Notas / Notes
1 Museu de Zoologia João Moojen, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Vila Gianetti, nº 32, 36570-900 - Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Email: kaiquemacedo55@gmail.com —
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4602-672X
2 Museu de Zoologia João Moojen, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Vila Gianetti, nº 32, 36570-900 - Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Email: clodoassis@yahoo.com.br —
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5009-2706
3 Museu de Zoologia João Moojen, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Vila Gianetti, nº 32, 36570-900 - Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Email: anderson.auh@gmail.com —
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9352-4457
4 Museu de Zoologia João Moojen, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Vila Gianetti, nº 32, 36570-900 - Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Email: rfeio@ufv.br —
ORCID iD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3607-2896
* Corresponding author: kaiquemacedo55@gmail.com
ABSTRACTKnowing the trophic links between species is essential to understand their functions in the ecosystem. In this work, we report the first predation record of Rhinella crucifer by the giant water bug Lethocerus grandis. Even though most Brazilian anurans preyed by giant water bugs are smaller than this insect, a larger body size of this predator together with its anesthesic saliva may provide conditions for the subjugation of larger prey. Keywords: aquatic insects; Brazil; natural history; toad. |
RESUMENDepredación de Rhinella crucifer (Wied-Neuwied, 1821) (Anura: Bufonidae) por el insecto de agua gigante Lethocerus grandis (Linnaeus, 1758) (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae) Conocer los enlaces tróficos entre especies es fundamental para comprender sus funciones en el ecosistema. Aquí, reportamos el primer registro de depredación de Rhinella crucifer por el insecto acuático Lethocerus grandis. Aunque la mayoría de los anuros brasileños depredados por la chinche acuática gigante son más pequeños que este insecto, un tamaño corporal más grande de este depredador junto con su saliva anestésica, puede proporcionar condiciones para la subyugación de presas mayores. Palabras clave: insectos acuáticos; Brasil; historia natural; sapo. |
Recibido/Received: 27/05/2021; Aceptado/Accepted: 06/10/2021; Publicado en línea/Published online: 02/12/2021 Citation / Cómo citar este artículo: Macedo, K.F. de, Assis, C.L., Oliveira, C.M. de & Feio, R.N. 2021. Predation of Rhinella crucifer (Wied-Neuwied, 1821) (Anura: Bufonidae) by giant water bug Lethocerus grandis (Linnaeus, 1758) (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae). Graellsia, 77(2): e151. https://doi.org/10.3989/graellsia.2021.v77.318 Copyright: © 2021 SAM & CSIC. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License. |
CONTENTS |
Some characteristics of anuran amphibians vary among Neotropical communities, such as abundance, biomass and body-size. Anurans also go through vulnerable periods in their life cycle, which makes them a fundamental group in trophic webs (Wilbur, 1997; Whiles et al., 2006).
In addition to preying on many types of organisms, anurans also serve as prey to a wide variety of potential predators on land or water, including vertebrates and invertebrates (Toledo, 2005). Among invertebrate predators, the hemipteran family Belostomatidae Leach, 1815 (Hemiptera Linnaeus, 1754) includes species of giant water bugs, a group of carnivorous insects that are distributed widely throughout the world (Ribeiro, 2005). These insects vary in size from medium to large (55 to 85 mm) and act as regulators in aquatic communities through predation (Ribeiro, 2005; Ohba, 2019). Predation by belostomatid insects upon adult bufonids is rare, with two known records for Brazil: one of an adult Rhinella ornata (Spix, 1824) being preyed upon by a Lethocerus grandis Linnaeus, 1758 on the north coast of the state of São Paulo (Haddad & Bastos, 1997), and one of an adult Rhinella mirandariberoi (Gallardo, 1965) preyed upon by a Letocherus annulipes (Herrich Schaeffer, 1845) in the municipality of João Pinheiro, state of Minas Gerais (Valencia-Zuleta et al., 2020).
Seeking to expand knowledge of such interactions, herein we report a new predation record of a Lethocerus grandis preying upon an adult Rhinella crucifer (Wied-Neuwied, 1821). We also provide a list of anuran species predated by giant water bugs of the family Belostomatidae in Brazil. We compiled the list by performing searches of the Google Scholar database (https://scholar.google.com/), using as keywords “Lethocerus grandis AND predat AND Rhinella crucifer” OR “Belostomatidae AND predat AND anuran AND Brazil”. We then checked the references of the recovered manuscripts, looking for additional records of predation events.
