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Chemosensory Prey Preference in Neotropical Gastropod‐eating Snakes (Dipsadinae: Dipsadini)
Author(s) -
Sheehy Coleman M.,
Tovar Ruben U.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.30.1_supplement.978.1
Subject(s) - predation , biology , zoology , ecology
Neotropical snakes in the tribe Dipsadini are gastropod specialists, and many possess a suite of morphological and behavioral characteristics generally accepted as adaptations for extracting land snails from their shells. To test the assumption that these snakes prefer gastropod prey, we collected three Dipsas gaigeae , six Tropidodipsas philippii , two T. annuliferus and three Sibon nebulatus and offered to them the scents of four prey items (i.e., snail, earthworm, cricket and frog) plus two controls. Scents were offered via a cotton‐tipped swab, and the response variable was the number of tongue flicks directed towards the swab in 60s. Mean maximum tongue‐flick responses for each species were analyzed using ANOVA and rmANOVA. Dipsas gaigeae , S. nebulatus and T. annuliferus preferred gastropod prey to other potentially available prey, whereas T. philippii showed a strong preference for both gastropods and earthworms. Unlike the other species, T. phillippi consumed live earthworms, suggesting that this species likely eats earthworms in nature in addition to gastropods. These results suggest that earthworms may be the ancestral diet of the Dipsadini and highlight the importance of testing dietary assumptions in order to better understand the evolution of dietary specialization. Support or Funding Information We thank J. Reyes‐Velasco, C. Cox, J. Streicher, G. Rivas, T. Barros and M. Ingrasci for assistance with fieldwork and acquiring live snakes. A. Pires da Silva kindly provided space for conducting this study in the animal room facility at the University of Texas at Arlington. We thank O. Flores‐Villela, C. Franklin, A. (Beto) Mendoza and A. Monzón for their assistance with obtaining permits. This study was supported by NSF grant DEB 0613802 to J. Campbell and O. Flores‐Villela. The use of live snakes for this study fully complied with approved UTA Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) protocol A07.032.