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Animals
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Predator-Prey Interactions in Amphibians and Reptiles
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Predator-Prey Interactions in Amphibians and Reptiles

A special issue of Animals (ISSN 2076-2615). This special issue belongs to the section "Herpetology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2023) | Viewed by 9443

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Andrea Costa

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra dell'Ambiente e della Vita (DISTAV), Università di Genova, Corso Europa 26, IT-16132 Genova, Italy
Interests: ecology; herpetology; trophic interactions; population dynamics; ecological modeling
Dr. Marco Sannolo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
MNCN, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales C/José Gutiérrez Abascal nº 2, 28006 Madrid, Spain
Interests: thermal ecology; physiology; behaviour; herpetology; water balance

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that submissions for the Special Issue “Predator-Prey Interactions in Amphibians and Reptiles” are now open. The Special Issue aims to collect studies and attract further research regarding the vast topic of trophic relations in Amphibians and Reptiles, with special emphasis on predator-prey interactions.

This Special Issue provides an opportunity to highlight new research into this fundamental topic of ecology, but from the perspectives of Amphibians and Reptiles. Studies concerning every aspect of predator-prey interactions are welcome: for instance, studies on the trophic niche of a single Amphibian or Reptile species, studies on the effect of predator-prey interactions on the communities of Amphibians and Reptiles, or studies disclosing anti-predatory strategies in Amphibians and Reptiles such as mimicry, aposematism or crypsis are all encouraged. This Special Issue also welcomes review syntheses, new theoretical or technical approaches to the study of predator-prey interactions—for instance, the use of innovative techniques, such as stable isotope analysis and DNA metabarcoding—or the development of theoretical frameworks such as individual specialization and inter-individual resource variation, to mention a few.

Dr. Andrea Costa
Dr. Marco Sannolo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Animals is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • trophic ecology
  • predator-prey interaction
  • individual specialization
  • predation
  • anti-predator mechanisms
  • consumer-resource interaction
 

