Notes on the Stomach Contents of A

Home , Tiliqua rugosa

WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES &IRCF AMPHIBIANS REPTILES • VOL &15, AMPHIBIANS NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 189 25(3):200–203 • DEC 2018

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURE ARTICLES Notes. Chasingon Bullsnakes the (Pituophis Stomachcatenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: Contents of a Juvenile On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 Sleepy. The Shared Lizard, History of Treeboas (Corallus Tiliqua grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada:rugosa (Gray 1825), A Hypothetical Excursion ...... Robert W. Henderson 198 RESEARCHKilled ARTICLES by an Eastern Brown Snake, . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ...... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida Pseudonaja ...... Brian J. Camposano,textilis Kenneth L. Krysko, (Duméril, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and MichaelBibron, Granatosky 212 andCONSERVATION Duméril ALERT 1854) in South Australia . World’s Mammals in Crisis ...... 220 . More Than Mammals ...... 223 . The “DowGerrut Jones NorvalIndex” of 1*Biodiversity, Jessica ...... Clayton1, Robert D. Sharrad1, and Michael G. Gardner...... 1,2 225

1HUSBANDRYCollege of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia ([email protected]) 2 Evolutionary Biology. Captive Unit, Care South of the CentralAustralian Netted Museum, Dragon ...... North Terrace Adelaide 5000, South Australia, Australia, Shannon (michael.gardner@f Plummer 226 linders.edu.au)

PROFILE Photographs by the senior author. . Kraig Adler: A Lifetime Promoting Herpetology ...... Michael L. Treglia 234

COMMENTARY . The Turtles Have Been Watching Me ...... Eric Gangloff 238 izards are a very diverse group of vertebrates that inhabit The lizard (Fig. 4) was collected and dissected to examine its Land utilize a varietyBOOK of REVIEWhabitats and niches; that their diets digestive tract contents. The stomach was filled with leaves, vary dramatically is not. Threatened surprising. Amphibians Only of the Worlda few edited species by S.N. have Stuart, M. Hoffmann,a few flower J.S. Chanson, buds, N.A. andCox, pods of Ward’s Weed, Carrichtera R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young ...... Robert Powell 243 adaptations, such as colic valves and elongated intestines, annua (L.) DC, in various advanced stages of digestion plus a that enable them to beCONSERVATION mainly herbivorous RESEARCH (i.e., REPORTS: >90% Summaries of the of Publishedfew Conservationfragments Research of anReports unidentifiable ...... forb. 245 The only non-plant diet consists of plant NATURALmaterial; HISTORY Cooper RESEARCH and Vitt REPORTS 2002).: Most Summaries of Publishedmaterial Reports observed on Natural wasHistory the ...... remains of 247 a beetle.  NEWBRIEFS ...... 248 lizards are carnivorous, EDITORIAL but many INFORMATION are facultative ...... omnivores During the 2017 field...... season 251 (mid-August to mid- that will consume someFOCUS plant ON CONSERVATIONmaterial (e.g.,: Pianka A Project Youand Can Vitt Support ...... December), 34.4% (129) of the Sleepy 252 Lizards we encoun- 2003). The Sleepy Lizard, Tiliqua rugosa (Gray 1825), which tered (n = 375) were observed feeding. SVLs of these lizards is endemic to the southern parts of Australia (Cogger 2014), ranged from 205 to 380 mm (mean ± SD = 318 ± 30.9 mm), is an example of such an omnivorous species. These relatively so most were adults. Although they were feeding on a variety large skinks (Scincidae) opportunisticallyFront Cover. feedShannon on Plummer. inverte- of foodBack items Cover. Michael(Table Kern 1), in 49.7% of the instances where the Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo brates and even carrion (Fig. 1), butestibus feed inveliquoprimarily velique on rerchil flowers foodestibus item inveliquo could velique be rerchil identified they were parts of C. annua. (Fig. 2), fruit (Fig. 3), and leaves oferspienimus, a variety quos of accullabo. native Ilibus and erspienimus,Yeatman quos (1988) accullabo. examined Ilibus the scats of three juvenile (less aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum introduced plant species (Yeatman 1988;fugiatis maionsequatHenle 1990; eumque Dubas thanfugiatis 3 months maionsequat old) eumque T . rugosa and found that the contents and Bull 1991). Our understandingmoditia of the erere dietnonsedis of ma T .sectiatur rugosa resembledmoditia erere nonsedis those ma of sectia adult- lizards. Our observation therefore ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as stems largely from observations of adultaccullabo. lizards or individuals provides additional support for the conclusion that the juve- whose age class was not specified, so the diet of juveniles is niles feed on the same types of dietary items as the adults. relatively poorly understood. Herein we describe the stomach Although some observations about the diet of wild Tiliqua contents of a juvenile T. rugosa, with notes on dietary items of scincoides also have suggested that juveniles and adults have adult lizards from the same locality. similar diets (Yeatman 1988), this behavior does not apply to At 1135 h on 20 September 2017, GN noticed an adult all species in the subfamily Egerniinae. In Egernia, juveniles Eastern Brown Snake, Pseudonaja textilis (Duméril, Bibron, usually are more insectivorous, whereas adults tend to be her- and Duméril 1854) on the side of a dirt road in the Mid bivorous (Chapple 2003). The apparent lack of a dietary shift North Region of South Australia (33°57’38’’S, 139°14’05’’E; in T. rugosa is most likely due to the fact that this species is an 211 m elev.; datum: WGS84). Upon closer inspection, he opportunistic omnivore that usually inhabits xeric environ- found that the snake was starting the process of ingesting a ments, so individuals of all age classes will feed on the most juvenile T. rugosa (SVL 173 mm; tail length 40 mm; body frequently encountered food items. Empirical studies into the mass 94 g). However, the presence of the observer disturbed extent of competition between the different age classes in T. the snake and it fled after releasing the already dead lizard. rugosa populations are therefore warranted.

