To date, there has been no published investigation on the trophic diversity in any tepui summit vertebrate. In this paper, we analyzed the dietary composition of a tepui summit endemic toad, from Roraima-tepui, and compared it with that of from Kukenán-tepui, to examine to what extent diet differs between these two sister species across isolated, although neighboring, tepui tops. The digestive tracts of a total of 197 toads were dissected: 111 from and 86 from . The diet composition of was relatively diverse, with 13 major prey categories; mites (Acari, 36.5%) and beetles (Coleoptera, 21.0%) numerically dominated its diet. Despite occurring on two different tepui summits, and exhibited a similar diet composition, although in mites (Acari, 42.4%) and hymenopterans (especially ants, 16.9%) numerically dominated the diet. The present data suggest that tepui summit species are flexible in their diet and are active foragers that also feed on aquatic arthropods, successful strategies in tepui competitive environments.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ece3.7682 | DOI Listing |
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