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Home , Helicops (genus), Helicops infrataeniatus, Leptodactylus chaquensis, Physalaemus, Physalaemus nattereri

Herpetology Notes, volume 11: 539-541 (2018) (published online on 25 July 2018)

First predation report of chaquensis (Anura, ) by infrataeniatus (, Dipsadidae) and distribution extension for this water in the Brazilian Cerrado ecoregion

Rafaela Thaler1,*, Henrique Folly2, Caroline Galvão1 and Leandro Alves da Silva1,3

Amphibians are relevant components of many food infrataeniatus. Additionally, we also report an extension chains, once they are prey and predators of several of the geographic distribution of this water snake. The organisms, from invertebrates to vertebrates (Duellman individuals collected (collection permit ICMBio 45889- and Trueb, 1994; Toledo, 2005; Wells, 2010; Toledo 1) were housed in the Coleção Zoológica de Referência et al., 2007). Among the vertebrates, are one da Universidade Federal de of the most representative group of predators of post (ZUFMS-REP). metamorphic anurans (Toledo et al., 2007), and some During a herpetofaunal nocturnal survey conducted neotropical snakes have an anuran specialized on 06 October 2016, at 21:15 h, we observed a female diet (Vitt, 1983). of (SVL = 758 mm, ZUFMS- Leptodactylus chaquensis Cei, 1950 is a nocturnal REP02534) preying on an adult female of Leptodactylus large that occurs in , , , chaquensis (SVL = 76.04 mm, ZUFMS- AMP5606) in and (Calderon et al., 2009). Predation a pond embedded by a pasture formation (-19.8041°S; records of this species are reported for birds (Prado, -54.9055°W; datum=WGS84), in Corguinho 2003; Aoki and Landgref Filho, 2013), neotropical otter municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil. During (Ferreira et al., 2017) and snakes (Carreira-Vidal, 2002; the survey, we heard an agonistic call so we actively Prado, 2003; Dorado-Rodrigues et al., 2012). Helicops went looking for the individual emitting the noise. We infrataeniatus (Jan, 1865) is an aquatic medium size snake, that occurs in Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay (Giraudo, 2001). Its diet is mainly composed by fish and (e.g. Feltrim and Cechin, 2000; Giraudo, 2001; Martins and Duarte, 2003; Aguiar and Di-Bernardo, 2004; Vogel et al., 2017). Here we report the first predation event of L. chaquensis by H.

1 Laboratório de Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, 79.002-970, Campo Grande, MS, Brasil. 2 Programa de Pós-graduação em Biologia , Departamento de Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, 36570-000, Viçosa, MG, Brasil. 3 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, Instituto de Biociências, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Figure 1. The water snake Helicops infrataeniatus preying 79070-900, Campo Grande, MS, Brasil. on the Cei’s white-lipped frog Leptodactylus chaquensis, in * Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] Corguinho municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul state, Brazil. 540 Rafaela Thaler et al.

and the most northwestern record of this species in Brazil. Landgref Filho and Aoki (2011) registered H. infrataeniatus in Mato Grosso do Sul state, in the municipality of Iguatemi (approximately 430 km south of Corguinho), however, the area belongs to the Atlantic Forest ecoregion. This new record extends the geographic range of H. infrataeniatus 371.50 km northwest from the closest occurrence, municipality of Castilho, São Paulo. The present predation record reveals a new prey of H. infrataeniatus and extends the distribution range of this water snake.

Acknowledgments. We would like to thank Sarah Mângia for her suggestions and help improving English on this paper. We also thank Reuber Brandão for the critical revision of the manuscript.

