Rivera-Sostre, Mary L.

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    Variación en la dieta del sapo de la caña (Chaunus [Bufo] marinus) en la reserva natural privada el tallonal en Arecibo, Puerto Rico
    (2008) Rivera-Sostre, Mary L.; Bird-Picó, Fernando J.; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Lewis, Allen R.; Santos, Carlos J.; Department of Biology; Armstrong, Arístides
    The cane toad, Chaunus [Bufo] marinus, introduced in Puerto Rico, is known for having a varied diet and for being an opportunist species, thus its diet reflects regional and seasonal abundance of prey. In order to know the available food resources in the forested areas around the reintroduction ponds of the Puerto Rican crested toad, Peltophryne [Bufo] lemur, and assuming that its diet is similar to that of C. marinus, the stomach content of the later was evaluated in El Tallonal Natural Reserve in Arecibo. During May – September 2006 (Sampling I) and December – April 2007 (Sampling II), 300 toads were collected. To examine the diet, the stomach content was extracted by dissection. The prey were identified, quantified, measured and weighed. The indexes of trophic niche breadth and niche overlap and the index of relative importance (pooled and unpooled data) were determined. The niche breadth was low for every group of frogs (adults, males, females, and juveniles) on both samplings while the niche overlap among groups of frogs and samplings was high. The categories representing more than 5% (volume or biomass) in some groups of frogs were vegetation, Coleoptera (Hexapoda), Polydesmida (Diplopoda), Spirobolida (Diplopoda), Isoptera (Hexapoda), Stylommatophora (Gastropoda), Pulmonata (Gastropoda), Formicidae (Hexapoda), and Lepidoptera larvae (Hexapoda); for the first time a juvenile turtle was found. There was a variation in the diet composition among groups of frogs and samplings which indicate that the males and gravid females spent less time foraging on Sampling I. The difference between samplings for the sexes coincided with the seasonal abundance of the families Termitidae, Elateridae and Scarabaeidae in Sampling I. The index of relative importance (pooled and unpooled data) overestimated the importance of ants for their numerical input, therefore a new index was proposed, independent index of relative importance, which increases the volumetric or gravimetric importance. The diet of C. marinus in El Tallonal suggests that the food resources available around the reintroduction ponds of P. lemur include several categories, where predominate the families Paradoxosomatidae, Scarabaeidae, Curculionidae, Trigoniulidae, Camaneidae, Termitidae, Elateridae and Formicidae, and lepidopterans larvae and slugs.