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Acta Biológica Colombiana

Print version ISSN 0120-548X

Acta biol.Colomb. vol.27 no.1 Bogotá Jan./Apr. 2022  Epub Feb 18, 2022

https://doi.org/10.15446/abc.v27n1.90678 

NOTA BREVE

Leptodactylus vastos (LEPTODACTYLIDAE) PREDATION ON AN ENDEMIC FROG, AND A COMPILATION OF ITS DIET

Depredación de Leptodactylus vastus (Leptodactylidae) en una rana endémica y una recopilación de su dieta

Felipe Eduardo Alves COELHO1 

Felipe de Medeiros MAGALHÃES2  3  * 

Aldenir Ferreira da SILVA-NETA2 

Ricardo MARQUES2 

1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Centro de Biociências, Avenida Senador Salgado Filho, S/N, Lagoa Nova, 59078-900, Natal, RN, Brazil

2 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Biológicas (Zoologia), Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Centro de Ciências Exatas e da Natureza, Departamento de Sistemática e Ecologia, Campus I - Cidade Universitaria, S/N, Cidade Universitária, 58051-900 João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brasil.

3 Earth and Environmental Sciences, Ecology and Evolution, Rutgers University-Newark 195 University Ave, Newark, NJ 07102 (current address)


RESUMEN

La composición de la dieta constituye información básica sobre la historia natural de la especie. A pesar de la cantidad de datos adquiridos en los últimos años, aún queda mucho por conocer, especialmente para especies geográficamente extendidas. Aquí compilamos los elementos dietéticos disponibles de Leptodactylus vastus y reportamos el primer evento de depredación de Rupirana cardosoi por un juvenil de L. vastus. El hecho de que estas especies sean sintópicas en la región probablemente resultó en este nuevo evento de depredación. A diferencia de las observaciones previas de depredación de L. vastus, los especímenes que observamos no presentan una diferencia notable en el tamaño corporal, pero L. vastus fue capaz de casi tragar R. cardosoi, en coherencia con los hallazgos de que el tamaño de la boca está relacionado con la selección de presas en los anuros. Además, nuestra revisión de la literatura mostró que L. vastus es un depredador generalista y oportunista, que se alimenta de pequeños vertebrados (Amphibia, Squamata y Mammalia).

Palabras clave: Batracofagia; Caatinga; Chapada Diamantina; Rana Pimienta del Noreste; revisión de literatura

ABSTRACT

Diet composition constitutes basic information on the natural history of the species. Despite the amount of data acquired in the last years, much remains to be known specially for geographically widespread species. Here we compiled the available dietary items of Leptodactylus vastus and report the first predation event upon Rupirana cardosoi by a juvenile L. vastus. The fact these species are syntopic in the region probably resulted in this novel predation event. Different from previous L. vastus predation observations, the specimens we observed do not present a striking difference in body size, but L. vastus was able to almost swallow L. cardosoi, coherent with findings that mouth size is related to prey selection in anurans. Also, our literature review showed that L. vastus is a generalist and opportunistic predator, that prey upon small vertebrates (Amphibia, Squamata, and Mammalia).

Keywords: batrachophagy; Caatinga; Chapada Diamantina; literature review; Northeastern Pepper Frog

Diet composition constitutes basic information of the natural history of the species and is necessary to understand one of the requirements for species occurrence and ecological interactions in prey-networks (Ceron et al., 2019). Despite the importance and amount of data acquired on what species eat, much remains to be known on this subject. For instance, when it comes to species with wide geographic range, information on diet from different localities is needed to assess if species have specialized on distinct items at ecologically different regions according to prey abundance and energetic demand (Davis et al., 2015). Anurans plays an important role in trophic networks, and a relatively well studied group concerning latitudinal global patterns of dietary preferences (Ceron et al., 2019). Nevertheless, for most Neotropical anuran species dietary patterns are reported from single populations and through punctual field note, making it difficult to observe patterns on a large geographical scale.

Leptodactylus vastus Lutz, 1930 is a large terrestrial leptodactylid frog (adult specimens' snout-vent length range from 120-180 mm; de Sá et al., 2014) occurring along open formations from the Cerrado and Caatinga biomes in Brazil and boundaries ofChiquitano forest in Bolivia (Heyer, 2005; Jansen and Schulze, 2012; de Sá et al., 2014). This species mainly feeds on arthropods and small vertebrates (e.g., frogs and bats; Santana et al., 2012; Leite Filho et al., 2014; Caldas et al., 2019). Herein we report for the first time a predation on the endemic leptodactylid Rupirana cardosoi Heyer, 1999 by a juvenile L. vastus in Bahia state, Brazil, and provide a prey items compilation for L. vastus.

