Diet Of Five Common Anurans Found In Disturbed Areas In Northern Peninsular Malaysia
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Date
2015-02
Authors
CHEE HUI, YAP
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Abstract
Analyses of stomach contents of five species of commonly found disturbed area frogs, namely Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Schneider, 1799), Polypedates leucomystax (Gravenhorst, 1829), Microhyla heymonsi (Vogt, 1911), Microhyla butleri (Boulenger, 1900) and Microhyla fissipes (Boulenger, 1884), were carried out from October 2012 until March 2013. A total of 387 specimens were collected from twelve disturbed areas in northern Peninsular Malaysia, consisting of 120 individuals of D. melanostictus, 86 M. butleri, 77 M. fissipes, 53 M. heymonsi and 51 P. leucomystax. A total of 42 prey groups were identified (at least to family level), with 14 of the prey groups also found in the environment using glue traps. Platygasteridae, Formicidae and Araneae were present in the diets of all five anuran species. The dominant prey items for D. melanostictus were ants (F=30.91) and ground beetles (F=13.18), for the three microhylids were ants (F>50), and for P. leucomystax were moths (F=18.52) and leaf beetles (F=14.81). Formicidae was the major prey of five anurans, because of its abundance in the environment (43.20%). Diet analysis shows that P. leucomystax was most probably a generalist and D. melanostictus was a generalist with preference for ants. Meanwhile, M. butleri, M. fissipes, and M. heymonsi were ant-specialists. This study also shows that prey size of D. melanostictus
was positively correlated with mouth width (PVmax<0.0001, PVmin=0.0017). For the microhylids, mouth width had no effect on prey size (P>0.5). In terms of prey diversity, only D. melanostictus and P. leucomystax showed high prey diversity, but for dietary niche breadth, all species showed low values, except for P. leucomystax. The least niche overlap was shown between the microhylids and P. leucomystax. This study contributes some understanding to the evolution of myrmecophagy in amphibians as a whole.
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Diet Of Five Common Anurans Found In Disturbed Areas , In Northern Peninsular Malaysia