New dietary records for croaking lizards of the genus Aristelliger (Reptilia: Sphaerodactylidae)

Abstract

Croaking Lizards (Aristelliger) are some of the largest geckos occurring in the New World, but knowledge of their basic biology remains limited. Here we present a dietary account of Aristelliger. Our results augment existing data by providing new dietary records for seven of the nine species of Aristelliger. The first dietary records are reported for three of these species (A. barbouri, A. expectatus, and A. hechti). We report lithophagy, frugivory, seed dispersal, and ontogenetic variation in the diet of Aristelliger and the first instance of molluscivory in the genus. In total, 22 items were added to the dietary records of various species of Aristelliger with nine items being new to the genus.