Feeding habits of Anolis sagrei , an introduced species, in urban ecosystems of Guayas Province
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Feeding habits of Anolis sagrei, an introduced species, in urban ecosystems of Guayas Province Andrea E. Narváez 1
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Taryn Ghia 2
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M. Mar Moretta-Urdiales 3
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Natalia Molina Moreira 3
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract To maintain a stable population, an introduced species must be capable of exploiting varied resources and adapting to environmental conditions different from its native range. The brown anole (Anolis sagrei), one of the most prolific invasive species worldwide, is well established in Ecuador—especially in urban environments throughout Guayaquil and Samborondón (Guayas province). In this research, we describe the feeding habits of male and female brown anoles collected from six different sites: a regenerated wetland ecosystem and five city gardens. We dissected stomach contents in order to record the number and type of prey items, each classified to the lowest identifiable taxonomic category. Our results show that A. sagrei consumes a variety of prey items; Hymenoptera (mainly ants) represented the highest percentage of total gut contents from all sites. In addition, we found that A. sagrei also feeds on insects belonging to the families Cicadidae, Miridae, Scarabeidae, Chrysomelidae and Nitidulidae, all of which are considered to be agricultural pests. As such, we predict that A. sagrei could be an ideal model for biological control studies in urban environments throughout Guayas and perhaps beyond. Keywords Anole . Urban ecosystems . Introduced species . Feeding habits
Introduction An introduced species must be able to exploit available resources and adapt to environmental conditions different from its native range. Adapting to new ecological pressures and resources often involves the modification of behavior and/or physiology. For example, when food is limited, invading species are predicted to assume a generalist diet, taking advantage of as much resources as possible (Chejanovski et al. 2017). Additionally, animals are expected to feed faster in environments where the predation risk is high (Chejanovski et al. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00979-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Andrea E. Narváez [email protected] 1
Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad de Guayaquil, Av. Raúl Gómez Lince s/n Av. Juan Tanca Marengo, Guayaquil, Ecuador
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Museo QCAZ Invertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av.12 de octubre 1076 y Roca, Quito, Ecuador
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Universidad Espíritu Santo-Ecuador, km 2.5 vía Samborondón, Guayaquil, Ecuador
2017), especially when predators are more abundant, or the invasive prey is more exposed to predators in the new environment. On the other hand, introduced species need to compete successfully with native species, which are likely to be specialized to the local conditions. Therefore, resource specialization in invasive species is thought to be rar
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