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25 August 2023 Uncommon Diet of the Toad Rhinella marina (Anura: Bufonidae) in a Rural Zone of the Amazon Forest in Brazil
Bruno Sampaio Sant'Anna, Rougles Pereira Braga
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Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the diet of Rhinella marina by comparing the availability of food in its environment with its actual diet, and verify whether there is a relationship between the size and volume of its prey and the size of the toad and the width of its mouth. A total of 43 toads (95.55%) presented food items in the stomach. In general, R. marina feeds on the most abundant items in the environment with a niche amplitude of B=0.055. Hymenoptera was the most representative prey numerically. On the other hand, Diplopoda was the most representative prey in volume and frequency. Considering the food importance index (Ix), Diplopoda (Ix=0.47) was the most important part of the diet of R. marina. The relationships between the biometric characteristics of R. marina and its prey are significant with a low coefficient of determination. This result demonstrates that larger individuals predate smaller and lower volume prey, such as ants, and on large prey such as Diplopoda. In general, the diet of R. marina is specialized and is composed of arthropods that occur in greater abundance in nature, but mainly of Diplopoda and Hymenoptera, without selectivity regarding the size of the prey.

Bruno Sampaio Sant'Anna and Rougles Pereira Braga "Uncommon Diet of the Toad Rhinella marina (Anura: Bufonidae) in a Rural Zone of the Amazon Forest in Brazil," Current Herpetology 42(2), 136-143, (25 August 2023). https://doi.org/10.5358/hsj.42.136
Accepted: 14 April 2023; Published: 25 August 2023
KEYWORDS
AMAZON
Bufonidae
diet
Diplopoda
trophic ecology
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