References Figure 2. Geographic distribution of Helicops infrataeniatus in Brazil. Brazilian territory division by ecoregions: PT Aguiar, L.F.S., Di-Bernardo, M. (2004): Diet and feeding = Pantanal, CE = Cerrado, AF = Atlantic Forest and PA = behavior of Helicops infrataeniatus (Serpentes: : Pampas. Black stars: new records in the Corguinho (1) and ) in Southern Brazil. Studies on Neotropical Campo Grande (2) municipalities, Mato Grosso do Sul state; Fauna and Environment 39(1): 7–14. Black circles: literature records. Aoki, C., Landgref Filho, P. (2013): Predation on Leptodactylus chaquensis (Anura: Leptodactylidae) by the whistling heron Syrigma sibilatrix (Ciconiiformes: Ardeidae) in Central Brazil. Herpetology Notes 6: 261–262. Calderon, L.A., Delaix-Zaqueo, K., Zaqueo, K.D., Serrano, found the L. chaquensis partially submerged in the R.O.P., Messias, M.R., Cardozo-Filho, J.L., Diniz-Sousa, R., water using the right hand to hold onto the vegetation Holanda, R.J., Rego, T.B., Stabeli, R.G. (2009): Amphibia, at the edge of the pond, in an attempt to maintain itself Anura, Leptodactylidae, Leptodactylus chaquensis: Distribution out of the water. At the moment of the encounter, the extension and geographic distribution map. Check List 5: 425– snake was completely submerged, biting and pulling the 427. frog by its left forearm. After the escape attempt of the Carreira-Vidal, S. (2002): Alimentación de los ofidios de Uruguay. Monografías de Herpetología 6: 1–127.–127.127. frog, we completely removed both specimens from the Dorado-Rodrigues, T.F., Campos, V.A., dos Santos M.M., pond and placed them on the ground (Figure 1). Nearly Pansonato A., Strüssmann C. (2012): Circumstances and 25 min after the beginning of the record, the snake bioacoustics of the distress call of Leptodactylus chaquensis managed to swallow the frog, which still continued to (Anura: Leptodactylidae) during predation by Thamnodynastes emit some notes inside the snake’s throat. Thereafter, chaquensis (Serpentes: Dipsadidae) in the Brazilian Pantanal. we collected the snake and took it to the lab in a moist Salamandra 48: 237–240. plastic bag, where the snake regurgitated the frog. Duellman, W.E., Trueb, L. (1994): Biology of Amphibians. Baltimore, The John Hopkins University Press. During the fixation of the specimens, we noted that the Feltrim, A.C., Cechin, S.T. Z. (2000): Helicops infrataeniatus snake had 17 well developed eggs in its oviduct. (NCN). Diet. Herpetological Review, 31: 46. In Brazil, Helicops infrataeniatus has been recorded Ferreira, V.L., Leuzinger, L., Soares, P., Leão, T.R.F., Himmelstein, in the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, J. (2017): Predation of Leptodactylus chaquensis Cei, 1950 São Paulo, Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul, in the (Amphibia: Anura) by the Neotropical Otter, Lontra longicaudis Atlantic Forest and Pampa ecoregions (e.g. Giraudo, (Olfers,1818) (Carnivora: Mustelidae), in the Southern Pantanal 2001; Lema, 2002; Landgref Filho and Aoki, 2011). of Brazil. Herpetology Notes 10: 111–114. Besides the record in the Corguinho municipality, we Giraudo, A. (2001): La diversidad de serpientes de la selva Paranaense y del Chaco húmedo (Argentina): Taxonomía, also recovered records of H. infrataeniatus from Campo biogeografia y conservación. Literature of Latin America, Grande municipality, state of Mato Grosso do Sul by Buenos Aires, Argentina. consulting the herpetological collection (ZUFMS- Landgref Filho, P., Aoki, C. (2011): Helicops infrataeniatus REP1900 and ZUFMS-REP1584). These are the (Water Snake). Brazil: Mato *rosso do Sul. Herpetological first records of this species for the Cerrado ecoregion Review 42(3): 394. First predation report of Leptodactylus chaquensis by Helicops infrataeniatus 541

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Accepted by Javier Cortés Suárez