Pub Date : 2022-12-21DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e95257
Seyyed Saeed Hosseinian Yousefkhani, Hossein Nabizadeh, L. Lee Grismer
Ecological pressure is the major driver of morphological adaptation. Different habitat preferences even among closely related species, often result in the evolution of different body shapes. In the present study, we employed geometric morphometric and principal component analyses (PCA) to compare body shape and head plate morphology among seven species in the genus Darevskia Arribas, 1999 from the Elburz Mountains, Iran that occur in either rocky or forested habitats. The geometric morphometric analysis and the PCA of meristic characters recovered a wide degree of overlap between the rock and forest dwelling species. The PCA of the morphometric characters showed wide separation among the rock and forest dwelling species as well as among some of the rock dwelling species. These results strongly suggest that body shape is correlated with the habitat type whereas head plate morphology and scale meristics are not. Furthermore, the results suggest that the rock dwelling species may be occupying and navigating their microhabitat in different ways. Ecological observations are needed to test this hypothesis.
{"title":"Ecomorphological differences among forest and rock dwelling species of Darevskia Arribas, 1999 (Squamata, Lacertide) in the Elburz Mountains, Iran","authors":"Seyyed Saeed Hosseinian Yousefkhani, Hossein Nabizadeh, L. Lee Grismer","doi":"10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e95257","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e95257","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Ecological pressure is the major driver of morphological adaptation. Different habitat preferences even among closely related species, often result in the evolution of different body shapes. In the present study, we employed geometric morphometric and principal component analyses (PCA) to compare body shape and head plate morphology among seven species in the genus Darevskia Arribas, 1999 from the Elburz Mountains, Iran that occur in either rocky or forested habitats. The geometric morphometric analysis and the PCA of meristic characters recovered a wide degree of overlap between the rock and forest dwelling species. The PCA of the morphometric characters showed wide separation among the rock and forest dwelling species as well as among some of the rock dwelling species. These results strongly suggest that body shape is correlated with the habitat type whereas head plate morphology and scale meristics are not. Furthermore, the results suggest that the rock dwelling species may be occupying and navigating their microhabitat in different ways. Ecological observations are needed to test this hypothesis.","PeriodicalId":49314,"journal":{"name":"Herpetozoa","volume":"3 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-12-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138503236","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Urban habitats receive an increasing number of species due to anthropogenic activities, mainly transportations. Here, we report a new addition to the herpetofauna of Athens (Greece): a small population of the Pelasgian wall lizard (Anatololacerta pelasgiana) was found in a suburb of the Athenian metropolitan area. The species normally occurs in southwestern Anatolia and southeastern Aegean islands and this is the first record in the Greek mainland. Allochthonous species that successfully colonize cities raise new challenges to urban ecology.
{"title":"First record of Anatololacerta pelasgiana (Mertens, 1959) in mainland Greece: another new species in Athens","authors":"Apostolos Christopoulos, Charikleia-Foteini Pantagaki, Nikos Poulakakis, Panayiotis Pafilis","doi":"10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e97649","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e97649","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Urban habitats receive an increasing number of species due to anthropogenic activities, mainly transportations. Here, we report a new addition to the herpetofauna of Athens (Greece): a small population of the Pelasgian wall lizard (Anatololacerta pelasgiana) was found in a suburb of the Athenian metropolitan area. The species normally occurs in southwestern Anatolia and southeastern Aegean islands and this is the first record in the Greek mainland. Allochthonous species that successfully colonize cities raise new challenges to urban ecology.","PeriodicalId":49314,"journal":{"name":"Herpetozoa","volume":"3 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-12-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138503235","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-22DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e94745
Yin-Peng Zhang, Xiao-Long Liu, Bryan L. Stuart, Dong-Yi Wu, Yu-Fan Wang, Jing Che, Zhi-Yong Yuan
Amolops putaoensis is a recently described torrent frog species from A. monticola group that is known only from its type locality, northern Myanmar. We compared morphology and mitochondrial DNA sequence data from ten recently collected adult male specimens from the upper Dulong River System in Gongshan County, Yunnan Province, China, to the original description of A. putaoensis. Both datasets strongly supported referring the Chinese specimens to A. putaoensis, extending the known range of this species by approximately 133.7 km distance into China. Molecular phylogenetic analyses recovered A. putaoensis to be closely related to A. aniqiaoensis, A. kohimaensis, A. monticola, and A. adicola. We use the newly collected Chinese specimens to expand the morphological description of the species.
