Abstract

ARCE DOMINGUEZ, Fabiola  and  RENGIFO MOSQUERA, Jhon Tailor. Diet of Phyllobates aurotaenia and Oophaga histrionica (Anura: Dendrobatidae), municipality of Alto Baudó, Chocó, Colombia. Acta Zool. Mex [online]. 2013, vol.29, n.2, pp.255-268. ISSN 2448-8445.

We studied the diet of the sympatric dendrobatid frogs Oophaga histrionica and Phyllobates aurotaenia at Pie de Pató, Municipality of Alto Baudó, Chocó. We examined stomach and intestine contents of 40 specimens (20 of each species). The contents were identified following the operational taxonomic unit (OTU) criterion. A total of 2031 prey units were documented (1806 in stomach, and 225 in the intestines), 1207 for O. histrionica and 824 for P. aurotaenia. Hymenoptera (Formicidae) was the most important order in terms of abundance (88.5 and 87.3%), relative frequency (0.328 and 0.20), relative importance (30.34 and 30.03), and hierarchical index for both species, suggesting a specialization in ant consumption for these dendrobatids. Hurtubia's trophic diversity index was 0.53 for P. aurotaenia and 0.66 for O. histrionica with a niche overlapping of 78% between these two species. Based upon items included in the diet, the calculated indexes and their importance values, we conclude these two species are specialist in ant consumption. We also hypothesize that other items included in the diet of these frogs, such as plant and mineral material found in the analyzed contents, are accidentally ingested while the frogs are foraging for their prey. We report no statistically significant differences between items found in stomachs (complete insects and undigested material) and intestine contents (hard parts and unidentifiable soft material) for these two species

Keywords : Phyllobates aurotaenia; Oophaga histrionica; Baudó; Relative importance; Trophic niche.