DIETARY PREFERENCE OF EUPHLYCTIS CYANOPHLYCTIS TADPOLES IN DIFFERENT HABITATS IN AND AROUND SIMILIPAL BIOSPHERE RESERVE, ODISHA, INDIA.

摘要: Amphibian tadpoles are the key consumers and play an important role in the food chain of aquatic ecosystems. Understanding the natural diet of tadpoles can help in developing management strategies for them. We characterized the diet of 170 Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis tadpoles collected from 34 sites during rainy seasons (July to October) of 2014 and 2015 in different temporary habitats in and around Similipal Biosphere Reserve, India. After morphometric measurements (total length, body length and body width), the complete intestine of each tadpole was analyzed for food items and quantified based on the numeric frequency (NF%) and frequency of occurrence (FO%). The food spectrum of tadpoles included mostly detritus followed by phytoplanktons (represented by 6 classes and 55 genera). The food items ingested were similar in all the habitats, suggesting that they are non-selective predators that lack an apparent dietary preference, and their diet is mostly dependent on the availability of food items. Knowledge of food habits and feeding behaviour of the tadpoles is essential, since the early part of the life history of amphibians is dependent on the availability of the food items in the natural habitat.