Ecologia trófica e helmintofauna de Norops brasiliensis (Vanzolini & Williams, 1970) (Squamata, Dactyloidae) em uma área de mata úmida na Chapada do Araripe, Nordeste do Brasil

Abstract

The Optimal foraging theory (OFT) assumes that animal activities are optimized to maximize the rate of net energy gain. In lizards, diet composition depends on ontogenetic, seasonal, and sexual factors. In addition, parasitism may also influence the lifestyle and feeding behavior of these organisms. Throughout the first chapter we tried to answer the following question: what factors affect the food preferences of Norops brasiliensis. We analyzed the relationship of diet, sex, morphometry, availability of prey between seasons, and energy values of the main categories of prey found in the environment. In the second, we describe the helmintofauna associated with N. brasiliensis and analyzed the relation of parasitic load with sexual ratio, mass, morphometric measurements and between seasons. N. brasiliensis showed characteristics of an opportunistic generalist predator, mainly by consuming insects. The chemical tests revealed that the category Hymenoptera showed higher protein and humidity, while Hemiptera had a higher amount of lipids. There was no difference in prey abundance between seasons. The choice of prey was not related to protein, lipid or moisture values. Both sexual and ontogenetic variation occurred in the diet of N. brasiliensis. Head size was also positively related to volume, prey length and number of categories, while labial commissure was related to the number of categories. Our results suggest that the OFT can be used to explain the feeding behavior of the N. brasiliensis population, which is influenced mainly by sex and ontogeny. As for parasitism we present nine new parasite records, for the Nematoda, Cestoda and Trematoda groups. The average abundance of helminths is positively related to body size and host mass, but not to sex and to rainfall regime.