PREDATION EVENT OF MILK FROG Trachycephalus typhonius (ANURA: HYLIDAE) ON A COMMON HOUSE GECKO Hemidactylus frenatus (SQUAMATA: GEKKONIDAE)

Abstract

Observations of predation events are rare. These events are important to help understand trophic networks of biological communities in general and of introduced species in particular. Milk frogs (Trachycephalus typhonius) feed on insects and other arthropods, but some cases of vertebrates have been reported in its diet: a Sheep toad (Hypopachus variolosus) in México, a Black Myotis (Myotis nigrescens) in the Pantanal of Brazil, and an adult tree frog of Dendropsophus soaresi also in Brazil. Here we report the predation of an adult Milk frog on a Common house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus) in Bajamar, Puntarenas, Costa Rica. The observation was made in a house in an area of pastures with trees near a mangrove swamp.