Feeding Ecology of Rice Field Anurans of Singari Basti (Cachar), Barak Valley, Assam, North East India

Abstract

Food and feeding behaviour of the paddy field anurans was studied for a period of three years. Specimens were collected during pre-monsoon, Monsoon and post-monsoon seasons.The quantitative analysis of gut contents revealed that anurans consumed a large number of insects, few annelids, molluscs, caterpillars, grasshopper, spider, fish, amphibia and even some vegetable matters. Coleopterans and hymenopterans constitute the most dominant group in the food. Moreover in coleopterans most of the food items were found as the pests of rice. Rice hispa, grass hopper, swarming caterpillar (Lepidoptera larva) were found in the gut content of anurans which strongly indicated that frogs and toads of agricultural field feed on some important agricultural pests, especially paddy pests. It was noted that the abundance of the pest species in comparison with non-pest was more for some species in terms of percent­ age. Size of the prey played an important role. The size of the prey consumed is strongly correlated with prey capture. Niche width values revealed that the species of H. tigerinus, F. limnocharis, E. cyanophlyctis, D. melanostictus