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Feeding habits of Anolis sagrei, an introduced species, in urban ecosystems of Guayas Province

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Abstract

To maintain a stable population, an introduced species must be capable of exploiting varied resources and adapting to environmental conditions different from its native range. The brown anole (Anolis sagrei), one of the most prolific invasive species worldwide, is well established in Ecuador—especially in urban environments throughout Guayaquil and Samborondón (Guayas province). In this research, we describe the feeding habits of male and female brown anoles collected from six different sites: a regenerated wetland ecosystem and five city gardens. We dissected stomach contents in order to record the number and type of prey items, each classified to the lowest identifiable taxonomic category. Our results show that A. sagrei consumes a variety of prey items; Hymenoptera (mainly ants) represented the highest percentage of total gut contents from all sites. In addition, we found that A. sagrei also feeds on insects belonging to the families Cicadidae, Miridae, Scarabeidae, Chrysomelidae and Nitidulidae, all of which are considered to be agricultural pests. As such, we predict that A. sagrei could be an ideal model for biological control studies in urban environments throughout Guayas and perhaps beyond.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the field work and lab processing contributions of Keyko Cruz, and undergrad students from the Biology Department at Universidad de Guayaquil and the Environmental Engineering Department at UEES. We also acknowledge to Entomologist Myriam Arias de López for helping with some invertebrate identification, Rebecca M. Brunner for her professional edits of the manuscript, and Jacob Guachisaca for providing videos of feeding behavior from Parque Histórico de Guayaquil. We also thank Inmobiliaria Parque Histórico de Guayaquil, Malecón 2000 Foundation, and Urban Complex Administrations for helping us with logistics and granting us access to the localities. This work was conducted under collection permits authorized by the Ministerio del Ambiente, Ecuador: MAE-UAF-DPAG-2018-2522-E.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad de Guayaquil, Av. Raúl Gómez Lince s/n Av. Juan Tanca Marengo, Guayaquil, Ecuador

    Andrea E. Narváez

  2. Museo QCAZ Invertebrados, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Av.12 de octubre 1076 y Roca, Quito, Ecuador

    Taryn Ghia

  3. Universidad Espíritu Santo-Ecuador, km 2.5 vía Samborondón, Guayaquil, Ecuador

    M. Mar Moretta-Urdiales & Natalia Molina Moreira

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  1. Andrea E. Narváez
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  2. Taryn Ghia
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  3. M. Mar Moretta-Urdiales
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  4. Natalia Molina Moreira
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Andrea E. Narváez.

Electronic supplementary material

Appendix 1 List of Anolis sagrei specimens used to analyze stomach and intestine contents of Anolis sagrei. Specimens were deposited at Escuela Superior Politécnica del Ecuador (EPN) and Universidad Espíritu Santo-Ecuador (MM)

Appendix 1 List of Anolis sagrei specimens used to analyze stomach and intestine contents of Anolis sagrei. Specimens were deposited at Escuela Superior Politécnica del Ecuador (EPN) and Universidad Espíritu Santo-Ecuador (MM)

ESMERALDA: EPN 15927, EPN 15930, EPN 15942, EPN 15943, EPN 15944, EPN 15946, EPN 15928, EPN15945, EPN 15885, EPN 15925, EPN 15926, EPN 15929, EPN 15941.

Malecón 2000: EPN 2000, EPN 15934, EPN 15936, EPN 15937, EPN 15938, EPN 15939, EPN 15940, EPN15903, EPN 15861, EPN 15863, EPN 15904, EPN 15905, EPN 15932, EPN 15933, EPN 15935.

MOCOLI: EPN 15924.

PALMAR: EPN 15884, EPN 5902, EPN 15947, EPN 15951, EPN 15882, EPN 15895, EPN 15948, EPN 15949,EPN 15950, EPN 15952, EPN 15953, EPN 15866.

Parque Histórico: MM_1, MM_2, MM_3, MM_4, MM_5, MM_6, MM_7, MM_9, MM_10, MM_11, MM_12,MM_13, MM_14, MM_15, MM_16, MM_17, MM_18, MM_19, MM_20, MM_21, MM_22, MM_23, MM_24,MM_25, MM_26, MM_27, MM_28, EPN 15857, EPN 15867, EPN 15891, EPN 15893, EPN 15894, EPN15931.

URDESA: EPN 15961, EPN 15957, EPN 15959, EPN 15960, EPN 15961.

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Narváez, A.E., Ghia, T., Moretta-Urdiales, M.M. et al. Feeding habits of Anolis sagrei, an introduced species, in urban ecosystems of Guayas Province. Urban Ecosyst 23, 1371–1376 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-020-00979-3

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