On 4 February 2020 at Chapada Diamantina in the municipality of Mucugê (13°00' S, 41°22' W, 991 m.a.s.l.), Bahia state, Brazil, at 19:25 h, we observed a juvenile preying on R. cardosoi adult male at the margins of a narrow sandy bottom river stream. At the time of observation, we found an individual of L. vastus ingesting its prey first from the back, with only the head outside its mouth (Fig. 1a). In addition to the predated R. cardosoi individual, we also observed several males of that species calling exposed over sandbanks along the margins of this same stream. We manually captured the frog L. vastus (AAGARDA 12852, SVL = 44.17 mm) and placed it in a plastic bag for later procedures in laboratory, when it regurgitated an already dead R. cardosoi (AAGARDA 12851, SVL = 28.91 mm). The prey represented 65.5 % of the predator's SVL (Fig. 1b). We sacrificed the L. vastus with lidocaine 5 %, fixed in 10 % formaldehyde and preserved in 70 % ethanol. Animals are housed at Laboratório de Anfíbios e Répteis at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, collected under SISBio permit 19828.

Additionally, we gathered additional data on the prey items of L. vastus in the literature using the combined search terms "Leptodactylus vastus" + "predation", "diet" in the following online sources: Google Scholar (scholar. google.com.br), Scielo (scielo.org), semantic scholar (semanticscholar.org), academic Microsoft (academic. microsoft.com), and Dimensions (app.dimensions.ai). We also included publications that we were aware of and were not detected in these databases, such as publication about frog's community diet.

Our observation is the first record of R. cardosoi, a near threatened species endemic to the Chapada Diamantina (Acuña Juncá and Silvano, 2020), as a prey item of another species. Due to their small size (Mean = 34.4mm, SD = 1.6, Acuña Juncá and Lugli, 2009), R. cardosoi is probably a prey item of other anuran species and vertebrates of the region, as small frogs are susceptible to being preyed upon by any predator (Toledo et al., 2007). The predation event here reported is probably a consequence of both species are syntopic in the terrestrial strata along stream's margins and due to increased exposure during calling activity of R. cardosoi. However, our observation reports for the first time a juvenile L. vastus preying on another frog.

Figure 1 a) Leptodactylus vastus preying on Rupirana cardosoi backwards at stream margin in the municipality of Mucugê, Bahia state, Brazil. b) Preserved individuals of L. vastus (AAGARDA 12852) and R. cardosoi (AAGARDA 12851). 

We found nine papers addressing diet or predation events of L. vastus reported from the Caatinga (N = 4) and "Mata Atlántica" (the Atlantic Forest; N = 5) biomes (Table 1). Some of the available papers report invertebrate consumption (six categories at the levels of Order and Family), representing an important component in the diet of L. vastus. In all available papers there are reports of vertebrates in the diet of L. vastus, mostly on anurans (seven species) followed by bats (six species) and one species of lizard (Table 1). Batrachophagy by L. vastus seems common (Table 1), being anurans the most important prey item of the species during the dry season in one locality (Caldas et al., 2019). Most anuran preys' reports are leptodactylids, followed by two species of hylids preyed around ponds (Table 1). Leptodactylids are terrestrial species more accessible to L. vastus since they are syntopic (i.e. species present in the same habitat), whereas hylids are often found on a higher vegetal strata, but occasionally forage on the ground and might be opportunistically preyed (Haddad et al., 2013). As for bats, reports show that L. vastus actively preyed on bats trapped into mist nets (see Leite Filho et al., 2014) or positioned themselves near a cave entrance and waited for fallen bats that collided with the narrow entrance (see Gouveia et al., 2009). Our survey reinforces L. vastus as a generalist and opportunistic predator (Santana et al., 2012) of small vertebrates and arthropods (Teles et al., 2017; Caldas et al., 2019). Although this species is easily detectable and common throughout its wide distribution, we found only one paper (Caldas et al., 2019) reporting L. vastus diet at the same localities for long time span (e.g. one year). These authors observed changes in the importance of some items between wet and dry seasons at different biomes, reporting that L. vastus can even rely on plant material during the dry season (Table 1).

Table 1 dietary items of Leptodactylus vastus reported in the literature in the biomes Atlantic forest (AF) and Caatinga (CA) in Northeast Brazil. 

