Feeding ecology of the Jingdong frog Odorrana jingdongensis from Vietnam

Abstract

The Jingdong frog Odorrana jingdongensis Fei, Ye & Li, 2001, is known from China and Vietnam. It is listed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red list. Knowledge about natural history of this species is virtually lacking. As a result of our field work in Son La Province of north-western Vietnam, we provide novel data about the feeding ecology of O. jingdongensis based on stomach-flushing technique to obtain stomach contents without sacrificing the frogs, a total of 159 individuals (63 males and 96 females). We found a total of 21 prey categories with 682 items, comprising 663 items of invertebrates, three items of vertebrates and 16 unidentified items in the stomachs of O. jingdongensis. The most important (IRI) groups among the prey of O. jingdongensis were Coleoptera (32%), followed by insect larvae (11.10%), Araneae (9.60%), Orthoptera (7.49%), Hymenoptera (6.33%) and Lepidoptera (6.25%). There was an overlap of 78.16% in the diet between males and females, in both sexes the trophic spectrum was similar, predominantly consisting of Coleoptera, insect larvae, Lepidoptera, Araneae, Orthoptera and Hymenoptera. In addition, we also compared the diet composition between the three study sites and seasons. Prey categories varied from 16 to 18 in sites and were higher in the rainy season (19) compared with the dry season (16). Keywords: amphibians, invertebrates, prey items, stomach contents, Son La Province