The predation event (Fig. 1) reported here was seen at 18:10 h during field work on 23 July 2019, when one of us (CLA) observed an adult Rhinella crucifer with snout-vent length (SVL) of 70 mm, being preyed upon by a Lethocerus grandis (99.2 mm). This interaction took place in a small artificial pond used for fish farming in the municipality of São Francisco do Glória, Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil (20°48’20” S, 42°19’35” W; 515 m; Datum WGS 84). The site is located in a highly anthropized landscape within the Atlantic Forest biome, with a predominantly pasture matrix. At the observation moment, the air and water temperature were 14ºC and 17ºC, respectively. The toad was alive and struggling at the water surface near the edge of the pond. The giant water bug was positioned on the dorsum of the toad, with the limbs fixed on its ventral region, and the proboscis inserted in its left eye (Fig. 1A). After approximately 20 minutes of observation, both specimens (insect and anuran) were collected. The toad died during transport, and was fixed in formalin 10%, stored in ethanol 70%, and housed at Coleção Herpetológica do Museu de Zoologia João Moojen, of Universidade Federal de Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil (MZUFV 19511). The anuran was identified as R. crucifer by the presence of a fringe on the ventral surface of the tarsus (Baldissera Jr et al., 2004). The giant water bug was identified as L. grandis due to its large body size (total length greater than 85 mm), large anterior tarsal claws as long or longer than the sum of the lengths of both anterior tarsal segments measured externally, and anterior femur slightly longer than the posterior femur (Ribeiro, 2005). There has been no previous record of predation on R. crucifer by a giant water bug, making this the first. Some “reptiles” are the main predators of the genus Rhinella, while records of predation by invertebrates are rare (Oliveira et al., 2017). Our search returned 294 articles, of which 16 were used on this study. Our data show that most of the reported predation events by giant water bugs in Brazil involved small-sized anurans (Appendix 1). It seems likely that the larger size of adult Rhinella may be difficult for these invertebrates to capture and subjugate (Toledo et al., 2007). In the present case, however, the individual Lethocerus grandis was 41.7% larger than its prey. The present observation suggests that the hemipteran large size combined with its anesthetic saliva (Menke, 1979), was sufficient for the hemipteran to subjugate the toad.
Fig. 1.— Adult male of Rhinella crucifer being preyed on by Lethocerus grandis in southeastern Brazil (A and B). Fig. 1.— Macho adulto de Rhinella crucifer siendo presa de Lethocerus grandis en el sureste de Brasil (A y B). |
We thank ICMBio for license permits (#10504–1) and Vertambiental Consultoria, Projetos e Serviços by field support. CLA thanks CAPES (Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior) for PhD scholarship. RNF thanks Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – CNPq for the productivity fellowship conceded. We thank Eduarda Melo and Erik Wild for the English review.
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○ | Figueiredo-de-Andrade, C.A., Santana, D.J. & Carvalho-e-Silva S.P., 2010. Predation on Scinax x-signatus (Anura: Hylidae) by the giant water bug Lethocerus annulipes (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae) in a Brazilian Restinga habitat. Herpetology Notes 3: 53–54 |
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○ | Yves, A., Fonseca, E.M., Neves, M.O. & Sousa, B.M., 2018. Predation on Chiasmocleis albopunctata (Boettger, 1885) (Anura: Microhylidae) by giant water bug (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae) in southeastern Brazil. Herpetology Notes 11: 993–995 |
