Frog eat frogs: the relationship among the Neotropical frogs of the genus Leptodactylus and their anuran prey

Abstract

Predator-prey interactions are fundamental to understand how energy flows in trophic food webs. Frogs play a central role in Neotropical food webs, as they are prey and predators for many animals, including other frogs. In particular, species of the genus Leptodactylus have been reported as predators of several frogs, thus being a model to understand the ecological patterns of predator-prey relationships. Therefore, we reviewed the literature for records of anurophagy between 1964 and 2023, assessed the size relationships of these interactions, and the spatiotemporal patterns of these reports. Descriptions of anuran predation by Leptodactylus spp. have increased substantially in recent decades, especially after 2002. We found a positive relationship between prey and predator sizes, despite it we found that smaller Leptodactylus species consumed proportionately larger preys than larger species, while larger species consumed frogs with a greater variation in body size. The species of the genus Leptodactylus preyed more on leptodactylid frogs, probably due to their similar habitat use. Records have also included frogs from other families and even cannibalistic events have been reported. Most published articles describing these interactions lack information such as predator and prey sizes, accurate species identification, anuran developmental stage, antipredator strategies, and microhabitat information. Consequently, we suggest that future reports and studies must include this complementary information that will improve our overall understanding of anuran predator-prey relationships.