PHYSALAEMUS CUVIERI (NCN) PREDATION. NATURAL HISTORY

NENDA, S. J.; BARRASSO, D.; CAJADE, R.

HERPETOLOGICAL REVIEW

Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles at Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University, P.O. Box 208118, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8118, USA

Lugar: New Haven, Connecticut, USA; Año: 2008 vol. 39 p. 210 - 210

0018-084X

PHYSALAEMUS CUVIERI (NCN). PREDATION. On 26 December 2006 at 21:45 h in Eldorado city (26°24´32"S, 54°34´56"W), Misiones province, Argentina, we found a dead adult male P. cuvieri (Total length 26.7 mm) caught by a giant water bug Lethocerus annulipes (Belostomatidae: Lethocerinae) (TL 67.0 mm) (Figure 1) in a shallow temporary pond surrounded by tall grasses. At that moment, several calling males on the edges of the pond, and a foam nest were observed, showing reproductive activity of P. cuvieri. Adult anuran predated by Belostomatinae giant water bugs was previously recorded by other authors [Oda, F. H. 2006. Barycholos ternetzi. Herpetol. Rev. 37:4; Toledo, F.T. 2003. Predation on seven South American anuran species by water bugs (Belostomatidae). Phyllomedusa 2:105-018]. Here we present and describe the first record of a Lethocerinae giant water bug predating on an adult P. cuvieri.