What Do Co-Mimics eat? Trophic Ecology of Ameerega pulchripecta (Anura, Dendrobatidae) and Allobates femoralis (Anura, Aromobatidae) in Eastern Brazilian Amazonia

Abstract. Differentiation in resource use by sympatric species reduces competition and allows coexistence. Constraints imposed both by evolutionary history and current ecological interactions strongly influence the coexistence of distinct anuran species. In this context, we analyzed the dietary habits of two sympatric frogs in a Batesian mimicry system, Ameerega pulchripecta and Allobates femoralis, to assess potential resource overlap and competition between them. We explored the hypothesis that differences in feeding behavior and prey choice reflect these species' status as co-mimics in a Batesian system because toxicity in anurans is strongly related to diet. We obtained stomach contents by applying the stomach-flushing technique and data on prey availability through pitfall traps arranged along both sides of the trail where the sympatric species occur. We found that the toxic A. pulchripecta actively selects ants and mites as prey, while the nontoxic A. femoralis feeds opportunistically on beetles, ants, and other sedentary prey such as larval insects and adult spiders. Based on dissimilarity, diversity, electivity, and evenness analysis we concluded that the two frog species exhibited a significant difference in prey composition. We suggest that these differences found in the feeding habits are important to the syntopic coexistence of these two frog species in our study area.

• Publication year

  2023

• Venue

  Journal of Herpetology

• Publication date

  2023-12-19

• Fields of study

  Not labeled

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1670/22-074
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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