Prey item Biome Locality Source mater
ARTHROPODA
Araneae CA Aiuaba ESEC /CE Teles et al. (2017)
Coeloptera CA Aiuaba ESEC/CE; Seridó ESEC/RN Caldas et al. (2019)
Diptera AF Jardim Botânico Benjamim Maranhão/PB Caldas et al. (2019)
Formicidae AF REBIO Guaribas/PB Caldas et al. (2019)
Hymenoptera CA Aiuaba ESEC /CE Teles et al. (2017)
Orthoptera CA Aiuaba ESEC /CE Teles et al. (2017)
AMPHIBIA-ANURA
Undetermined frog CA Seridó ESEC/RN Caldas et al. (2019)
Hylidae
Boana albomarginata AF Capela/SE Santana et al. (2012)
Boana faber AF Refúgio da Vida Silvestre Mata do Junco/SE Santos Neto et al. (2015)
Leptodactylidae
Leptodactylus latrans AF Capela/SE Santana et al. (2012)
Leptodactylus natalensis AF ESEC Tapacurá/PE dos Santos (2009)
Leptodactylus vastus AF Reserva Sapiranga/BA Guimarães et al. (2015)
Physalaemus albifrons CA ESEC Aiuaba/CE Teles et al. (2015)
Physalaemus cuvieri AF ESEC Tapacurá/PE dos Santos (2009)
Rupirana cardosoi CA Mucugê/BA This study
REPTILIA-SQUAMATA
Tropiduridae
Tropidurus sp. (skin) CA ESEC Aiuaba/CE Teles et al. (2017)
MAMMALIA-CHIROPTERA
Mormoopidae
Pteronotus personatus AF Itabaiana/SE Gouveia et al. 2009
Natalidae
Natalus stramineus AF Itabaiana/SE Gouveia et al. 2009
Phyllostomidae
Glossophaga soricine CA Boqueirão da Onça/BA Leite Filho et al. (2014)
Lonchophylla mordax CA Boqueirão da Onça/BA Leite Filho et al. (2014)
Tonatia bidens CA Boqueirão da Onça/BA Leite Filho et al. (2014)
Vespertilionidae
Myotis nigricans CA Boqueirão da Onça/BA Leite-Filho et al. (2014)
Plant material AF REBIO Guaribas/PB Caldas et al. (2019)

2014) or positioned themselves near a cave entrance and waited for fallen bats that collided with the narrow entrance (see Gouveia et al., 2009). Our survey reinforces L. vastus as a generalist and opportunistic predator (Santana et al., 2012) of small vertebrates and arthropods (Teles et al., 2017; Caldas et al., 2019). Although this species is easily detectable and common throughout its wide distribution, we found only one paper (Caldas et al., 2019) reporting L. vastus diet at the same localities for long time span (e.g. one year). These authors observed changes in the importance of some items between wet and dry seasons at different biomes, reporting that L. vastus can even rely on plant material during the dry season (Table 1).

All papers reporting batrachophagy of adult L. vastus (Table 1) showed proportionally larger specimens when compared to their preys (e.g. L. vastus, SVL: 114.6 mm, L. latrans, SVL: 75.2 mm; Santana et al., 2012). Proportional larger body sizes allow predators to easily subdue preys (Toledo et al., 2007). In our observation, specimens do not present a striking difference in body size, but L. vastus was able to almost swallow R. cardosoi. Even though we were not able to measure L. vastus mouth width, this predation event seems to be coherent with previous works highlighting that mouth size is related to selection of prey items in most frogs (Coco et al., 2014). Also, our observation and literature survey reinforce L. vastus as a generalist and opportunistic species.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study was partially funded by the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES - Finance Code 001 FEAC 88887.342842/2019-00). Research grant from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq - process 141572/20191) to ACFN fellowship. We thank Adrian Garda, Frank Burbrink, Marcelo Gehara, and Willianilson Pessoa for logistical support during fieldwork.

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Associate Editor: Martha Ramírez Pinilla

Citation/ citar este artículo como: Coelho, F. E. A., Magalhães, F. M., Silva-Neta, A. F., and Marques, R. (2022). Leptodactylus vastus (LEPTODACTYLIDAE) predation on an endemic frog, and a compilation of its diet. Acta Biológica Colombiana, 27(1), 135-139. https://doi.org/10.15446/abc.v27n1.90678

CONFLICT OF INTEREST The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Received: September 22, 2020; Revised: September 18, 2020; Accepted: December 23, 2020

* For correspondence: felipemm17@gmail.com

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