Interações entre Anura e Diptera na região neotropical

Abstract

Although the predation of flies by frogs is one of the most deeply internalized ecological relationships in the imagination, little is known about the diversity of trophic relationships between amphibians and dipterans. These trophic interactions include not only dipteran predation by frogs, but also dipteran predators of eggs, embryos, and adult frogs. We reviewed the existing trophic interactions between Anurans and Diptera in the Neotropical region to identify the diversity of trophic interactions between these two groups. The ecological relationships found were hematophagy, myiasis, eggs and embryo predation, necrophagy, phonotaxis by Diptera, and Diptera predation by Anura. Diptera ingestion by frogs is the most widely studied relationship. We tested whether the relevance of Diptera in the diet of anurans can be influenced by the taxonomic suborder to which the organism belongs, its habit (terrestrial, arboreal, and aquatic), its size, and the biome of record. We verified that, among this set of evaluated factors, only the body size of the frogs influenced the importance of dipterans in the diet. Diptera, both adults, and larvae, are important in the diet of smaller frogs. However, for frogs of the Dendrobatidae family, the importance of Diptera in the diet tends to be greater in larger animals, due to the trade-off of the importance of ants in the animal's diet. The anuran family that most use Diptera in its diet is Bufonidae, due to its abundance in environments where flies and mosquitoes are also common. Despite the ingestion of flies and mosquitoes by dipterans being the most studied trophic interaction, we found that the existing relationships between these groups are complex, showing that dipterans exert selective pressure on amphibians, through the consumption of frogs. However, these reports are still based on opportunistic observations, and it is necessary to encourage the publication of more records, in addition to guiding that such records should be as informative as possible.