06 Naya Et Al

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Cuad. herpetol.

,1616(2):
Cuad. herpetol., (2):165
165–167,
– 167, 2002
2002 165
165

N O T A S

INTESTINAL LENGTH OF FOUR SOUTH AMERICAN


ANURAN SPECIES

D. E. N A Y A 1 ; A. C A M A R G O 2 ; R. M A N E Y R O 1 ; I. D A R O S A 1 & A. C A N A V E R O 1
1
Sección Zoología Vertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de la República, Iguá 4225, CP 11400, Mon-
tevideo, Uruguay.
2
Department of Biology, University of Richmond, Richmond VA 23173, USA.

During the last thirty years, intra and p. pulchella (n = 43), B. gr. granulosus (n
interspecific variation in gut morphome- = 12), P. minutus (n = 21) were collected
trics has been extensively investigated along Arroyo Espinas (34º 47’ S, 55º 22’
(Starck, 1999). However, most of this re- W), Uruguay, between August 1998 and
search was conducted in birds, mammals February 2000. Animals were killed in
and reptiles (see Piersma and Lind- the field with 2-phenoxy-ethanol and
strom, 1997; and Starck, 1999 for re- fixed in 10% formaldehyde. Then, speci-
views); and to date, practically nothing is mens were measured (SVL, snout vent
known about this topic in postmetamor- length), ventrally dissected and their in-
phic amphibians (see Larsen 1992). The testines removed and measured (IL) to
aim of this note is to report and compare the nearest 0.1 cm. Comparisons among
intestinal length of four South American species were made of the intestinal
anuran species: Leptodactylus ocellatus length / snout-vent length ratios (IL/
(Leptodactylidae), Hyla p. pulchella (Hyl- SVL), trough a Kruskal-Wallis median
idae), Bufo gr. granulosus (Bufonidae), test and Mann-Whitney U tests.
and Pseudis minutus (Pseudidae). The mean values of SVL, IL, and IL/
In order to make trophic studies (da SVL are shown in Table 1. Differences
Rosa et al., in press), postmetamorphic in IL/SVL among species were highly sig-
specimens of L. ocellatus (n = 103), H. nificant (X2 = 88.40, df = 3, p < 0.001), and

Figure 1. Median value ( ), 25%-75% quartile range ( ), and total range (‡) of IL/SVL, for each
species.
166 D. E. N A Y A et al.: Intestinal Length of Four S. American Anuran Species

Species SVL (cm) IL (cm) IL / SVL n


L. ocellatus 6.02 (! 2.12) 12.28 (! 6.06) 1.96 (! 0.47) 103
B. gr. granulosus 4.54 (! 1.33) 9.25 (! 2.28) 2.08 (! 0.27) 12
H. p. pulchella 3.61 (! 0.65) 4.29 (! 1.05) 1.19 (! 0.20) 43

P. minutus
minuta 3.55 (! 0.60) 4.58 (!1 .56) 1.27 (! 0.32) 21

Table 1. SVL, IL, and IL/SVL mean values (! sd) for the each species.

all the species pairs differed markedly, postmetamorphic anurans only vary mod-
except H. p. pulchella with P. minutus, estly (Toloza and Diamond, 1990). On the
and B. gr. granulosus with L. ocellatus other hand, body length appears to be
(Table 2). In this sense, H. p. pulchella more related with the species grouping
and P. minutus, presented IL/SVL values observed: the species pairs that did not
close to 1.2, while B. gr. granulosus and differ in IL/SVL were those that imply
L. ocellatus showed IL/SVL values close species of similar body length (H. p. pul-
to 2.0 (Fig. 1). chella with P. minuta, and B. gr. granu-
Studies about gut morphometrics of losus with L. ocellatus). Probably, fac-
vertebrate species indicates that, when tors related to body size and shape could
interspecific analyses are conducted, diet be sufficiently important in determinate
and body size are important factors relat- the relative gut dimension of the species
ed to intestinal size variation (Nodzenski under study (see Nodzenski et al. 1989).
et al. 1989; Kramer and Bryant, 1995;
Starck, 1999). Diet data for the species
under study shows that L. ocellatus and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
P. minuta are closely similar and sepa-
rated from H. p. pulchella and B. fernan- We wish to thank D. Nuñez and L.
dezae (these latter species were also dif- Ziegler for their help during the field
ferent among them) (Basso, 1990). The work, to A. Jauri for logistic support in
marked dietary differences between L. the study area, and to P. Vaz and K.
ocellatus and B. gr. granulosus were con- Yanek for language corrections. Special
firmed in our study location (da Rosa et thanks are extended to F. Trillmich and
al. 1999). Thus, diet does not appear to one anonymous referee for their com-
determine the observed species clusters ment and suggestion. D.E.N. is support-
based on IL/SVL, which is in agreement ed by a fellowship from PEDECIBA (Uru-
with the fact that food composition in guay).

Species SVL (cm) IL (cm) IL / SVL n


L. ocellatus 6.02 (! 2.12) 12.28 (! 6.06) 1.96 (! 0.47) 103
B. gr. granulosus 4.54 (! 1.33) 9.25 (! 2.28) 2.08 (! 0.27) 12
H. p. pulchella 3.61 (! 0.65) 4.29 (! 1.05) 1.19 (! 0.20) 43

P. minutus
minuta 3.55 (! 0.60) 4.58 (!1 .56) 1.27 (! 0.32) 21

Table 2. Results of the Mann-Whitney U test (Z statistics and its associated probability) for each pair
of species. * Statistically significant difference.
Cuad. herpetol., 16 (2): 165 – 167, 2002 167

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tion. In: Environmental Physiology
BASSO, N. G. 1990. Estrategias adaptati- of the Amphibians. M. E. FEDER &
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four sympatric anurans species in Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 12:
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KRAMER, D. L. & M. J. BRYANT. 1995. In- tebrates - implication for evolution-
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diet - the long and short of a con- TOLOZA, E. M. & J. M. D IAMOND. 1990.
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Recibido: 25 / 06 / 02
Aceptado: 10 / 08 / 02

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