Cannibalism in Microlophus Lizards

Labra, Antonieta; Daigre, Maximiliano; Imil, Viviana

doi:10.1670/20-132

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 47 publications

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“…Hence, our sequencing results yielded a large number of reads assigned to the host species. While this overrepresentation of host DNA can be addressed using blocking primers (Vestheim and Jarman, 2008), blocking primers may obscure the identification of ingested sloughed shed skin and filial cannibalism, which is not uncommon in lizards (Clemann et al, 2004;Huang, 2008;Manicom and Schwarzkopf, 2011;William et al, 2014;Mateo and Pleguezuelos, 2015;Labra et al, 2022). Two vertebrate taxa, representing less than 1% of the overall diet were identified from the scat samples.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Metabarcoding clarifies the diet of the elusive and vulnerable Australian tjakura (Great Desert Skink, Liopholis kintorei)

Thuo,

Macgregor,

Merson

et al. 2024

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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IntroductionAccurately quantifying the diet of species has implications for our understanding of their ecology and conservation. Yet, determining the dietary composition of threatened and elusive species in the wild is often difficult.MethodsThis study presents the first dietary assessment of tjakura (Liopholis kintorei) using non-invasive sampling of scats and high-throughput sequencing techniques.ResultsThe tjakura in Uluru consumed 48 invertebrates, 27 plants, and two vertebrate taxa. Fruit flies (Leucophenga spp.), beetles (Harpalus spp. and Omorgus spp.), mosquitos (Culicidae spp.), termites (Termitidae spp.), spiked mallow (Malvastrum americanum), bush tomatoes (Solanum centrale), and wild turnip (Brassica tournefortii) comprised the majority of the diet. Analysis of similarity revealed that food items did not differ significantly between tjakura age groups, seasons, or time since the last fire, however, adults, hot season, and fire scar of 2018 showed a relatively higher prey diversity.DiscussionThese high similarities in diet composition between age classes and fire scars indicate potential intraspecific competition when food resources are scarce. The diet diversity and potential plasticity observed in this study reflect a dietary ecology influenced by food availability rather than preference. Our study demonstrates that scat DNA metabarcoding is an important complementary tool to conventional scat analysis or indigenous knowledge as most food items we identified were previously not recorded through those methods.

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