Diet of the toad Rhinella icterica (Anura: Bufonidae) from Atlantic Forest Highlands of southeastern Brazil

Abstract

In this study, we present some information of the regarding throphic niche from the anuran toad Rhinella icterica living in high altitudes above 2000 m a.s.l. from a habitat of the Atlantic Forest Biome - the Altitude Fields in the Itatiaia National Park. We found 150 prey items in toad stomachs, belonging to five prey types, as well as skin remains and some remains of plant material. The index of relative importance indicated that most important prey types were beetles and ants, these last composing 70% of the diet numerically and the trophic niche breadth (B) was 1.81. The relatively low diversity of prey types we recorded in the diet of R. icterica of Itatiaia and numerically dominated by ants suggests some preference for this item. We do not found significant relationship between the toad measurements with the preys' measurements. We concluded that R. icterica toads at the highlands of Itatiaia feeds on arthropods, mainly ants and coleopterans and that the high consumption of preys with relatively small and similar size as ants in the diet prevents an expected relationship among frog body or mouth size and prey volume and size.