Predation on Leptodeira Annulata
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Herpetology Notes, volume 12: 953-956 (2019) (published online on 25 September 2019) Predation on Leptodeira annulata (Linnaeus, 1758) (Squamata: Colubridae) by Theraphosa blondi (Latreille, 1804) (Araneae: Theraphosidae) in Amazon Forest, North of Brazil Fernanda Dias da Silva1,*, Rogério Barros2, Vitor Loreno de Almeida Cerqueira1,3, Camila Mattedi4, Rafael Cunha Pontes4, and Elvis Almeida Pereira5,6,7 The predation event is considered one of the most reptiles (Barbo et al., 2009). In recent decades, predation important regulators of communities (Barbo et al., events between invertebrates and vertebrates have been 2009), as it is responsible for mortality in populations frequently recorded in nature, mainly involving spiders and can occur at any stage of animal life (Maffei et al., and amphibians (e.g., Menin et al., 2005; Barbo et al., 2010). Most predators are generalists, opportunistically 2009; Barej et al., 2009; Oliveira et al., 2010; Santos- feeding on available preys (Maffei et al., 2014). Among Silva et al., 2013; Pacheco et al., 2016; Pedrozo et al., these, arthropods comprise a high diversity of predators 2017), or spiders and reptiles (e.g. Bauer, 1990; Armas, and, as a mega-diverse group, exert important roles 2000; Vieira et al., 2012; Borges et al., 2016; Oliveira et in trophic webs of forested areas (Lewinsohn et al., al, 2017; Rocha et al., 2017). 2005). The “Goliath birdeater” spider, Theraphosa blondi Considered potential predators of vertebrates, (Latreille, 1804), belongs to the Theraphosidae family. arthropods are represented by four subphyla bearing Tarantulas of this family are known to commonly present living species: Arachnida, Insecta, Crustacea and a defence system of rubbing their hind paws in the Chilopoda (Maffei et al., 2014). Among them, spiders abdomen and releasing hair strands with stinging barbs can act both as prey and as predators of amphibians and that can cause skin irritations (Gallon, 2000; Bertani and Guadanucci, 2013). T. blondi is considered one of the biggest known spiders, reaching up to 260 mm in length (Marshall and Uetz, 1993; Foelix, 1996; Almeida et al., 2018). It presents predominantly nocturnal activity and 1 Laboratório de Ecologia Estrutural e Funcional, Universidade its diet is considered generalist, being known to feed on Paulista, Avenida Independência, Éden, Sorocaba, São Paulo vertebrates of similar size or slightly smaller than the 18087-101, Brazil. spider, such as amphibians (Menin et al., 2005) and 2 Universidade Federal de São Paulo, Diadema, São Paulo birds (Carvalho et al., 2016). It has a wide geographic 09972-270, Brazil. distribution, and can be found in tropical forests of the 3 Universidade de Sorocaba, Sorocaba, São Paulo 18023-000, southeast of Venezuela and Guyana, and in the north of Brazil. the Brazilian Amazon forest (Saul-Gershenz, 1996). One 4 Setor de Herpetologia, Departamento de Vertebrados, Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Quinta of the popular names of T. blondi is “Goliath bird-eating da Boa Vista, São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro spider”, due to the record of a specimen that preyed on 20940-040, Brazil. a female of the bird species Willisornis poecilinotus 5 Laboratório de Herpetologia, Departamento de Biologia (Cabanis, 1847) (Carvalho et al., 2016). Animal, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, The “Banded cat-eyed snake”, Leptodeira annulata Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro 23890-000, Brazil. (Linnaeus, 1758), is a semi-arboreal species of the 6 Mapinguari – Laboratório de Biogeografia e Sistemática de Dipsadidae family with nocturnal activity and a diet that Anfíbios e Répteis, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do consists predominantly of amphibians (Santos-Silva et Sul, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul 79002-970, Brazil. 