{"title":"Amolops putaoensis Gan, Qin, Lwin, Li, Quan, Liu & Yu, 2020, a newly recorded torrent frog for China","authors":"Yin-Peng Zhang, Xiao-Long Liu, Bryan L. Stuart, Dong-Yi Wu, Yu-Fan Wang, Jing Che, Zhi-Yong Yuan","doi":"10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e94745","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e94745","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Amolops putaoensis is a recently described torrent frog species from A. monticola group that is known only from its type locality, northern Myanmar. We compared morphology and mitochondrial DNA sequence data from ten recently collected adult male specimens from the upper Dulong River System in Gongshan County, Yunnan Province, China, to the original description of A. putaoensis. Both datasets strongly supported referring the Chinese specimens to A. putaoensis, extending the known range of this species by approximately 133.7 km distance into China. Molecular phylogenetic analyses recovered A. putaoensis to be closely related to A. aniqiaoensis, A. kohimaensis, A. monticola, and A. adicola. We use the newly collected Chinese specimens to expand the morphological description of the species.","PeriodicalId":49314,"journal":{"name":"Herpetozoa","volume":"3 6","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-11-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138503234","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-17DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e91579
Ryobu Fukuyama, Akihiro Itoigawa, Akira Mori
When several male snakes dispute over one female in the breeding season, two major male-male rivalries are known to occur: male-male combat and multimale breeding aggregation. The roles of male body size and the degree of sexual size dimorphism are different between these rivalries. We report field observations of mating behaviour including a multimale breeding aggregation of pseudoxyrhophiins, Dromicodryas bernieri and D. quadrilineatus, in northwestern Madagascar, which have a local name, “Maro longo”, meaning “many friends”. To examine the relationships between sexual size dimorphism and mating strategies of males, we also analysed the body size of the two species of Dromicodryas and two other pseudoxyrhophiins, Leioheterodon madagascariensis and L. modestus, which are known to exhibit the male-male combat. Our data obtained during a long-term field study showed that D. bernieri and D. quadrilineatus have female-biased sexual size dimorphism, whereas L. madagascariensis and L. modestus have male-biased sexual size dimorphism. This result conforms to the general tendency of the relationship between body size and male-male rivalry in snakes.
{"title":"Multimale breeding aggregations by “many-friends” snakes: courtship behaviours by Malagasy Pseudoxyrhophiine snakes, Dromicodryas bernieri and D. quadrilineatus, and their sexual size dimorphism","authors":"Ryobu Fukuyama, Akihiro Itoigawa, Akira Mori","doi":"10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e91579","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e91579","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000When several male snakes dispute over one female in the breeding season, two major male-male rivalries are known to occur: male-male combat and multimale breeding aggregation. The roles of male body size and the degree of sexual size dimorphism are different between these rivalries. We report field observations of mating behaviour including a multimale breeding aggregation of pseudoxyrhophiins, Dromicodryas bernieri and D. quadrilineatus, in northwestern Madagascar, which have a local name, “Maro longo”, meaning “many friends”. To examine the relationships between sexual size dimorphism and mating strategies of males, we also analysed the body size of the two species of Dromicodryas and two other pseudoxyrhophiins, Leioheterodon madagascariensis and L. modestus, which are known to exhibit the male-male combat. Our data obtained during a long-term field study showed that D. bernieri and D. quadrilineatus have female-biased sexual size dimorphism, whereas L. madagascariensis and L. modestus have male-biased sexual size dimorphism. This result conforms to the general tendency of the relationship between body size and male-male rivalry in snakes.","PeriodicalId":49314,"journal":{"name":"Herpetozoa","volume":"4 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138503233","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-14DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e86751
Cristopher A. Antúnez-Fonseca, Marcio Martínez, Travis W. King, Diego I. Ordoñez-Mazier, Larry D. Wilson, Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco
The family Polychrotidae Fitzinger, 1843 is represented in Honduras by a single species, Polychrus gutturosus Berthold, 1845. This canopy dweller is distributed in the lowland moist forests and riparian forest within pine savannah of the northern and eastern regions of Honduras. Only 13 records and nine localities support the presence of the species in the country; therefore, the distribution and natural history of the species in Honduras is essentially unknown. Herein, we provide a new locality and natural history observations of a specimen captured in the core zone of the Reserva del Hombre y La Biosfera del Río Plátano. This record represents the north-western most occurrence of Polychrus gutturosus in a region known as the Mosquitia and fills an important distributional gap for this poorly known species.