Fig. 1. A Sleepy Lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) that was feeding on the carcass of a Western Grey Kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus).

Fig. 2. A Sleepy Lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) eating the flower of a Thread Iris (Moraea setifolia) (inset on the right). 201 NORVAL ET AL. IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 25(3):200–203 • DEC 2018

Fig. 3. A Sleepy Lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) eating the fruit of a Ruby Saltbush (Enchylaena tomentosa) (inset on the right).

Table 1. Plant and animal material observed in 2017 as dietary items of the Sleepy Lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) at the study site near Mt. Mary in the Mid North Region of South Australia.

Species Note Ward’s Weed (Carrichtera annua) flowers, leaves, and pods Grassy Bindweed (Convolvulus remotus) flowers and leaves Paterson’s Curse (Echium plantagineum) leaves Ruby Saltbush (Enchylaena tomentosa) fruit Berrigan (Eremophila longifolia) flowers Little Bur Clover (Medicago minima) flowers and leaves Sugarwood (Myoporum platycarpum) flowers Fig. 4. A dorsal (top) and ventral (bottom) view of the juvenile Sleepy Wild Sage (Salvia verbenaca) flowers and leaves Lizard (Tiliqua rugosa) described herein prior to being dissected. The shape California Pepper Tree (Schinus molle) fruit of the abdomen and tail suggests that it was not malnurished. Tangled Sida (Sida intricata) leaves Wooly New Holland Daisy (Vittadinia gracilis) leaves Acknowledgements Westerrn Grey Kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus) carrion The main observation presented herein was made by the senior author while conducting surveys as part of his doc- toral research, which was partly funded in 2017 by a grant Literature Cited from the Royal Society of South Australia. Clearance for the Chapple, D.G. 2003. Ecology, life-history, and behavior in the Australian scincid research was granted by the Animal Welfare Committee of genus Egernia, with comments on the evolution of complex sociality in lizards. Herpetological Monographs 17: 145–180. Flinders University (No.: E454/17) and the Department Cogger, H.G. 2014. Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia. 7th ed. CSIRO of Environment, Water and Natural Resources of the Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia. Government of South Australia (Permit No.: A23436-25). Cooper, W.E. and L.J. Vitt. 2002. Distribution, extent, and evolution of plant

202 NORVAL ET AL. IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 25(3):200–203 • DEC 2018

consumption by lizards. Journal of Zoology 257: 487–517. Pianka, E.R. and L.J. Vitt. 2003. Lizards: Windows to the Evolution of Diversity. Dubas, G. and C.M. Bull. 1991. Diet choice and food availability in the omnivo- University of California Press, Berkley. rous lizard, Trachydosaurus rugosus. Wildlife Research 18: 147–155. Yeatman, E.M. 1988. Resource Partitioning by Three Congeneric Species of Skink Henle, K. 1990. Notes on the population ecology of the large herbivorous lizard, (Tiliqua) in Sympatry in South Australia. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Flinders Trachydosaurus rugosus, in arid Australia. Journal of Herpetology 24: 100–103. University, Adelaide, South Australia.

203