scholarly journals Predation of the Japanese keelback (Hebius vibakari Boie, 1826) by the Slender racer (Orientocoluber spinalis Peters, 1866)

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Il-Kook Park ◽  
Jaejin Park ◽  
Jiho Park ◽  
Seong-Hun Min ◽  
Alejandro Grajal-Puche ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The Slender racer (Orientocoluber spinalis Peters, 1866) has recently been reclassified to the new genus Orientocoluber from Hierophis. Ecological knowledge of this species is limited due to its highly mobile behavior. On 17 July 2020, we captured a female O. spinalis on Oeyeon Island, Boryeong-si, Republic of Korea, and collected its feces for a diet analysis. We observed snake scales from the collected feces and subsequently determined the prey species through morphological and molecular methods. Results We initially hypothesized that the extracted fecal sample scales belonged to H. vibakari, due to their thin keel and rhombus shape. We also amplified H. vibakari DNA from the extracted fecal sample using Illumina sequencing methods. Our morphological and molecular results suggest that O. spinalis predates H. vibakari on Oeyeon Island. Conclusion This is the first report of O. spinalis predating another snake species, ophiophagy, and implies that H. vibakari may be a crucial prey item for O. spinalis on Oeyeon Island.

2019 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-231
Author(s):  
T.D. Williams ◽  
A. Cornell ◽  
C. Gillespie ◽  
A. Hura ◽  
M. Serota

Diet specialization has important consequences for how individuals or species deal with environmental change that causes changes in availability of prey species. We took advantage of a “natural experiment” — establishment of a commercial insect farm — that introduced a novel prey item, black soldier flies (Hermetia illucens (Linnaeus, 1758)), to the diet-specialist European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758). We investigated evidence for individual diet specialization (IDS) and the consequences of diet specialization and exploitation of novel prey on breeding productivity. In all 4 years of our study, tipulid larvae were the most common prey item. Soldier flies were not recorded in diets in 2013–2014; however, coincident with the establishment of the commercial insect farming operation, they comprised 22% and 30% of all prey items in the diets of European Starling females and males, respectively, in 2015. There was marked individual variation in use of soldier flies (4%–48% and 2%–70% in females and males, respectively), but we found little evidence of dichotomous IDS, i.e., where only some individuals have a specialized diet. We found no evidence for negative effects of use of soldier flies on breeding productivity: brood size at fledging and chick quality (mass, tarsus length) were independent of the number and proportion (%) of soldier flies returned to the nest.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-80
Author(s):  
Lalawmawia Sailo ◽  
Lawmsangzuala Chhangte ◽  
Rochamliana Aineh ◽  
H. Lalthanzara

In this paper we report the first confirmed sighting of chestnut-flanked white-eye Zosterops erythropleurus (Swinhoe, 1863) from Mizoram and first photographic report from India. chestnut-flanked white-eye belongs to the family Zosteropidae and is a resident of Cambodia, China, Hongkong, Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Russia, Thailand and Vietnam. In the Indian Sub-continent this is the only sighting report for this species and details of sightings and habitat are discussed.


Behaviour ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 56 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 44-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn Hausfater

Abstract1. A group of 32 yellow baboons (Papio cynocephalus) in the Masai-Amboseli National Park, Kenya, caught and ate 45 vertebrate prey items during 2519.19 hours of observation. 2. Eighty percent of the prey items were mammals and the most frequently eaten species were African hares (Lepus capensis), vervet monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) and neonate gazelle (Cazella granti and G. thomsoni) in that order. The details of predatory behavior for each prey species are described. 3. Rates of predation were significantly higher during the long dry season than during other months of the year, although no correlation was found between total monthly rainfall and monthly rates of predation. A lognormal model however provided a good fit to the monthly rate of predation data suggesting that the rate of predation by Amboseli baboons was affected by several factors that acted multiplicatively with respect to each other and were themselves related to rainfall or dryness. 4. A mean of 2.3 individuals fed directly from the carcass of each prey item. A mean of 3.5 individuals per prey item fed directly or indirectly, i.e., on scraps, from each carcass. In general, both the number of individuals who fed from each carcass and the duration of their feeding bouts was dependent upon the gross body size of the prey item. Adult males fed directly from the carcass of prey items for about three times more minutes than expected from their number in the group; other classes of individuals fed directly from prey carcasses for only one-fourth as many minutes as expected. In general, an adult male would be expected to feed on each category of vertebrate prey at least once per year, while individuals of all other age-sex classes would be expected to feed on most prey categories only once every two years. 5. The most frequent social behavior around prey items was agonistic bouts; no cooperation, simultaneous feeding or specific begging gestures were observed. 6. Estimates of the total number of prey killed annually by Amboseli baboons indicate that baboon predation probably has a negligible effect on prey populations other than vervet monkeys. 7. It is speculated that the need for vitamin B12 underlies baboon predatory behavior, and perhaps that of other primate species as well.