The family Polychrotidae Fitzinger, 1843年在洪都拉斯有一个单一的物种Polychrus gutturosus Berthold, 1845年。这种冠层居民分布在洪都拉斯北部和东部松木大草原的低地潮湿森林和河岸森林中。只有13项记录和9个地点支持该物种在该国的存在;因此,该物种在洪都拉斯的分布和自然历史基本上是未知的。在此,我们提供了一个新的位置和自然历史的标本捕获在Reserva del Hombre y La Biosfera del Río Plátano核心区。这一记录代表了在西北地区一个被称为蚊子的地区出现的最多的舌鼠Polychrus gutturosus,填补了这个鲜为人知的物种的重要分布空白。
{"title":"Filling a gap in the distribution of the Berthold’s Bush Anole, Polychrus gutturosus (Squamata, Polychrotidae), in Honduras","authors":"Cristopher A. Antúnez-Fonseca, Marcio Martínez, Travis W. King, Diego I. Ordoñez-Mazier, Larry D. Wilson, Manfredo A. Turcios-Casco","doi":"10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e86751","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e86751","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The family Polychrotidae Fitzinger, 1843 is represented in Honduras by a single species, Polychrus gutturosus Berthold, 1845. This canopy dweller is distributed in the lowland moist forests and riparian forest within pine savannah of the northern and eastern regions of Honduras. Only 13 records and nine localities support the presence of the species in the country; therefore, the distribution and natural history of the species in Honduras is essentially unknown. Herein, we provide a new locality and natural history observations of a specimen captured in the core zone of the Reserva del Hombre y La Biosfera del Río Plátano. This record represents the north-western most occurrence of Polychrus gutturosus in a region known as the Mosquitia and fills an important distributional gap for this poorly known species.","PeriodicalId":49314,"journal":{"name":"Herpetozoa","volume":"4 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-11-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138503232","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-21DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e90928
Daniel Jablonski, Benny Trapp, Elias Tzoras, Konrad Mebert
We describe the unusual case of erythrism in the Eastern Grass Snake, Natrix natrix. This colour morph is very rare and has not been reported in the literature before. Despite having observed thousands of N. natrix in the field, we personally detected this morph in only three individuals originating from Slovakia, Romania, and mainland Greece, while photos of a fourth individual from a Greek island were provided to us. In addition, a recent study with a large data set from citizen scientists was unable to produce a single reddish Eastern Grass Snake. Such colouration is likewise uncommon in the western members of Grass Snakes (N. helvetica, N. astreptophora), with two examples provided herein. Because the potential biological importance of erythristic colouration is unclear, we encourage other field herpetologists and naturalists to publish their observations of reddish Grass Snakes in the printed literature.
We描述了东方草蛇(Natrix Natrix)不寻常的赤藓病。这种颜色变化是非常罕见的,以前没有在文献中报道过。尽管在野外观察了成千上万的N. natrix,但我们个人只在来自斯洛伐克,罗马尼亚和希腊大陆的三个个体中发现了这种变异,而来自希腊岛屿的第四个个体的照片提供给我们。此外,最近一项利用公民科学家的大量数据集进行的研究无法产生一条红色的东方草蛇。这种颜色在草蛇的西部成员(N. helvetica, N. astreptophora)中同样不常见,这里提供了两个例子。由于赤色草蛇的潜在生物学重要性尚不清楚,我们鼓励其他领域的爬虫学家和博物学家在印刷文献中发表他们对赤色草蛇的观察。
{"title":"Erythrism in the Eastern Grass Snake, Natrix natrix (Linnaeus, 1758)","authors":"Daniel Jablonski, Benny Trapp, Elias Tzoras, Konrad Mebert","doi":"10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e90928","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e90928","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000We describe the unusual case of erythrism in the Eastern Grass Snake, Natrix natrix. This colour morph is very rare and has not been reported in the literature before. Despite having observed thousands of N. natrix in the field, we personally detected this morph in only three individuals originating from Slovakia, Romania, and mainland Greece, while photos of a fourth individual from a Greek island were provided to us. In addition, a recent study with a large data set from citizen scientists was unable to produce a single reddish Eastern Grass Snake. Such colouration is likewise uncommon in the western members of Grass Snakes (N. helvetica, N. astreptophora), with two examples provided herein. Because the potential biological importance of erythristic colouration is unclear, we encourage other field herpetologists and naturalists to publish their observations of reddish Grass Snakes in the printed literature.","PeriodicalId":49314,"journal":{"name":"Herpetozoa","volume":"4 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138503231","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-18DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e90607
Shuo Liu, M. Hou, Yi Fan, Min Mo, D. Rao
We report the first country record of Theloderma khoii Ninh, Nguyen, Nguyen, Hoang, Siliyavong, Nguyen, Le, Le & Ziegler, 2022 from China based on a specimen collected from Wenshan Prefecture, southeastern Yunnan, China. Morphologically, the specimen from Wenshan Prefecture agrees well with the type specimens of T. khoii from Vietnam except for having a smaller body size, and phylogenetically clustered with the type specimens of T. khoii from Vietnam. In addition, we confirm the distribution of Rhacophorus orlovi Ziegler & Köhler, 2001 in China based on three specimens collected from Honghe Prefecture, southern Yunnan, China. Morphologically, the specimens from Honghe Prefecture agree well with the type specimens of R. orlovi from Vietnam except for having a slightly larger body size in adult females, and phylogenetically clustered with the specimens of R. orlovi from Vietnam (including the type locality of R. orlovi).
