Diet of Chinese skink, Eumeces chinensis: is prey size important?

The diet of the skink,Eumeces chinensis(Lacertilia:Scincidae),in Xiamen(Amoy),China was examined using stomach analysis during April and May,and its selection of prey size was tested by feeding trials.Insects(primarily Coleoptera,Lepidoptera,and Orthoptera),gastropods and arachnids constituted most of the E.chinensis diet,but earthworms,leeches,crustaceans and fish were also consumed.In the field,male skinks ate more prey items that were 11–20 mm in length than other size classes.When presented with a choice of different-sized prey in the laboratory,male E.chinensis exhibited a strong preference for prey items 11–20 mm in length over other size classes.The relationship between prey size and handling time was exponential,indicating that there is an upper limit to the ability of E.chinensis to process prey.Mean energy intake for handling different-sized prey showed that selection of midsize-class prey items would provide male E.chinensis with the most energy-efficient prey option.These results indicate that prey size selection in E.chinensis favors maximization of rates of energy intake,which is in agreement with optimal foraging theory.

Sexual Dimorphism of Head Size in Phrynocephalus przewalskii: Testing the Food Niche Divergence Hypothesis

Sexual size dimorphism （SSD） is a general phenomenon in lizards, and can evolve through sexual selection or natural selection. But natural selection, which was thought to operate mainly through reducing the competition be- tween the two sexes （niche divergence hypothesis）, gave rise to a lot of controversy. We tested the niche divergence hypothesis in the toad-headed lizard Phrynocephalus przewalskii by comparing diet composition and prey sizes between males and females. The species was found to be sexual dimorphic, with males having relatively larger snout-vent length, head width, head length, and tail length, while females have relatively larger abdomen length. Based on analysis of 93 studied stomachs, a total of 1359 prey items were identified. The most common prey items were formicid, lygaeid and tenebrionid. The two sexes did not differ in the relative proportions of prey size categories they consumed and the dietary overlap based on prey species was high （O = 0.989）. In addition, the meal size, the volume or any maximal dimension of the largest prey item in the stomach was not explained by the sexes. According to our results, food niche divergence might not play an important role in the SSD evolution ofP. przewalskii.

Does prey availability affect the foraging effort and breeding success in the Antarctic Shag (Phalacrocorax bransfieldensis)?

Information on diet composition, foraging effort and breeding success of the Antarctic Shag (Phalacrocorax bransfieldensis) was obtained at three colonies on the Antarctic Peninsula, dur-ing the 1997/98 breeding season. Fish was the most important prey at each of the colonies sampled, followed by octopods and gastropods. Among colonies, there were marked differences in the size of the fish consumed, which was smaller at Py Point. This was mainly due to the larger number of speci-mens of the smallest fish prey species consumed there. Shags from Py Point performed longer forag-ing trips and spent more time per day foraging. Although at the beginning of the study the number of chicks per nest observed at the three colonies was similar, the number surviving to fledge at Py Point was markedly lower. The relative higher foraging effort and lower breeding success observed at Py Point might be related to the differences in the fish consumed between colonies. My results suggest that the decline in the inshore fish populations observed around the South Shetland Islands could be one of the reasons explaining the steady decrease in the number of breeding Antarctic Shags observed at colonies monitored in this archipelago.