Abstract:
To date, there has been no published investigation on the trophic diversity in any tepui summit vertebrate. In this paper, we analyzed the dietary composition of a tepui summit endemic toad, Oreophrynella quelchii from Roraima-tepui, and compared it with that of O. nigra from Kukenán-tepui, to examine to what extent diet differs between these two sister species across isolated, although neighboring, tepui tops. The digestive tracts of a total of 197 toads were dissected: 111 from O. quelchii and 86 from O. nigra. The diet composition of O. quelchii was relatively diverse, with 13 major prey categories; mites (Acari, 36.5%) and beetles (Coleoptera, 21.0%) numerically dominated its diet. Despite occurring on two different tepui summits, O. quelchii and O. nigra exhibited a similar diet composition, although in O. nigra mites (Acari, 42.4%) and hymenopterans (especially ants, 16.9%) numerically dominated the diet. The present data suggest that tepui summit Oreophrynella species are flexible in their diet and are active foragers that also feed on aquatic arthropods, successful strategies in tepui competitive environments.
摘要:
迄今为止,目前还没有关于任何tepui峰顶脊椎动物的营养多样性的公开调查。在本文中,我们分析了tepui峰顶特有蟾蜍的饮食组成,来自Roraima-tepui的Oreophrynellaquelchii,并将其与Kukenán-tepui的O.nigra进行了比较,为了检查这两个孤立的姐妹物种之间的饮食差异,虽然邻居,tepui顶部。解剖了总共197只蟾蜍的消化道:111只来自O.quelchii,86只来自O.nigra。欧克尔奇的饮食组成相对不同,有13种主要猎物类别;螨虫(Acari,36.5%)和甲虫(鞘翅目,21.0%)在其饮食中占主导地位。尽管发生在两个不同的tepui峰会上,O.quelchii和O.nigra表现出相似的饮食组成,虽然在黑螨(阿卡里,42.4%)和膜翅目(尤其是蚂蚁,16.9%)数字主导饮食。目前的数据表明,tepui峰顶Oreophrynella物种的饮食灵活,并且是活跃的觅食者,也以水生节肢动物为食,tepui竞争环境中的成功策略。