In the course of a herpetological survey of the summit of the Cumbres Calchaquíes Mountains, on a rocky outcrop facing south east, near Provincial Road352 (26º22'45.7”S, 65º43'54.7”W, 3612 m),38.3 km W Hualinchay, Trancas Department, Tucumán Province, on 16 December 2009 at ca. 1500, we found an adult male scorpion (Brachistosternus intermedius) under a rock holding with the chelae and eating the remains of a neonate lizard (posterior midbody, missing tip of tail).Fil: Perez, Cristian Hernan Fulvio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Avila, Luciano Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Nacional Patagónico; ArgentinaFil: Camargo, Arley. University Brigham Young; Estados Unido

Avila, Luciano Javier

Camargo Bentaberry, Arley

Perez, Cristian Hernan Fulvio

Cuadernos de Herpetología

English

LAReferencia - Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas Latinoamericanas

Cuad. herpetol., 24 (2): 123–124, 2010 123. l.,  ( ): 123– , 2010R e c i b i d o :  0 8 / 0 7 / 1 0  –  R e v i s a d o :  0 3 / 0 8 / 1 0  –  A c e p t a d o :  0 2 / 0 9 / 1 0E d .  a s o c . :  R .  E s p i n o z aPREDATION OF LIOLAEMUSHUACAHUASICUS (SQUAMATA:IGUANIA: LIOLAEMINI) BYBRACHISTOSTERNUSINTERMEDIUS (SCORPIONES:BOTHRIURIDAE) IN CUMBRESCALCHAQUIES, TUCUMÁNPROVINCE, NORTHWESTERNARGENTINAN O T ACRISTIAN HERNÁN FULVIO PÉREZLUCIANO JAVIER ÁVILACENPAT – CONICET, Boulevard Almirante Guiller-mo Brown 2915, U9120ACD, Puerto Madryn, Chu-but, Argentinal i o l a e m u s @ g m a i l . c o ml i o l a e m u s @ c r i b a . e d u . a ra v i l a @ c e n p a t . e d u . a rARLEY CAMARGODepartment of Biology, Brigham Young Univer-sity, Provo, Utah 84602, USA.a r l e y . c a m a r g o @ g m a i l . c o mScorpions are often acknowledged aspreying on lizards and other small squa-mates (Bauer, 1990; McCormick andPolis, 1990), but observations of preda-tion are relatively rare under naturalconditions. Large scorpions, such asCentruroides exilicauda have been re-ported to eat Phyllodactylus sp. (leaf-toed geckos), Parabuthus villosus preyon Pachydactylus rangei (palmate desertgeckos), Hadrurus sp. feed on Lepto-typhlops humilis (western blind snakes),and similar interactions have been re-ported for other scorpion–vertebratepairs (McCormick and Polis, 1990).In the course of a herpetological sur-vey of the summit of the Cumbres Cal-chaquíes Mountains, on a rocky outcropfacing south east, near Provincial Road352 (26º22'45.7”S, 65º43'54.7”W, 3612 m),38.3 km W Hualinchay, Trancas Depar-tment, Tucumán Province, on 16 Dec-ember 2009 at ca. 1500, we found anadult male scorpion (Brachistosternusintermedius) under a rock holding withthe chelae and eating the remains of aneonate lizard (posterior midbody, mis-sing tip of tail) (Fig. 1). We identifiedthe remnant carcass as Liolaemus hua-cahuasicus with an estimated snout–vent length (SVL) of 30 mm and a taillength (TL) of 75 mm. Voucher speci-mens were housed in the herpetologicalcollection LJAMM-CNP of the CentroNacional Patagónico (CENPAT-CONI-CET), Puerto Madryn, Chubut, Argenti-na (LJAMM-CNP 13170). Liolaemus hua-cahuasicus is a medium-sized (SVL = 76mm), viviparous, and insectivorous li-zard inhabiting the Puna habitats ofCumbres Calchaquies Mountains, in Ca-tamarca and Tucumán provinces, Ar-gentina (Cei, 1993). Brachistosternus in-termedius is a small scorpion that ran-ges from southwestern Bolivia to nor-thwestern Argentina from 2500–4000 m(Ojanguren Affilastro, 2003); nothing isknown about its natural history.At the time of our finding, numerousneonates of Liolaemus huacahuasicuswere observed, sometimes in groups oftwo or three individuals together underrocks of different sizes, and usually withan adult female. According to Halloyand Halloy (1997) at the beginning ofthe summer (late December), femalesgive birth to 4–8 young after 8–10 mon-ths of gestation. The scorpion wasfound in a tunnel beneath the rock ea-ting the neonate L. huacahuasicus. The-re was another live neonate lizard atthe end of the tunnel. During periodsof food shortage, scorpions consumefewer, smaller prey, whereas during pe-riods of food abundance, scorpions con-sume the most abundant prey available(McCormick and Polis, 1990). Given theabundance of juvenile lizards at thissite during our surveys, neonate L.huacahuasicus likely constitute a com-mon prey for scorpions when they areC. H. F. PÉREZ et al.:  Predation of Liolaemus huacahuasicus124born each summer. To our knowledge,this is the first record of presumed pre-dation of L. huacahuasicus by a scor-pion (Brachistosternus intermedius).ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWe thank M. Morando and F. Wer-neck for commenting previous drafts ofthis note. M. Magnanelli identified thescorpion. Financial support for fieldworkwas provided by NSF-OISE 0530267,FONCYT PICT 06-00506 and Field Su-pport Grants from Brigham Young Uni-versity (Monte L. Bean Museum) issuedto J.W. Sites, Jr.LITERATURE CITEDCEI, J. M. 1993. Reptiles del Noroeste,Noreste y Este de la Argentina.Scienze Naturali Torino Monogra-fie 14: 1–949.BAUER, A. M. 1990. Gekkonid lizardsas prey of invertebrates and pre-dators of vertebrates. Herpetologi-cal Review 21: 83–87.HALLOY, M. & S. HALLOY. 1997. An in-direct form of parental care in ahigh altitude viviparous lizard, Lio-laemus huacahuasicus (Tropiduri-dae). Bulletin of the Maryland Her-petological Society 33: 139–155.MCCORMICK, S. & G. A. POLIS. 1990.Prey, predators, and parasites:145–156. In: POLIS, G. A. (ed.),Biology of Scorpions. StanfordUniversity Press, California, USA.OJANGUREN AFFILASTRO, A. A.2003. The genus Brachistosternusin Argentina, with a description ofa new Patagonian species (Scor-piones, Bothriuridae). Journal ofArachnology 31: 317–330.Figure 1. Brachistosternus intermedius and the remains of a neonate Liolaemus huacahuasi-cus found under a stone at the summit of the Cumbres Calchaquíes Mountains, Tucumán Pro-vince, Argentina. Photograph by C. H. F. Perez.

Predation of Liolaemus huacahuasicus (Squamata: Iguania: Liolaemini) by Brachistosternus intermedius (Scorpiones: Bothriuridae) in Cumbres Calchaquies, Tucuman Province, Northwestern Argentina

CONICET Digital

https://ri.conicet.gov.ar/bitstream/11336/95981/2/CONICET_Digital_Nro.54b2f676-5577-42c9-9199-aa0787ef71f8_A.pdf

Predation of Liolaemus huacahuasicus (Squamata: Iguania: Liolaemini) by Brachistosternus intermedius (Scorpiones: Bothriuridae) in Cumbres Calchaquies, Tucuman Province, Northwestern Argentina

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

LAReferencia - Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas Latinoamericanas

CONICET Digital