Variação temporal da dieta de Amazophrynella manaos (Anura: bufonidae) em Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil

Abstract

The diet description of a specie helps to understand many aspects of its biology, as well as its responses to the changes of the environment. Amazophrynella manaos is a new species described to the Amazon. It has diurnal habits and it’s distributed around Manaus, related to litter environment. Therefore the objective of this paper was to analyse if there are temporal differences over a year in the composition of the Amazophrynella manaos diet in the region of Manaus, Amazonas. Individuals of A. manaos were collected at three different sites (Museu da Amazônia – MUSA, Parque Estadual Sumaúma e Campus da UFAM), through 78 different visits. These individuals were searched through active search, limited by time during the daytime period. In total, 589 individuals were collected and 13.118 prey items were recovered. The analysis of the stomach contents showed a higher frequency of Formicidae (92,5%) e Acarina (82,3%), as well as greater abundance (Formicidae - 55,7% e Acarina - 29,1%) in the species diet. Formicidae (49%), Isoptera (23,5%) e Coleoptera (9,3%) showed the highest volumes in relation to the others prey items. The highest consumption was observed in the rainy season. As many bufonidae are considered specialists in ants and mites, despite consuming other types of prey, the diet of A. manaos was predominantly composed of ants and mites, indicating that A. manaos may be specialist on these groups.