Feeding habits of the frog Pleurodema diplolistris (Anura, Leptodactylidae) in Quaternary sand dunes of the Middle Rio São Francisco, Bahia, Brazil

Abstract

In this work, we investigate the feeding habits of Pleurodema diplolistris, the most abundant anuran species of the São Francisco sand dunes, during a period of slightly over one year. The fieldwork was undertaken during four excursions to a sand dune in the semiarid Caatinga, Brazil, and the analyses were based on stomach contents. Pleurodema diplolistris were not active during the dry season. The important food categories in diet were Isoptera (winged forms), Coleoptera, and Formicidae. Small and large animals had different food consumption patterns: small frogs showed positive electivity for termites and large frogs, for ants. This pattern was strongly influenced by large male food electivity. High levels of termites consumption occurred during the days of greater capture success. The pattern of high consumption of termites detected here is different from that described in another study on lizards from the same locality and sampled in the same periods. We discuss alternative hypotheses that could explain the observed patterns.

Diet of Physalaemus cf. cicada (Leptodactylidae) and Bufo granulosus (Bufonidae) in a semideciduous forest

“…cicada, presented Orthoptera as the food category which was most important volumetrically (Parmelle 1999). Recent work regarding the diets of two leptodactilids, Physalaemus albifrons (Cruz, 2000) and Pleurodema diplolistris (Santos et al, 2003), in the dunes of the São Francisco river (Bahia, Brasil) showed similar results to ours. In both species, Isoptera had the largest numerical frequency and formicidae presented high occurrence frequency.…”

Composición de la dieta de Craugastor lineatus (Anura: Craugastoridae) de Chiapas, México

“…De las 22 categorías de alimento encontradas en C. lineatus, las más importantes fueron las arañas, coleópteros, formícidos, isópodos, ortópteros, quilópodos y la materia vegetal. Los estudios llevados a cabo en anuros postmetamórficos han documentado que los artrópodos son el recurso alimenticio principal de este grupo de vertebrados (Zug & Zug 1979, Toft 1980a, 1980b& 1985, Donelly 1991, Lima & Moreira 1993, Duellman & Trueb 1994, dos Santos et al 2003, Mendoza-Estrada et al 2008. Asimismo, las categorías encontradas son similares a las reportadas en otras ranas que viven en el suelo del bosque tropical como E. johnstonei, E. ockendeni, E. toftae, E. peruvianus, Edalorhina perezi y Leptodactylus andreae (Ovaska 1991, Toft 1981.…”

“…La J identifica a los juveniles, la M a los machos, la H a las hembras, la h a la época húmeda y la s a la época seca, Ojk es el valor del índice de Pianka, G corresponde al valor del estadístico G, g.l. representa los grados de libertad y P la probabilidad estadística a la que fue significativo el valor obtenido de G. Santos et al 2003, Mendoza-Estrada et al 2008. Asimismo, se ha documentado que Xenohyla truncata ingiere frutos intencionalmente (da Silva et al 1989, da Silva & de Britto-Pereira 2006.…”

Helminths of the frog Pleurodema diplolister (Anura, Leiuperidae) from the Caatingain Pernambuco State, Northeast Brazil

“…Pleurodema diplolister is a fossorial and omnivorous frog, and its explosive reproduction shows greater specialization between the anuran communities of the Caatinga (Hödl, 1992;Cardoso and Arzabe, 1993;Santos et al, 2003).…”