2007 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 1235-1245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Signe M. Andersen ◽  
Jonas Teilmann ◽  
Pernille B. Harders ◽  
Else H. Hansen ◽  
Dorthe Hjøllund

Abstract Andersen, S. M., Teilmann, J., Harders, P. B., Hansen, E. H., and Hjøllund, D. 2007. Diet of harbour seals and great cormorants in Limfjord, Denmark: interspecific competition and interaction with fishery. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64: 1235–1245. Comparative studies on seasonal and regional variation in the diet of harbour seals and great cormorants were conducted in Limfjord, a semi-closed water system in northwest Denmark. To compare harbour seal diet from an open water system containing similar prey species, a small diet analysis from the western Baltic is included. Seal diet during spring reflected the abundance of Atlantic herring entering Limfjord to spawn (90% of the weight consumed), whereas during summer and autumn, seal diet was rather more mixed. The diet of seals in the Rødsand area and cormorants in Limfjord showed no marked seasonal trends. During spring, there was little overlap between seal and cormorant diets in Limfjord because seals fed almost exclusively on Atlantic herring, and they consumed significantly larger herring than did the cormorants. During summer and autumn, seal and cormorant diets overlapped markedly, although the fish items consumed by seals were generally larger. Few commercially targeted species were found in the stomachs and scats of seals and casts of great cormorants, but Atlantic herring were taken by the seals at a size greater than that allowed by the fishery.


1989 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 361 ◽  
Author(s):  
P Zwick ◽  
KG Hortle

Curupirina papuana sp. n. and an unnamed species of a probably new genus of Apistomyiini (Diptera : Blephariceridae) are described from the Ok Tedi, a tributary of the Fly River, Papua New Guinea. This is the first report of the family from the island; its zoogeographical significance is discussed with reference to the long-presumed role of the island in the evolution and dispersal of the tribe Apistomyiini.


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4838 (2) ◽  
pp. 248-256
Author(s):  
ADEM KESKIN ◽  
JEAN-CLAUDE BEAUCOURNU

During the re-examination of some specimens in the Siphonaptera collection of J.-C. Beaucournu, we noticed unidentified Rhadinopsylla specimens. After the detailed comparison, they were identified as Rhadinopsylla alphabetica Jameson & Sakaguti. These specimens of R. alphabetica were collected from Grey Red-backed Vole, Myodes rufocanus (Sundevall), in Ryanggang province of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of R. alphabetica in the DPRK. Our specimens of R. alphabetica have some minor differences from Alaskan and Japanese populations. To draw attention to these differences we also provide detailed drawings of R. alphabetica specimens in the present study. The information on the flea fauna of the Korean peninsula is very fragmentary and articles on fleas of the Korean peninsula have been published in different languages. Therefore, it is very difficult to find accessible and updated flea list of the Korean peninsula for the scientific community. Based on the published and accessible literature, we provide a list of 45 flea taxa from the Korean peninsula. 


Zootaxa ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4671 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER R. SMAGA ◽  
ALEX TTITO ◽  
ALESSANDRO CATENAZZI

The systematics of South American Xenodontinae snakes has experienced large changes and improvements as a result of recent studies employing molecular data. Herein we assess the status of the rare Peruvian snake species, Erythrolamprus problematicus (Dipsadidae, Xenodontinae, Xenodontini), previously known from a single specimen collected in 1950. Based on new morphological and molecular data from a second specimen that we collected, we confirmed the presence of a crease in the rostral scale, mentioned in the original description (a unique trait among the Xenodontini), and recovered E. problematicus as the sister-taxon of all other Xenodontini, instead of nested among the current Erythrolamprus. Therefore, our phylogenetic results justify the erection of a new genus to accommodate the species. 


2002 ◽  
Vol 76 (19) ◽  
pp. 10056-10059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mária Benkő ◽  
Péter Élő ◽  
Krisztina Ursu ◽  
Winfried Ahne ◽  
Scott E. LaPatra ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT From adenovirus-like viruses originating from a fish and a snake species, a conserved part of the adenoviral DNA polymerase gene was PCR amplified, cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the snake adenovirus is closely related to the members of the proposed genus Atadenovirus, whereas the fish isolate seems to represent a separate cluster, likely a new genus.


Zootaxa ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 3126 (1) ◽  
pp. 55
Author(s):  
OSCAR J. CADENA-CASTAÑEDA

Faguagryllus luteolus n. gen. et n. sp., from the Colombian Atlantic coast is described and illustrated. The relation with the genera Miogryllus Saussure, 1877 and Kazuemba Mello, 1990 is discussed; as well as their inclusion in Modicogryllini. Gryllodes sigillatus is reported for Colombia, with distribution data of the examined specimens, and the allocation of figures of Gryllodes species in Otte 2006 is corrected.


2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernando Cesar Cascelli Azevedo ◽  
Vagner Canuto ◽  
Fernanda Souza ◽  
Cynthia Elisa Widmer

The process of forest fragmentation affects mostly top predators, which are more prone to first disappear. Pumas, Puma concolor, are known to have a generalist diet that includes a wide variety of wild and domestic prey species. The capacity of adapting their diet to consuming prey in anthropogenic habitats may be the reason for this species' success in incorporating anthropogenic areas with different levels of fragmentation as part of its habitat. Here we report a case of puma consumption of a large wild prey species, the tapir, Tapirus terrestris. From March 2012 to October 2013 we collected 85 puma's scats opportunistically inside fragments of the Atlantic Forest in the Parana state, Brazil. In one of the scats we found hairs and some hooves of a tapir, as well as puma hairs. We propose two hypotheses that may explain the occurrence of tapir in a pumás scat: (1) an event of scavenging or (2) an event of predation on a juvenile tapir. The most likely explanation for this event may be the predation of a juvenile in response to a possible abundant presence of tapirs in the study area. This event adds to our understanding of the great plasticity of this species to adapt to an altered landscape. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a puma scavenging or predation event on a tapir.


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