Diet of Dermatonotus muelleri (Anura: Microhylidae) in a semideciduous forest in western Brazil

Abstract

Anurans are important predators and preys in neotropical food webs linking different trophic levels. A small portion of them are specialist predator what is related with mouth size and morphology. Herein, we report the diet of Dermatonotus muelleri (Microhylidae) from a semideciduous forest in Western Brazil. We collected a total of 63 adults of D. muelleri (females and males) from the Selvíria municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil. We did not find differences between male and female diet composition. The most frequent preys found were isopterans (63.34%) and hymenopterans (26.67%). All hymenopterans identified belong to the Formicidae family. Our results defined Dermatonotus muelleri as an ant-specialist predator and agree with previous studies about the diets of neotropical Microhylid frogs like Chiasmocleis albopunctata, C. bassleri, C. capixaba, C. hudsoni, C. jimi, C. leucosticta, C. shudikarensis, C.ventrimaculata, Ctenophryne geayi, Elachistocleis bicolor, E. ovalis, E. pearsei, and E. panamensis.