{"title":"First record of Theloderma khoii Ninh, Nguyen, Nguyen, Hoang, Siliyavong, Nguyen, Le, Le & Ziegler, 2022 from China, with confirmation of Rhacophorus orlovi Ziegler & Köhler, 2001 in China (Anura, Rhacophoridae)","authors":"Shuo Liu, M. Hou, Yi Fan, Min Mo, D. Rao","doi":"10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e90607","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e90607","url":null,"abstract":"We report the first country record of Theloderma khoii Ninh, Nguyen, Nguyen, Hoang, Siliyavong, Nguyen, Le, Le & Ziegler, 2022 from China based on a specimen collected from Wenshan Prefecture, southeastern Yunnan, China. Morphologically, the specimen from Wenshan Prefecture agrees well with the type specimens of T. khoii from Vietnam except for having a smaller body size, and phylogenetically clustered with the type specimens of T. khoii from Vietnam. In addition, we confirm the distribution of Rhacophorus orlovi Ziegler & Köhler, 2001 in China based on three specimens collected from Honghe Prefecture, southern Yunnan, China. Morphologically, the specimens from Honghe Prefecture agree well with the type specimens of R. orlovi from Vietnam except for having a slightly larger body size in adult females, and phylogenetically clustered with the specimens of R. orlovi from Vietnam (including the type locality of R. orlovi).","PeriodicalId":49314,"journal":{"name":"Herpetozoa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43984180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-18DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e94006
Tanmayi Patharkar, Lucas Van Passel, Kinsey M. Brock
Podarcis wall lizards mainly feed on coleopterans, orthopterans, arachnids, and other small invertebrates. However, Aegean wall lizards, Podarcis erhardii, are widely distributed across Aegean islands and are increasingly observed eating non-traditional food items ranging from plant material to conspecific eggs and body parts. Here, we report the first documented case of P. erhardii consuming a large centipede, Scolopendra cingulata. The predator-prey relationship between these species has appeared to go both ways and may intensify on islands.
{"title":"Eat or be eaten? An observation of Podarcis erhardii consuming Scolopendra cingulata from Andros Island, Cyclades, Greece","authors":"Tanmayi Patharkar, Lucas Van Passel, Kinsey M. Brock","doi":"10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e94006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e94006","url":null,"abstract":"Podarcis wall lizards mainly feed on coleopterans, orthopterans, arachnids, and other small invertebrates. However, Aegean wall lizards, Podarcis erhardii, are widely distributed across Aegean islands and are increasingly observed eating non-traditional food items ranging from plant material to conspecific eggs and body parts. Here, we report the first documented case of P. erhardii consuming a large centipede, Scolopendra cingulata. The predator-prey relationship between these species has appeared to go both ways and may intensify on islands.","PeriodicalId":49314,"journal":{"name":"Herpetozoa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47307041","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-10-11DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e87199
L. P. C. Oitaven, Sydnei S. Calado, H. N. da Costa, G. Cruz, J. S. Monrós, D. O. Mesquita, Á. Teixeira, V. W. Teixeira, G. J. B. de Moura
The diet of lizards is mainly composed of arthropods. It can be affected by biotic and abiotic factors, which influence the energy supply provided by the composition of the animal´s diet. The richness and abundance of many arthropod species can be influenced by environmental seasonality, especially in the Caatinga ecoregion, due to the rainfall regimes. The present study aims to describe aspects of the seasonal and morphological variation in the lizard Gymnodactylus geckoides diet and their energy content. We collected 157 individuals (63 females, 68 males, and 26 juveniles) at the Catimbau National Park, Northeastern Brazil, of which 72 were analyzed for the dry season and 59 for the rainy season. Our data indicates Isoptera to be the most common prey in G. geckoides’s diet. Energy content, prey number was higher in the dry season, whereas prey volume and glycogen content increased in the rainy season. Proteins and lipids did not show marked differences. The present study represents the first effort to understand variations in G. geckoide’s trophic ecology, indicating that this specie presents a wide variation in their diet, especially when considering seasonal factors, revealing their needs and restrictions according to prey availability and environmental conditions.
