Full text loading...
Current Herpetology
Abstract
Abstract:
We collected stomach contents of sea kraits, Laticauda laticaudata, L. colubrina, and L. semifasciata around Ishigaki and Iriomote Islands of the southern Ryukyu Islands, Japan. Twelve species belonging to three families of Anguilliformes (Congridae, Muraenidae, and Ophichthidae) were detected as prey of fifteen individuals of L. laticaudata and seven individuals of L. colubrina. On the other hand, four species of the families Labridae, Opistognathidae, and Ptereleotridae were found in the stomach of three individuals of L. semifasciata. These results indicate that L. laticaudata and L. colubrina around the northern limit of their distribution (Ryukyu Islands, Japan) preyed upon anguilliform fish, as previously found at the southern limit of their distribution (Vanuatu and New Caledonia), whereas L. semifasciata consumed various families of fish other than Anguilliformes, as reported in Taiwan. Thus, it is confirmed that L. laticaudata and L. colubrina are specialist predators on anguilliform fish (eels) and that L. semifasciata is a generalist that consumes various fishes in tropical and subtropical coastal waters. The differences in prey species among these three sea kraits may not be due to geographical variation of prey availability.
This research was financially supported by the Sasakawa Scientific Research Grant from the Japan Science Society to R. Tabata, and by the Future Development Funding Program of Kyoto University Research Coordination Alliance to F. Tashiro. We thank Toru Naruse and the staff of Iriomote Station, Tropical Biosphere Research Center, University of the Ryukyus for their help in fieldwork and sampling of sea krait stomach contents, and Yusuke Hibino (Mie University), Gento Shinohara, Masanori Nakae (National Museum of Nature and Sciences, Japan), and Yoshiaki Kai (Kyoto University) for their help in fish identification. This study was conducted with the permission of the Okinawa Prefecture (no. 28–51) for capture of L. semifasciata. We express sincere gratitude to Francois Brisçhoux and an anonymous reviewer for their constructive comments on the manuscript.
Data & Media loading...