRI > 25%), and accidental (a: 25% > %IRI).…”

“…Thus, prey categories were ordered under the following dietary hierarchy: fundamental ( F : %IRI > 75%), secondary (S: 75% > %IRI > 50%), accessory (A: 50% > %IRI > 25%), and accidental (a: 25% > %IRI). This hierarchy was originally proposed for values of the “Lambda segunda” dominance index (Montori, 1991); however, it has regularly been used with other indexes in dietary studies of Liolaemus species (see Cabrera & Scrocchi Manfrini, 2020; Olivera Jara & Aguilar, 2020; Semhan & Halloy, 2016). Trophic niche amplitude was estimated using the standardized Levin's index: $$$ {B}_a=\left(1/\left(\sum \limits_{i=1}^n{p}_i^2\right)-1\right)/\left(n-1\right) $$$, where $$$ {p}_i $$$ is the proportion of prey category i , and $$$ n $$$ is the total number of prey categories (Krebs, 1999).…”