PLEURODEMA TUCUMANUM. PREDATION

PEREZ IGLESIAS J.M.; GUTIERREZ F.R.; MARTI G.R.; MORENO L.E.; NATALE G.S.

HERPETOLOGICAL REVIEW

SSAR

Año: 2011 vol. 42 p. 587 - 587

0018-084X

Water bugs (Belostomatidae) are well known to prey on anuran larvae (Giaretta and Menin 2004. J. Nat. Hist. 38:1711–1722; Hinshaw and Sullivan 1990. J. Herpetol. 24:196–197; Kher and Schnack 1991. Alytes 9:61–69; Menin et al. 2005. Phyllomedusa 4(1):39–47) and adults (Bastos et al. 1994. Herpetol. Rev. 25:81; Haddad and Bastos 1997. Amphibia-Reptilia 18:295–298; Mijares-Urrutia et al. 1997. Herpetol. Rev. 28:84; Toledo 2003. Phyllomedusa 2[2]:105–108). Water bugs eat more frogs than invertebrates because anurans are better food items from an energetic viewpoint (Hidai and Hidaka 2002. Ecol. Res. 17:655–661); they use their piercing-sucking mouthparts to eat them (Lopez et al. 1998. Rev. Nica. Entomol. 46:1–5). Herein we report predation of a juvenile Pleurodema tucumanum by the water bug Belostoma discretum. This observation took place during the night of 9 April 2009 in the vicinity of the Rio Claro (32.613°S, 66.139°W), near San Francisco, Ayacucho, San Luis 5570, Argentina, in a large pool enclosed by rocks at the river’s edge. A juvenile P. tucumanum (19.6 mm SVL) was observed floating on the surface of the pool (no deeper than 0.2 m), with a B. discretum (24.8 mm long) attached to its abdomen. The water bug was holding the frog with its forelegs while piercing the frog’s left hindlimb with its proboscis. At regular intervals the water bug swam with apparent difficulty carrying the frog to the bottom of the pool, where it rested for an instant before emerging for air and repeating these actions. These individuals were photographed, collected, and preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol. The B. discretum was deposited in the UNSL Entomological Collection and the P. tucumanum (CHUNSL 0429) in the Herpetological Collection of Universidad Nacional de San Luis. This is the first record of B. discretum preying on juvenile P. tucumanum.