Evaluation of sensory modalities involved in finding food and foraging behaviour in light/dark conditions in tadpoles of the invasive species Lithobates catesbeianus

COCERES, ARACELI RITA; POZZI, ANDREA GABRIELA; OLIVERAS, AGUSTÍN NAHUEL; JUNGBLUT, LUCAS DAVID

ETHOLOGY

WILEY-BLACKWELL PUBLISHING, INC

Año: 2024 vol. 00 p. 1 - 8

0179-1613

The ability of anuran larvae to efficiently locate food is essential for their growth anddevelopment, but little is known about the sensory modalities they use to find food.We experimentally assessed the role of visual and chemical cues in finding food intadpoles of the invasive species Lithobates catesbeianus. In the two-choiceexperiment,using rectangular containers that offer visual and/or chemical food cues onopposite ends, tadpoles chose the side where the chemical cues of the food were presentconsistently. The visual cues alone showed an initial transient attraction of tadpoles,which disappeared after a few minutes, suggesting that tadpoles are potentiallycapable of seeing contrasting objects, at least, at a close range and in clear waters anddaylight conditions. We also evaluated the foraging behaviour and the capability oftadpoles to find food in an open field experiment under two different lighting conditions:natural daylight and darkness. Results showed that tadpoles find food fasterin dark conditions, confirming that chemical cues alone are sufficient for tadpoles ofthis species to find food. Moreover, the time spent feeding and the number of tadpolessimultaneously exploiting the food patch were greater in darkness suggestingthat environments with low visibility conditions could favour the establishment of L.catesbeianus. Understanding the sensory modalities used by tadpoles of this invasivespecies to find food could help to understand the potential abilities to expand andestablish in novel environments.