Diet and sexual dimorphism of Liophis poecilogyrus (Serpentes, Dipsadidae) from the wetland regions of Northeast Argentina

PRIETO, YANINA; GIRAUDO, ALEJANDRO R.; LÓPEZ, MARÍA SOLEDAD

JOURNAL OF HERPETOLOGY

SOC STUDY AMPHIBIANS REPTILES

Lugar: Salt Lake City; Año: 2012 vol. 46 p. 402 - 406

0022-1511

Feeding ecology is one of the most important aspects in the history life of the snakes; however the studies about their trophic ecology are scarce and sometimes inaccurate. Liophis poecylogyrus is a mid-sized snake widely distributed on South America and relatively abundant in the study area. We describe the diet and sexual dimorphism of L. poecilogyrus from Northeast Argentina based on examination of museum specimens and compares our data with studies which include representative samples of this species. Amphibians were the most frequent prey (75%) and we found one reptile (1%). Families represented were: Bufonidae (53%), Leiuperidae (19%), Leptodactylidae (14%), Hylidae (7%), Cyclorhamphidae (3%), Microhylidae (2%) and Gymnophtalmidae (2%). We observed that L. poecilogyrus has significant sexual size dimorphism in all morphometric characters analyzed, but not in scalation variables. Despite L. poecilogyrus is considered by some authors as omnicarnivore, ours data and others quantitative studies on distant populations of South America allow consider this species with a strong tendency to include primarily anurans on its diet. The population studied has its own characteristics but retains similarities with geographically nearby and remote populations. It is a specialist species and its feeding habits seem to be conservative both between different populations of the same species as phylogenetically related species. Sexual size dimorphism may be a common feature of the taxonomic group.