Diet Composition of Aurans in Rice Field Chitwan,Nepal

Abstract

The stomach flush technique of 398 individuals of frogs and 46 species of toads in the rice field of Bachhauli, Chitwan was conducted to find their food composition. Frogs and Toads are secondary consumers in food web and consume significant amount of insects and noninsect

prey items. The stomach contents of frogs and toads contained 72 % prey within Hymenoptera, Coleoptera and Lepidoptera. Other insect orders were Orthoptera, Homoptera, Hemiptera, Dermaptera, Odonata, and Isoptera. Non-insect prey includes millipeds, spiders, and prawns including earthworms and snails. Coleoptera was the most abundant insect order and was reported in the diet of most of anuran species. There was no any specialization of prey items in anuran species. They were found preying on any prey items which are available on their way. Anurans consumed significantly higher number of insect prey than non-insect prey (t=14.07, df= 892, p=<0.001). There was no significant difference between consumption of insect prey by male and female frogs. However female consumed significantly higher number of non-insect prey compared to male (Man-Whitney U-test = 22013.50, p = 0.028).Female anurans were comparatively bigger than male and there was significant difference between the weights of diets between them (p=0.001).