The effect of weight and prey species on gut passage time in an endemic gecko Quedenfeldtia moerens (Chabanaud, 1916) from Morocco

Abstract

Gut passage time (GPT), a key factor in digestive procedure, is of pivotal importance for digestion. Several parameters may affect GPT, such as temperature, length of gastrointestinal tract and body size. Here, we examine the influence of prey weight and prey species on GPT in the endemic diurnal gecko Quedenfeldtia moerens, from the Anti-Atlas Mountains in central Morocco. We used two prey species, house crickets (Acheta domesticus, AD) and mealworms (Tenebrio molitor, TM). Lizards were fed with the larval stage of TM and nymphs of AD. The influence of prey weight and prey species was tested at a constant temperature. We used three weight classes of each prey species to test the influence of prey weight on GPT. Our results showed that prey species affected GPT in a distinct way: mealworms induced a longer gut passage time compared to house crickets. Moreover, GPT increased with the increasing weight of prey for both prey species. Our finding demonstrates that the effect of prey species and prey weight affect digestion and thus should be better clarified in future studies.

Five Surfaces Treated with d-Tetramethrin plus Acetamiprid for the Management of Tenebrio molitor and Alphitobius diaperinus: Which Is the Best?

“…Its insect powder enhances food properties such as nutritional value, crispness, taste, and digestibility [ 9 , 12 , 16 , 18 ]. Apart from human nutrition, this species is used as feed for a plethora of organisms such as fish, reptiles, birds, and crustaceans [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 ]. In addition, recent studies revealed that T. molitor extracts display antiproliferative, antimicrobial, antifreeze, antithrombotic, preservative, and healing properties [ 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 ].…”

Bifurcación de la cola en varias especies de escamados de las familias Liolaemidae, Tropiduridae, Phyllodactylidae y Teiidae

“…En algunos casos, la cola se rompe pero no se separa completamente del cuerpo, dando lugar a una cola regenerada con dos o tres puntas (cola trifurcada) (Pheasey, Smith, Brouard, Atkinson, 2014), e incluso hasta seis, como el caso de Salvator merianae (Pelegrín y Muniz Leão, 2016), siendo la bifurcación mucho más frecuente (86%) que las trifurcaciones (12%) o multifurcaciones (2%) (Barr, Somaweera, Godfrey, Gardner, Bateman, 2020). Barr et al (2020) realizaron una revisión de este tipo de regeneración anómala, registrando su presencia para 22 familias de lagartijas, entre las que se incluyen a Agamidae (Ofori, Martey, Musah, Attuquayefio, 2018), Anguidae (Cozendey, Campos, Lanna, Amorim, Sousa, 2013), Anolidae (Caicedo-Martínez, Mejía-Fontecha, Rojas-Morales, Caicedo-Portilla, Ramírez-Chaves, 2022), Corytophanidae (Nahuat-Cervera y Avilés, 2020), Crotaphytidae (Montanucci, 1969), Diploglossidae (Cozendey et al, 2013), Gekkonidae (Caicedo-Martínez et al, 2022), Gymnophthalmidae (Pheasey et al, 2014), Iguanidae (Caicedo-Martínez et al, 2022), Lacertidae (Kolenda, Wieczorek, Najbar, Najbar, Skawiński, 2017), Liolaemidae (Fernández, Corrales, Valdéz, Acosta, Acosta, 2022), Phrynosomatidae (Mata-Silva, Rocha, Johnson, Wilson, 2013, Phyllodactylidae (Caicedo-Martínez et al, 2022), Scincidae (Miles, Danser, Shoemaker, 2020), Sphaerodactylidae (Mouadi et al, 2021), Sphenodontidae (Seligmann et al, 2008), Teiidae (Caicedo-Martínez et al, 2022) y Tropiduridae (Martins et al, 2013;Passos, Pinheiro, Galdino, Rocha, 2014); entre otras.…”