James Craig D
University of Sydney, Zoology Building A08, 2006, NSW, Australia.
Oecologia. 1991 Feb;85(4):553-561. doi: 10.1007/BF00323768.
The diets of five syntopic species of Ctenotus were examined over a two-year period on a 60 ha spinifex grassland site in central Australia. The aims of the study were to test predictions that termites were an important part of the food web for syntopic Ctenotus in spinifex grasslands, and to examine seasonal changes in prey use and dietary overlap between the species. Environmental conditions during the first season of the study were dry resulting in generally low invertebrate abundance. In contrast the second season was relatively moist and overall invertebrate abundance was higher than in the first season. Diets of five species of Ctenotus contained a range of terrestrial prey although one species (C. pantherinus) was relatively termite-specialized at all times. Dietary overlap at the ordinal level between the species was generally higher during dry periods when prey abundance was low, and higher for species-pairs that were similar in body size. During the driest period of the study most species of Ctenotus ate a high proportion of termite prey which accounted for the high dietary overlap. However, each species of Ctenotus consumed different genera or foraging guilds of termites. The results suggest that most of these lizards were opportunistic in their selection of prey but that during dry periods when prey are scarce, termites may play a significant role in supporting a high α-diversity of Ctenotus.
在澳大利亚中部一个60公顷的三齿稃草原地区，对五种同域分布的鬃狮蜥属物种的饮食进行了为期两年的研究。该研究的目的是检验以下预测：白蚁是三齿稃草原同域分布的鬃狮蜥属物种食物网的重要组成部分，并研究猎物利用的季节性变化以及这些物种之间的饮食重叠情况。研究第一季的环境条件干燥，导致无脊椎动物数量普遍较低。相比之下，第二季相对湿润，无脊椎动物的总体数量高于第一季。五种鬃狮蜥属物种的饮食包含一系列陆生猎物，尽管有一种物种（豹纹鬃狮蜥）在任何时候都相对专门以白蚁为食。在猎物数量较少的干旱时期，这些物种在目级水平上的饮食重叠通常更高，对于体型相似的物种对来说也是如此。在研究最干旱的时期，大多数鬃狮蜥属物种食用的白蚁猎物比例很高，这导致了较高的饮食重叠。然而，每种鬃狮蜥属物种消耗的是不同属或觅食类群的白蚁。结果表明，这些蜥蜴中的大多数在选择猎物时具有机会主义性，但在猎物稀缺的干旱时期，白蚁可能在维持鬃狮蜥属物种的高α多样性方面发挥重要作用。
