Living in a same microhabitat should means eating the same food? Diet and trophic niche of sympatric leaf-litter frogs Ischnocnema henselii and Adenomera marmorata in a forest of Southern Brazil
In this study we analyzed diet composition, niche breadth and overlap of the two leaf-litter frogs Ischnocnema henselii and Adenomera marmorata. Frogs were collected in an Atlantic Rainforest area in the Reserva Natural Salto Morato, in Paraná State, Southern Brazil, using plots of 16 m2 established on forest floor. Ischnocnema henselii consumed 18 different types of prey and the diet of this species was composed predominantly by Hymenoptera (Formicidae) (15.4%), Araneae (13.83%), Orthoptera (6.15%) and Opiliones (6.15%), whereas Adenomera marmorata consumed 15 different types of prey and its diet was composed mainly by Hymenoptera (Formicidae) (45.7%), Acari (31.8%) and Blattodea (14.8%). The niche breadth of I. henselii was BA = 0.43 and that of A. marmorata was BA = 0.19. The diet of the two sympatric species of leaf-litter frogs was basically composed by arthropods and the trophic niche overlap among them did not differ from expected at random. The differences in prey consumption should potentially facilitate the coexistence of two sympatric frogs on the forest floor. Possibly, this difference of prey consumption partly reflects differences in jaw width, species-specific body size of the two species and the period of activity of these two species.
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Digital revista |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Instituto Internacional de Ecologia
2015
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| Online Access: | http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1519-69842015000100004 |
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