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Current Herpetology
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Abstract
Abstract:
Foraging behavior of a diurnal gecko, Lygodactylus tolampyae, was observed during the night in the field in Ankarafantsika National Park, Madagascar. An adult L. tolampyae was observed to stay near the nest of an ant, Aphaenogaster swammerdami. The gecko attacked a worker ant carrying a pupa and ate only the pupa by robbing it from the worker. This observation suggests that typically diurnal geckos may shift foraging time to the night under natural conditions.
I am grateful to A. Mori, F. Rakotondraparany, H. Rakotomanana, and members of the research team for their support to conduct this research, all of the staff at Ankarafantsika National Park for their permission and help to carry out field research, and T. Mizuno for identification of ants. I also thank Département de Biologie Animale, Faculté des Sciences, Université d'Antananarivo and Madagascar National Parks (MNP) for their cooperation in conducting this research. This work was partially supported by Grant for Basic Science Research Projects from the Sumitomo Foundation, the Shikata Memorial Trust for Nature Conservation, and a Grantin-Aid for International Scientific Research (B) (No. 24505008) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan. The field study was conducted with permission from the Ministry of Forest, Madagascar through MNP.
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