Abstract
The decline of tropical amphibian species calls for studies on their biology and ecology, in order to understand their role in the respective ecosystems. We studied the diet of Ptychadena oxyrhynchus and P. longirostris, two rocket frogs co-occurring along dirt roads with puddles in the Azagny National Park, southern-central Ivory Coast. Stomach contents of 62 individuals of P. oxyrhynchus and 75 specimens of P. longirostris were obtained using the stomach-flushing method. The diet of both species was essentially characterized by various terrestrial invertebrates (predominantly insects) and both species can be considered opportunistic feeders. The presence of tadpoles in the stomach of a female P. longirostris indicates that this species may occasionally prey on aquatic food items as well. The large overlap in prey between both study species can be taken as a hint that competition for food does not play a major role between them. An unexpected observation was the proportion of plant fragments in the diet of our frogs. However, it remains unknown if they devoured plant deliberately or not. Future research should investigate this question.
Highlights
16 rocket frog species, genus Ptychadena Boulenger, 1917, family Ptychadenidae Dubois, 1987, are known to occur in West Africa [1]
The decline of tropical amphibian species calls for studies on their biology and ecology, in order to understand their role in the respective ecosystems
We studied the diet of Ptychadena oxyrhynchus and P. longirostris, two rocket frogs co-occurring along dirt roads with puddles in the Azagny National Park, southern-central Ivory Coast
Summary
16 rocket frog species, genus Ptychadena Boulenger, 1917, family Ptychadenidae Dubois, 1987, are known to occur in West Africa [1]. Species of this sub-Saharan genus are widespread in various habitats ranging from different savannahs and grasslands, different forest ecosystems, lowland to mountainous habitats and even occur in urban areas [2,3,4,5,6,7]. Whereas P. oxyrhynchus is predominately a savannah species, P. longirostris is a forest dweller [2,3] They are widespread in Ivory Coast and meet in the savannah-forest ecotone and in degraded parts of rainforests [2,3,5,9,10,11]. Apart from the reproductive biology, the diet of frogs may help to better understand their biology [19]
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