Abstract
The diet of two populations of cave crickets, Troglophilus cavicola from Veneto, northern Italy and Troglophilus andreinii from Apulia, southern Italy, were studied by analyzing faecal and gut contents. The results obtained document different food preferences in these two species. In the Troglophilus cavicola population arthropod remains were dominant in the diet, whereas in the T. andreinii population vegetables (green and fibres) were the more abundant food category. Furthermore, study of the overlap of food resource exploitation among age and sex sub-samples seems to indicate a separation of diet among the young instars and other age classes of the populations. Differences in diet between males and females were observed only in the population of T. andreinii.
Highlights
The feeding habits of Rhaphidophoridae cave crickets are considered to be omnivorous–saprophagous (Chopard 1938)
For the Troglophilus cavicola population (Covoli di Velo), we observed the dominance of arthropod remains in the diet (69.44%); by contrast, in the T. andreinii population (Tranese cave), vegetables were the more abundant food category, reaching about 92%
In the T. cavicola population, there is a clear increase of vegetable fibres in summer samples and a complete shift to the exploitation of arthropods remains in winter
Summary
The feeding habits of Rhaphidophoridae cave crickets are considered to be omnivorous–saprophagous (Chopard 1938). (Macropathinae),such as species of the Australian genera Gymnoplectron Hutton, 1897, Pallidoplectron Richards, 1958, Micropathus Richards, 1964 and Pallidotettix Richards, 1964 (Richards 1962; 1968; 1970), Spelaeiacris tabulae Peringuey, 1916 from Wynberg cave, Capetown, SouthAfrica (Carchini et al 1991) and of the Patagonian species Heteromallus cavicola Ander, 1932 ( Di Russo et al 1996). Other data indicating a omnivorous diet are available for some species of the North American genera Hadenoecus Scudder, 1863 and Ceuthophilus Provancher, 1876 (Hubbel and Norton 1978, Lavoie et al 2007). An example of predatory habits was reported by Chopard (1959) for Rhaphidophora oophaga Chopard, 1959, of which some individuals were observed to eat eggs of the Black-nest Swiftlet Collocalia maxima Hume, 1878 in the Subis cave, Sarawak, Malaysia
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