Family/species | Stage | Prey total length (mm) | Predator | Predator total length (mm) | State | Municipality | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bufonidae | |||||||
Rhinela crucifer | Adult | 69.9 | Lethocerus grandis | 99.2 | MG | São Francisco do Glória | This work |
Rhinella mirandaribeiroi | Adult | - | Lethocerus annulipes | - | MG | João Pinheiro | Valencia-Zuleta et al. 2020 |
Rhinela ornata* | Juvenile | - | Lethocerus grandis | SP | Ubatuba | Haddad & Bastos 1997 | |
Rhinela ornata* | Juvenile | 68.2 | Lethocerus grandis | 95 | SP | Ubatuba | Haddad & Bastos 1997 |
Hylidae | |||||||
Boana albomarginata | Imago | - | Lethocerus sp. | - | PE | São Lourenço da Mata | Santos 2009 |
Dendropsophus branneri | Imago | 19 | Belostoma sp. | - | RN | Macaíba | Baracho et al. 2014 |
Dendropsophus jimi | Juvenile | 21.8 | Belostoma elongatum | - | SP | Itirapina | Toledo 2003 |
Dendropsophus minutus | Adult | 21.8 | Lethocerus delpontei | 58.9 | ES | São Matheus | Bastos et al. 1994 |
Dendropsophus minutus | Tadpole | - | Lethocerus sp. | PE | São Lourenço da Mata | Santos 2009 | |
Dendropsophus minutus | Imago | - | Belostoma sp. | PE | São Lourenço da Mata | Santos 2009 | |
Dendropsophus minutus | Juvenile | 23.5 | Belostoma elongatum | - | SP | Itirapina | Santos 2009 |
Dendropsophus minutus | Adult | 24.3 | Lethocerus sp. | 31 | AM | Manaus | Rocha et al. 2014 |
Dendropsophus minutus | Tadpole | - | Lethocerus sp. | - | SP | Águas de Santa Bárbara | Serrano et al. 2019 |
Dendropsophus minutus | Tadpole | - | Lethocerus sp. | - | SP | Águas de Santa Bárbara | Serrano et al. 2019 |
Dendropsophus minutus | Imago | - | Lethocerus sp. | - | SP | Águas de Santa Bárbara | Serrano et al. 2019 |
Pseudis platensis | Tadpole | 83.3 | Belostoma sp. | 68 | MS | Corumbá | Ceron et al. 2017 |
Scinax fuscovarius | Adult | - | Lethocerus cf. bruchi | - | SP | Borebi | Maffei et al. 2014 |
Scinax sp. | Adult | 33.4-37 | Belostoma elongatum | - | SP | Itirapina | Toledo 2003 |
Scinax sp. | Adult | 34.6-36.7 | Belostoma elongatum | - | SP | Itirapina | Toledo 2003 |
Scinax sp. | Adult | 27.1 | Belostoma elongatum | - | SP | Itirapina | Toledo 2003 |
Scinax squalirostris | - | 19.5 | Belostoma elongatum | - | SP | Itirapina | Toledo 2003 |
Scinax x-signatus | Adult | 35 | Lethocerus annulipes | 66 | RJ | São João da Barra | Figueiredo-de-Andrade et al. 2010 |
Leptodactylidae | |||||||
Leptodactylus labyrinthicus | Juvenile | - | Belostoma elongatum | - | SP | Itirapina | Toledo 2003 |
Leptodactylus pustulatus | Tadpole | 18.9 | Belostoma sp. | 30 | TO | Caseara | Fadel et al. 2019 |
Physalaemus cf. fuscomaculatus | Adult | 40.5 | Lethocerus sp. | 62.2 | MG | Uberlândia | Giaretta & Menin 2004 |
Physalaemus cuvieri | - | 26.1-29.2 | Belostoma elongatum | - | SP | Itirapina | Toledo 2003 |
Physalaemus fuscomaculatus | - | 41.6 | Belostoma elongatum | - | SP | Itirapina | Toledo 2003 |
Physalaemus nattereri | Adult | 40 | Lethocerus delpontei | - | GO | Jataí | Batista et al. 2013 |
Physalaemus nattereri | Adult | - | Lethocerus annulipes | - | PR | Diamante do Norte | Batista et al. 2013 |
Physalaemus nattereri | Adult | - | Lethocerus annulipes | - | MG | João Pinheiro | Valencia-Zuleta et al. 2020 |
Physalaemus nattereri | Adult | - | Lethocerus annulipes | - | MG | João Pinheiro | Valencia-Zuleta et al. 2020 |
Physalaemus nattereri | Adult | - | Lethocerus annulipes | - | MG | João Pinheiro | Valencia-Zuleta et al. 2020 |
Physalaemus nattereri | Adult | - | Lethocerus annulipes | - | MG | João Pinheiro | Valencia-Zuleta et al. 2020 |
Microhylidae | |||||||
Chiasmocleis albopunctata | Adult | - | Not identified | - | MG | Santana do Riacho | Yves et al. 2018 |
States abbreviations: PE – Pernambuco; RN – Rio Grande do Norte; ES – Espirito Santo; SP – São Paulo; AM – Amazonas; MS – Mato Grosso do Sul; RJ – Rio de Janeiro; GO – Goiás; PR – Paraná; MG – Minas Gerais and TO – Tocantins. * Treated as Bufo crucifer by Haddad & Bastos (1997).