Dietary aspects of Alsodes coppingeri Günther, 1881 (Anura: Alsodidae) in Chile

Abstract

The studies related to dietary composition of anurans present in Chile are a field sparsely explored and allow to contribute with knowledge about the biology of the species. Alsodes coppingeri inhabits mountain streams in Nothofagus temperate forests, of Chilean Patagonia. These frogs have been found under logs in stream margins. In this study, 44 specimens of A. coppingeri from Laguna Caiquenes, Tortel and Villa O’Higgins (Aysen Region, Chile) were analyzed. The prey items were ranked at the ordinal level. The frequency of occurrence percentage and abundance of prey items and relative importance index (IRI) were estimated. The frequency of occurrence percentage was 70.5%, where the diet of A. coppingeri was mainly composed of arthropods. The most important preys were beetles, springtails, flies, spiders and isopods, with an obvious predominance of larval stages of beetles, flies and moths.