Evolução do hábito alimentar e utilização do substrato pelo gênero Philodryas Wagler, 1830

• Autor(a) principal: Machado Filho, Paulo Roberto [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2015
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/11449/127763
• topic: Ecologia animal; Cobra; Animais - Alimentos - América do Sul; Animais - Comportamento; Historia natural

Feeding behavior is a determining factor on the living habits of snakes, exerting a strong influence on the foraging substrate, for example. However, there are still gaps on the natural history and, consequently, on the evolutionary history of several genera and species of snakes, especially those included in the Dipsadidae family. The Philodryas genre has currently 21 valid species. Nevertheless, there is only a few species with a well detailed list of their diets; therefore, this study aims to compile and generate new information about use of the substrate use and diet, based on information from literature, zoological collections and unpublished records by South American researchers. A total of 1133 diet items were recorded: 902 from the literature, 199 of zoological collections and 32 observations of other researchers. Among the 21 valid species, Philodryas cordata, P. laticeps, P. livida, P. simonsii and P. tachymenoides were not studied, since there were no available specimens in the zoological collections consulted; Furthermore, P. livida was the only studied species with no diet items recorded. The species with the highest frequency of frogs in their diet was P. patagoniensis, while spiders were more frequent for P. agassizii, lizards for P. argentea, P. chamissonis and P. nattereri, and mammals for P. aestiva, P. baroni, P. mattogrossensis, P. olfersii, P. psammophidea, P. trilineata, P. varia and P. viridissima. The species P. patagoniensis was the only species of the genus that presented amphisbaena and fish in the diet. Few diet records were obtained for the species P. amaru, P. arnaldoi, P. cordata, P. georgeboulengeri, P. laticeps, P. simonsii and P. tachymenoides and so it was not possible to ascertain which food item groups are more common for these species. Regarding the use of substrate, P. argentea and P. viridissima have a high affinity for the arboreal substrate, P. georgeboulenge ...