7 �oological Institute, Braunschweig University of Technology, al., 2014), eventually feeding on lizards and insects Mendelssohnstrasse 4, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany. (Mesquita et al., 2013; Santos et al., 2018). With a wide * Correponding author. E-mail: fdsherpeto�gmail.com geographic distribution, this snake can be found from 954 Fernanda Dias da Silva et al. Mexico to Argentina, being present in several domains blondi specimen with an individual of Leptodeira of Brazil, such as the Amazon, Caatinga, Cerrado, annulata trapped in its chelicerae (Figure 1A–B). Atlantic Forest, and Pantanal (Pavan, 2007). According When approaching the animals for identification and to Mesquita et al. (2013), this species presents a great photographic record of predation, the T. blondi arsenal of defensive mechanisms, including escape, individual became aggressive, rubbing its hind legs in elevating the anterior part of the body with dorsoventral the abdomen, and releasing a large amount of urticating flattening and triangulation of the head, cloacal discharge hair strands. Observation lasted about five minutes until with bad odour, thanatosis, and quick jumps from the the T. blondi specimen moved quickly to a hole in an branches directly to the ground. Although snakes are aerial root carrying its prey with it, thereafter being no not common items in the diet of invertebrates (Borges et further sign of the specimens (Figure 1C–D). al., 2016), we present the first record of predation of L. Most of the reports go back only to the feeding annulata by T. blondi. process, and it is impossible to say if there was an active On the 31st of July 2018, at 10:00h, during field activity predation event, or if the predator only benefited from in a dense ombrophilous forest (3.1667° S, 51.4307° W; an opportunistic situation (Maffei et al., 2010). Although Datum WGS84; 84 m elevation), in the municipality of most predation events involving Brazilian herpetofauna Anapú, state of Pará, Brazil, we observed a Theraphosa occur by spiders of the family Ctenidae (e.g. Foerster Figure 1. (A–B) Theraphosa blondi preying on an individual of Leptodeira annulata; (C) T. blondi escaping with its prey; (D) L. annulata being carried into a hole in an aerial root. Predation on Leptodeira annulata by Theraphosa blondi, North of Brazil 955 et al., 2017; Oliveira et al., 2017; Pedrozo et al., 2017), Foelix, R.F. (1996): Biology of spiders, Second Edition. New York, predation records of the groups inserted in the order USA, Oxford University Press and Georg Thieme Verlag. Squamata, specifically between snakes and spiders, are Gallon, R.C. (2000): The Natural History of tarantula spiders. Natural History 8: 18. still scarce in literature and are associated with spiders Lewinsohn, T.M., Freitas, A.V.L., Prado, P.I. (2005): Conservação belonging to the Theraphosidae family (e.g. Nunes et de invertebrados terrestres e seus habitats no Brasil. al., 2010; Dias et al., 2015; Borges et al., 2016; Pinto et Megadiversidade 1 (1): 62–69. al., 2017) e Theridiidae (e.g. O’Shea and Kelly, 2017; Maffei, F., Bolfarini, M., Ubaid, F.K. (2014): Predation of Scinax Rocha et al., 2017). Consequently, reports on the trophic fuscovarius (Anura: Hylidae) by two invertebrates in south- interaction for Theraphosa genus, including T. blondi eastern Brazil. Herpetology Notes 7: 371–374. are scarce in literature, with only one record in nature Maffei, F., Ubaid, F.K., Jim, J. (2010): Predation of herps by concerning invertebrate prey (e.g. Nyffeler et al., 2017), spiders (Araneae) in the Brazilian Cerrado. Herpetology Notes 3: 167–170. and two concerning vertebrate prey (e.g. Menin et al., Marshall, S.D., Uetz, G.W. (1993): The growth and maturation of 2005; Carvalho et al., 2016), indicating a gap on the a giant spider: Theraphosa blondi (Latrielle, 1804) (Araneae, knowledge about their food items. Therefore, this record Theraphosidae). Revue Arachnologique 10: 93–103. helps to understand the natural history of T. blondi and Menin, M., Rodrigues, J., Azevedo, C.S. (2005): Predation on L. annulata, highlighting the existence of important amphibians by spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) in the Neotropical trophic connections between these groups. region. Phyllomedusa 4: 39–47. Mesquita, P.C.M., Passos, D.C., Borges–Nojosa, D.M., Cechin, S.�. 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