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 1922 KiB  
Article
Mutual Avoidance in the Spectacled Salamander and Centipede: A Discrepancy between Exploratory Field and Laboratory Data
by Francesco Cerini, Claudio Pardo, Davide Taurozzi, Benedetta Gambioli and Leonardo Vignoli
Animals 2023, 13(20), 3214; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13203214 - 14 Oct 2023
Viewed by 869
Abstract
Interactions between amphibians and arthropods encompass a wide range of ecological relationships, predominantly characterized by predator–prey dynamics, with adult amphibians as the predators. In some instances, the roles are reversed. This study focuses on the potential predator-prey relationship between the spectacled salamander ( [...] Read more.
Interactions between amphibians and arthropods encompass a wide range of ecological relationships, predominantly characterized by predator–prey dynamics, with adult amphibians as the predators. In some instances, the roles are reversed. This study focuses on the potential predator-prey relationship between the spectacled salamander (Salamandrina perspicillata) and the centipede Scolopendra cingulata in Central Italy. Building upon previous research on chemical cue perception in amphibians, we investigated potential olfactory cue-mediated avoidance behaviours exhibited by S. perspicillata towards the potential predator S. cingulata through field observations and manipulative experiments. In a natural site, we estimated the degree of negative co-occurrence between the study species under shelters and found an avoidance pattern between S. perspicillata and S. cingulata in refuges. However, when the study species were forced to choose between sharing or not sharing a given shelter, through a manipulative experiment, the avoidance pattern was not confirmed. Potential determinants contributing to the avoidance pattern observed in nature are discussed. Our exploratory results represent a good example of how what often appears to be a strong observation-based pattern in natural settings needs to be carefully scrutinized. Hypotheses testing through experiments in controlled environments remains a valuable approach to exclude potentially misleading processes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Predator-Prey Interactions in Amphibians and Reptiles)
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10 pages, 441 KiB  
Article
Inferring on Speleomantes Foraging Behavior from Gut Contents Examination
by Fabio Cianferoni and Enrico Lunghi
Animals 2023, 13(17), 2782; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13172782 - 31 Aug 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 606
Abstract
We here provide the first comprehensive analysis and discussion on prey consumed by the European cave salamanders of the genus Speleomantes. Our study stems from the need to shed light on the still unknown foraging behavior adopted by Speleomantes cave salamanders. Starting [...] Read more.
We here provide the first comprehensive analysis and discussion on prey consumed by the European cave salamanders of the genus Speleomantes. Our study stems from the need to shed light on the still unknown foraging behavior adopted by Speleomantes cave salamanders. Starting from the published datasets on gut contents from all Speleomantes species (including hybrids), we here discuss additional information (i.e., species ecology, lower taxonomic level), which were systematically omitted from those data sets. We analyzed a data set consisting of 17,630 records from 49 categories of consumed prey recognized from gut contents of 2060 adults and juveniles Speleomantes. Flying prey accounted for more than 58% of the prey items, while elongated crawling prey accounted for no more than 16% of the diet within a single population. Among the total recognized prey items, only three can be surely ascribed to the group of strictly-cave species (i.e., troglobites), meaning that European cave salamanders mostly forage in surface environment, and therefore represent one of the major drivers of allochthonous organic matter in subterranean environments. Some of the consumed prey seemed to be aquatic, allowing us to hypothesize whether Speleomantes are able to catch prey from a shallow body water. Furthermore, European cave salamanders possess the ability to prey upon taxa characterized by particular anti-predator defenses, while morphological constraints seem to be the most important limit to prey consumption. For each specific case, we provide insights and propose hypotheses concerning the foraging behavior that need to be tested to properly understand the foraging behavior of this cryptic salamanders. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Predator-Prey Interactions in Amphibians and Reptiles)
18 pages, 3150 KiB  
Article
Rare and Hungry: Feeding Ecology of the Golden Alpine Salamander, an Endangered Amphibian in the Alps
by Emma Centomo, Luca Roner, Marco Salvatori, Paolo Pedrini and Antonio Romano
Animals 2023, 13(13), 2135; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13132135 - 28 Jun 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2850
Abstract
Amphibians are considered critical species in the nutrient flow within and across ecosystems, and knowledge on their trophic ecology and niches is crucial for their conservation. For the first time we studied the trophic ecology of the rare and endemic Salamandra atra aurorae [...] Read more.
Amphibians are considered critical species in the nutrient flow within and across ecosystems, and knowledge on their trophic ecology and niches is crucial for their conservation. For the first time we studied the trophic ecology of the rare and endemic Salamandra atra aurorae in a mixed temperate forest in northern Italy. We aimed to define the realized trophic niche, investigate the prey selectivity and explore possible levels of individual specialization. In summer 2022 we obtained stomach contents from 53 salamanders by stomach flushing and prey availability using pitfall traps. We used the Costello graphical method to analyse the realized trophic niche, and the relativized electivity index to study prey selectivity. Our results show that the Golden Alpine salamander adopts a generalist feeding strategy with positive selection of few prey categories (e.g., Myriapoda, Hymenoptera except Formicidae). Food preference seems to be driven by size, movement ability and chitinization of the prey. A high degree of inter-individual diet variation, modularity and clustering was found, describing a scenario that can be framed in a Distinct Preference model framework. This study gives new insights on the trophic ecology of the Alpine salamander complex, whose subspecies appear to adopt similar feeding strategies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Predator-Prey Interactions in Amphibians and Reptiles)
