Variation in the diet of the lizard Tropidurus torquatus along its coastal range in Brazil

Abstract

The diet composition of lizards of a given species may vary among different populations. The feeding ecology of the tropidurid lizard Tropidurus torquatus was studied in 10 coastal areas in Brazil in order to detect to what extent the diet varies along its geographic range. A non-metric multidimensional scaling technique revealed three groups of localities according to the diet composition: one characterized by a relatively high consumption of Isoptera, one characterized by a relatively high proportion of plant matter, and one in which there was a great importance of Formicidae. We found a weak pattern of latitudinal differences in restingas regarding the general consumption of items by T. torquatus, probably because this is a generalist and opportunistic lizard, which consumes most of the available types of potential food items in the habitat. However, lizards from northern populations consumed a larger quantity of smaller items (e.g., Isoptera) than those from southern populations. In the southern populations, on the other hand, larger items such as Coleoptera, Lepidoptera larvae and fruits were more frequently consumed. It is likely that the observed interpopulational variation in some aspects of the feeding ecology of coastal T. torquatus is mainly given by food availability. Resumo: A composição da dieta de lagartos de uma determinada espécie pode variar entre diferentes populações. A ecologia alimentar do lagarto tropidurídeo Tropidurus torquatus foi estudada em 10 áreas da costa do Brasil a fim de detectar em que extensão a dieta varia ao longo de sua distribuição geográfica. Uma técnica de escalonamento multidimensional não-métrico revelou três grupos de localidades de acordo com a composição da dieta: um caracterizado por um relativamente alto consumo de Isoptera, um caracterizado pela relativamente alta proporção de material vegetal, e um em que houve uma grande importância de Formicidae. Nós encontramos um fraco padrão de diferença latitudinal nas restingas em relação ao consumo geral de itens por T. torquatus, provavelmente porque este é um lagarto generalista e oportunista, que consome a maioria dos tipos disponíveis de potenciais itens alimentares no habitat. No entanto, os lagartos das populações mais ao norte consumiram uma maior quantidade de menores itens (e.g., Isoptera) do que aqueles das populações mais ao sul. Nas populações mais ao sul, por outro lado, items maiores como Coleoptera, Lepdoptera, larvas e frutos foram mais frequentemente consumidos. É provável que a variação interpopulacional observada em alguns aspectos da ecologia alimentar de T. torquatus costeiros seja ocasionada principalmente pela disponibilidade de alimento. Palavras-chave: variação geográfica, ecologia alimentar, restinga, lagarto tropical, Tropiduridae.94 Siqueira, C.C. et al.

Immunohistochemical study of the six types of endocrine cells in the enteropancreatic system of the lizard Tropidurus torquatus (Squamata: Tropiduridae)

“…Reptiles have accumulated a vast diversity of morphological, behavioral, ecological, lifehistory and defensive strategies to cope with the selective demands they have encountered due to exposure to hundreds of millions of years of radiation (Pianka & Vitt 2003;Pough et al 2004;Fry et al 2006). Apparently, reptiles are a useful future model -even more useful than other commonly used experimental animals such as rats, rabbits and pigs -for studies focusing on the physiological regulation of the digestive process, because of their good responses to feeding (Secor & Diamond 1998); therefore, they have become an important study object in different fields.…”

“…Tropidurus torquatus (Wied-Neuwied 1820) is a species of general habits, and opportunistic foraging of the "sit-and-wait" type, and it may change its habits depending on the environment. Although its diet is little restricted, studies show its eating preference for arthropods and, mostly, for vegetal contents (Teixeira & Giovanelli 1999;Siqueira et al 2013;Vitt & Caldwell 2014).…”

A Staging Table of Post‐Ovipositional Development for the South American Collared Lizard Tropidurus torquatus (Squamata: Tropiduridae)

“…This species is a well‐known model in ecological studies, with many aspects explored such as: diet (Rocha and Bergallo, ; Fialho et al, ; Siqueira et al, ), demography (Wiederhecker et al, ), thermal biology (Bergallo and Rocha, ; Kiefer et al, ), locomotor performance (Kohlsdorf and Navas, ) and reproduction (Vieira et al, ; Wiederhecker et al, ; Ortiz et al, ). However, there is no literature regarding its embryological development.…”

A summary of reptile and anuran amphibian species from Brazilian sandy coastal plains: 31 years of sampling efforts of the “Laboratório de Ecologia de Vertebrados, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro”

“…Autoecological studies were also done on one of the commonest and widest-ranging species in the coastal sandy plains, the tropidurid Tropidurus torquatus, with studies addressing diet (Bergallo and Rocha, 1994;Fialho et al, 2000), thermal ecology and activity patterns (Bergallo and Rocha, 1993;Teixeira-Filho et al, 1996;Hatano et al, 2001), reproduction (Van Sluys et al, 2010), and parasitism by chigger mites (Cunha-Barros and Cunha-Barros et al, 2003) and by helminths (Ribas et al, 1998;Vrcibradic et al, 2000). We also studied the ecological aspects of that species in a geographical context assessing how their populations may vary along its distributional range in the different restinga habitats regarding diet composition and degree of plant consumption (Dutra et al, 2011;Siqueira et al, 2011Siqueira et al, , 2013, thermal ecology (Kiefer et al, 2005(Kiefer et al, , 2007, and reproductive traits (Kiefer et al, 2008).…”