Feeding ecology of endemic frogs of the Atlantic Forest in southern Brazil

Abstract

Abstract Our objective was to describe and compare the diet of endemic anurans of the Atlantic Forest, as well as to evaluate the influence of biotic factors on the trophic ecology of the species. We conducted the study in Mananciais da Serra (Piraquara-PR), a transition region between mixed and dense ombrophilous forest, between January 2019 and February 2020. In this work, we describe the diet of eight species: Aplastodiscus albosignatus, Boana semiguttata, Bokermannohyla circumdata, Ischnocnema henselii, Leptodactylus notoaktites, Proceratophrys boiei, Rhinella abei and Scythrophrys sawayae. Coleoptera were important prey in the diet of most species, except for B. circumdata and L. notoaktites. All species showed potential selection for some category of prey. We observed a correlation between the size of the individuals and the volume of consumed prey in I. henselii. In general, the niche overlap between species was low, and most species had a broad trophic niche.

Keywords

• Trophic niche
• diet
• prey selection
• niche breadth