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10 pages, 1643 KiB  
Article
Size-Mediated Trophic Interactions in Two Syntopic Forest Salamanders
by Andrea Costa, Giacomo Rosa and Sebastiano Salvidio
Animals 2023, 13(8), 1281; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13081281 - 07 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 937
Abstract
Exploitative competition and interference competition differ in the way they affect re-source availability for competitors: in the former, organisms reduce resource availability for the competitors; in the latter, one organism actively prevents the competitor from accessing resources, independently of their availability. Our aim [...] Read more.
Exploitative competition and interference competition differ in the way they affect re-source availability for competitors: in the former, organisms reduce resource availability for the competitors; in the latter, one organism actively prevents the competitor from accessing resources, independently of their availability. Our aim is to test for the presence of foraging competition in two forest-dwelling salamanders in Italy: Speleomantes strinatii and Salamandrina perspicillata. We also aim at testing for size-mediated competition. We obtained stomach contents from 191 sampled individuals by means of stomach flushing at 8 sampling sites where both species occur. We focused our analysis on the core prey taxa shared by both species: Collembola and Acarina. We found that the foraging activity of S. perspicillata is positively affected by body size and negatively affected by potential competitor’s activity on the forest floor during the sampling, which also significantly weakened the positive relationship with body size. These results suggest the presence of an interference/interaction occurring between the two species and affecting the foraging activity of S. perspicillata. This competitive interaction is size mediated and configured as interference competition rather than exploitative competition. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Predator-Prey Interactions in Amphibians and Reptiles)
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12 pages, 810 KiB  
Article
Factor in Fear: Interference Competition in Polymorphic Spadefoot Toad Tadpoles and Its Potential Role in Disruptive Selection
by Alexandru Strugariu and Ryan Andrew Martin
Animals 2023, 13(7), 1264; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani13071264 - 06 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2017
Abstract
Disruptive selection arises when extreme phenotypes have a fitness advantage compared to more-intermediate phenotypes. Theory and evidence suggest that intraspecific resource competition is a key driver of disruptive selection. However, while competition can be indirect (exploitative) or direct (interference), the role of interference [...] Read more.
Disruptive selection arises when extreme phenotypes have a fitness advantage compared to more-intermediate phenotypes. Theory and evidence suggest that intraspecific resource competition is a key driver of disruptive selection. However, while competition can be indirect (exploitative) or direct (interference), the role of interference competition in disruptive selection has not been tested, and most models of disruptive selection assume exploitative competition. We experimentally investigated whether the type of competition affects the outcome of competitive interactions using a system where disruptive selection is common: Mexican spadefoot toads (Spea multiplicata). Spea tadpoles develop into alternative resource-use phenotypes: carnivores, which consume fairy shrimp and other tadpoles, and omnivores, which feed on algae and detritus. Tadpoles intermediate in phenotype have low fitness when competition is intense, as they are outcompeted by the specialized tadpoles. Our experiments revealed that the presence of carnivores significantly decreased foraging behavior in intermediate tadpoles, and that intermediate tadpoles had significantly lower growth rates in interference competition treatments with carnivores but not with omnivores. Interference competition may therefore be important in driving disruptive selection. As carnivore tadpoles are also cannibalistic, the ‘fear’ effect may have a greater impact on intermediate tadpoles than exploitative competition alone, similarly to non-consumptive effects in predator–prey or intraguild relationships. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Predator-Prey Interactions in Amphibians and Reptiles)
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10 pages, 1489 KiB  
Article
Multimodal Cues Do Not Improve Predator Recognition in Green Toad Tadpoles
by Andrea Gazzola, Bianca Guadin, Alessandro Balestrieri and Daniele Pellitteri-Rosa
Animals 2022, 12(19), 2603; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani12192603 - 28 Sep 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1143
Abstract
The anti-predator behaviour of green toad (Bufotes balearicus) tadpoles was investigated by exposing them to only the visual or chemical cues, or a combination of both, of a native predator, southern hawker Aeshna cyanea. We collected green toad egg strings [...] Read more.
The anti-predator behaviour of green toad (Bufotes balearicus) tadpoles was investigated by exposing them to only the visual or chemical cues, or a combination of both, of a native predator, southern hawker Aeshna cyanea. We collected green toad egg strings in the field and tadpoles did not receive any predatory stimulus before the onset of the experiment. To manipulate chemical and visual cues independently, dragonfly larvae were caged inside a transparent plastic container, while chemical cues (odour of tadpole-fed dragonfly larvae) were injected into the surrounding arena. An empty container and water were used, respectively, as controls. The behaviour of individually tested tadpoles was videorecorded for 40 min, of which 20 were before their exposure to stimuli. Five second-distance frames were compared to assess both tadpole activity and position within the arena with respect to the visual stimulus. The tadpole level of activity strongly decreased after exposure to either chemical cues alone or in combination with visual cues, while visual cues alone apparently did not elicit any defensive response. The position of tadpoles inside the arena was not affected by visual cues, suggesting that green toad tadpoles mainly rely on olfactory cues to assess the level of predation risk. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Predator-Prey Interactions in Amphibians and Reptiles)
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