{"title":"Trophic ecology of Gymnodactylus geckoides Spix, 1825 (Squamata, Phyllodactylidae) from Caatinga, Northeastern Brazil","authors":"L. P. C. Oitaven, Sydnei S. Calado, H. N. da Costa, G. Cruz, J. S. Monrós, D. O. Mesquita, Á. Teixeira, V. W. Teixeira, G. J. B. de Moura","doi":"10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e87199","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e87199","url":null,"abstract":"The diet of lizards is mainly composed of arthropods. It can be affected by biotic and abiotic factors, which influence the energy supply provided by the composition of the animal´s diet. The richness and abundance of many arthropod species can be influenced by environmental seasonality, especially in the Caatinga ecoregion, due to the rainfall regimes. The present study aims to describe aspects of the seasonal and morphological variation in the lizard Gymnodactylus geckoides diet and their energy content. We collected 157 individuals (63 females, 68 males, and 26 juveniles) at the Catimbau National Park, Northeastern Brazil, of which 72 were analyzed for the dry season and 59 for the rainy season. Our data indicates Isoptera to be the most common prey in G. geckoides’s diet. Energy content, prey number was higher in the dry season, whereas prey volume and glycogen content increased in the rainy season. Proteins and lipids did not show marked differences. The present study represents the first effort to understand variations in G. geckoide’s trophic ecology, indicating that this specie presents a wide variation in their diet, especially when considering seasonal factors, revealing their needs and restrictions according to prey availability and environmental conditions.","PeriodicalId":49314,"journal":{"name":"Herpetozoa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41716336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-09-29DOI: 10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e90101
Bivek Gautam, S. Bhattarai
Chilapata rain-pool frog (Minervarya chilapata) was described in 2009 from the Chilapata Reserve Forest of West Bengal, India. Here, we report the occurrence of M. chilapata for the first time from Morang district, Nepal, based on acoustic and morphological characters such as the presence of a distinct white line in the upper lip, small size (snout-vent length 18 to 26 mm), pointed snout and presence of dorso-lateral black patch. The nearest record of Chilapata rain-pool frog in Nepal from Pathari-Kanepokhari forest, Morang district, Nepal is ca.182 km west of its type locality Chilapata Reserve Forest, Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, India. We also report the occurrence of M. chilapata from Barandabhar Biological Corridor, Chitwan National Park, Nepal based on a photographic record. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the species as Data Deficient. Therefore, this record from Nepal will add new presence data for future status assessment for the species.
{"title":"First record of Chilapata rain-pool frog Minervarya chilapata Ohler, Deuti, Grosjean, Paul, Ayyaswamy, Ahmed & Dutta, 2009 (Anura, Dicroglossidae) from Nepal","authors":"Bivek Gautam, S. Bhattarai","doi":"10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e90101","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3897/herpetozoa.35.e90101","url":null,"abstract":"Chilapata rain-pool frog (Minervarya chilapata) was described in 2009 from the Chilapata Reserve Forest of West Bengal, India. Here, we report the occurrence of M. chilapata for the first time from Morang district, Nepal, based on acoustic and morphological characters such as the presence of a distinct white line in the upper lip, small size (snout-vent length 18 to 26 mm), pointed snout and presence of dorso-lateral black patch. The nearest record of Chilapata rain-pool frog in Nepal from Pathari-Kanepokhari forest, Morang district, Nepal is ca.182 km west of its type locality Chilapata Reserve Forest, Jalpaiguri district, West Bengal, India. We also report the occurrence of M. chilapata from Barandabhar Biological Corridor, Chitwan National Park, Nepal based on a photographic record. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the species as Data Deficient. Therefore, this record from Nepal will add new presence data for future status assessment for the species.","PeriodicalId":49314,"journal":{"name":"Herpetozoa","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2022-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49192827","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}