NEW PREY ITEM IN THE DIET OF THE CALIFORNIA RED-LEGGED FROG (Rana draytonii) FROM BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO

David Mora Giles; Jorge H. Valdez-Villavicencio; Anny Peralta-García

doi:10.22201/fc.25942158e.2024.4.921

Authors

David Mora Giles Conservación de Fauna del Noroeste
Jorge Fauna del Noroeste A.C.
Anny Fauna del Noroeste A.C.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22201/fc.25942158e.2024.4.921

Keywords:

diet, frog, predation, tararantula hawk wasp

Abstract

To protect threatened species such as the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) it is important to understand their natural history, including food web relationships. We report the first observations of R. draytonii eating and attempting to eat tarantula hawk wasps (Pepsis sp.), based on observations from the xerophytic montane shrublands of Baja California.

References

Akmentins, M., L. Pereyra & J. Lescano. 2009. Primer registro de una población asilvestrada de rana toro (Lithobates catesbeianus) en la Provincia de Córdoba, Argentina: Notas sobre la biología de la especie. Cuadernos de Herpetología 23:25-32.

AmphibiaWeb. 2024. https://amphibiaweb.org. University of California, Berkeley, California, USA. [Consultado en septiembre 2024]

Bishop, M.R., R.C. Drewes & V.T. Vredenburg. 2014. Food web linkages demonstrate importance of terrestrial prey for the threatened California red-legged frog. Journal of Herpetology, 48, 137-143.

Bishop, M. 2011. Diet, foraging activity, and food webs of the California red-legged frog. M.S. Thesis. San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, USA.

Feldhaar, H. 2011. Predators as prey: Top-down effects on predatory hymenoptera. Pp. 217–245 In: C. Polidori (Eds.). Predation in the Hymenoptera: An Evolutionary Perspective. Transworld Research Network, Kerala, India.

Ford, L., P.A. Van Hoorn, D.R. Rao, N.J. Scott, P.C. Trenham & J.W. Bartolome. 2013. Managing Rangelands to Benefit California Red-Legged Frogs & California Tiger Salamanders. Alameda County Resource Conservation District. California, USA.

Hatle, J.D. & B.A. Salazar. 2001. Aposematic coloration of gregarious insects can delay predation by an ambush predator. Environmental Entomology 30:51-54.

Hayes, M.P. & M.R. Tennant. 1985. Diet and feeding behavior of the California red-legged frog, Rana aurora draytonii (Ranidae). The Southwestern Naturalist 30:601-605.

Krupa, J.J. 2002. Temporal shift in diet in a population of American bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana) in Carlsbad Caverns National Park. The Southwestern Naturalist 47:461-467.

Lindstedt, C., L. Murphy & J. Mappes. 2019. Antipredator strategies of pupae: how to avoid predation in an immobile life stage? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 374:20190069.

Peralta-García, A., B.D. Hollingsworth, J.Q. Richmond, J.H. Valdez-Villavicencio, G. Ruiz-Campos, R.N. Fisher, P. Cruz-Hernandez & P. Galina-Tessaro. 2016. Status of the California red-legged frog (Rana draytonii) in the state of Baja California, México. Herpetological Conservation and Biology 11:168-180.

Salman, K. A. 1930. Studies in the genus Pepsis: (Hymenoptera: Psammocharidae). PhD Thesis. Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, Massachusetts, USA.

Schmidt, J.O. 2004. Venom and the good life in tarantula hawks (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae): how to eat, not be eaten, and live long. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 77:402-413.

Schmidt, J.O. 2016. Tarantula hawks and solitary wasps. Pp. 123–163. In: The Sting of the Wild. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Schulte, P. 2012. How frogs see the world: putting Millikan’s teleosemantics to the test. Philosophia 40:483-496.