Structure of a Caatinga anuran assemblage in Northeastern Brazil

Abstract

Based on data on diet and microhabitat use, we investigated the importance of current (ecological) and historical factors (phylogenetic) in the organization of an anuran assemblage in temporary ponds in a Caatinga area in Northeastern Brazil. The objective of this study was to verify how diet and microhabitat use influence the community structure, and their determinants. Niche breadth based on microhabitat use was relatively low for all species; thus, we also observed a spatial segregation between Hylidae and other families. The closely related species exhibit a more similar diet; the main prey categories used by Caatinga anurans were Coleoptera, insect larvae and Formicidae. The pseudo-community analysis based on diet and microhabitat use revealed that the observed niche overlap did not differ statistically from random, indicating a lack of detectable competition for these resources. The Canonical Phylogenetic Ordination (CPO) analyses revealed no significant phylogenetic effect on the assemblage, neither for diet nor for microhabitat use. Results suggest that predation and hydroperiod may be the most important factors in determining assemblage patterns, but more studies are needed to support this hypothesis.

Trade-Offs between Ecomorphology and Autoecology Enable the Coexistence of Tree Frogs (Hylidae: Boana spp.) during the Dry Season in an Atlantic Forest Area of Northeastern Brazil

“…All taxa were observed from vertical strata to ground level. Normally, hylids have a generalist behavior in Brazilian biomes, using different microhabitat types (Pombal Jr., 1997; Vieira et al, 2007; Maffei et al, 2011; Leite-Filho et al, 2015). This pattern would be suitable mainly for B. albomarignata and B. pombali, which have moderate niche breadths and frequently use at least half of the available microhabitats.…”

Diet and morphological aspects of a population of Pseudopaludicola pocoto (Anura: Leptodactylidae) from Northeast Brazil

“…Os leptodactilídeos possuem uma ampla diversidade quanto às categorias de presas ingeridas (Leite-Filho et al, 2015). Em um estudo com uma taxocenose de anfíbios da .…”

“…A categoria Coleoptera é considerada o mais importante item alimentar para as espécies de leptodactylídeos neotropicais (Maneyro et al, 2004;Oliveira et al, 2015;Moser et al, 2017). Apesar da diversidade de presas presente na dieta de P. pocoto, podemos observar um elevado consumo de Coleoptera, corroborando resultados de outras investigações em dietas de assembleias de anuros na região Neotropical (Leite-Filho et al, 2015. A dieta de espécies do gênero Pseudopaludicola tem sido estudada em alguns países da América do Sul: no Brasil, as categorias de Hemiptera e Diptera foram as mais importantes em número e volume para a espécie P. canga em áreas da Amazônia, Brasil (Van Sluys e Rocha, 1998;Giaretta e Kokubum, 2003).…”

Feeding habits of Dermatonotus muelleri (Anura, Microhylidae) from a semiarid region in Pernambuco state, Northeastern Brazil

“…Previous research on Dermatonotus muelleri diet indicates a specialization in ants and termites (Vaz-Silva et al, 2003;Leite-Filho et al, 2015;Menin et al, 2015;Caldas et al, 2019). Considering that Dermatonotus muelleri presents explosive reproductive behavior (Nomura, 2003), and once the termites are also most abundant in the wet season (Pinheiro et al, 2002), the great number of Isoptera in its stomach content may be attributed to the high abundance of this prey in the environment during this season.…”

“…Among the Microhylidae species, Dermatonotus muelleri (Boettger, 1885) is a widely distributed semi fossorial frog considered a forelimbs-head-first burrower (Nomura et al, 2009). In Brazil, this species' feeding habits were recorded for the Central-Western (Vaz-Silva et al, 2003), Southeastern (Menin et al, 2015), and Northeastern Regions (Leite-Filho et al, 2015;Caldas et al, 2019), but data from the semi-arid was still missing. Here, we present the feeding habits of D. muelleri from a semiarid region in Pernambuco state, Northeastern Brazil and discussed the classification of a "specialized diet" for this species.…”