tailieunhanh - Dietary ecology of the common sun skink eutropis multifasciatus in Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam

In this study, we investigated the dietary ecology of E. multifasciatus in the mountain and midland regions of Thua Thien-Hue province. We evaluated variations in the composition of prey items of E. multifasciatus from different geographic areas, seasons, and sexual groups. | CHI SINH HOC 2014, 36(4): 471-478 Dietary ecology of theTAP common sun skink Eutropis multifasciatus DOI: DIETARY ECOLOGY OF THE COMMON SUN SKINK Eutropis multifasciatus (Kuhl, 1820) IN THUA THIEN-HUE PROVINCE, VIETNAM Ngo Dac Chung1, Ngo Van Binh2*, Nguyen Thi Truong Thi3 1 2 College of Education, Hue University, Hue, Vietnam National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 70101, Taiwan, *biological99999@ 3 Quang Tri Teacher Training College, Vietnam ABSTRACT: Eutropis multifasciatus (Kuhl, 1820) is a common species in Vietnam, the knowledge of ecology of this terrestrial viviparous skink is still poorly known. In this study, we focused on the feeding ecology of E. multifasciatus to understand spatial, temporal, and sexual variations in the dietary composition of E. multifasciatus. A total of 323 food items, viz. 288 animal items and 29 plant items were found in 176 stomachs of skinks. The most numerous prey items of E. multifasciatus were spiders, insect larvae, grasshoppers, and crickets (with an importance index of ). The total volume of food items consumed by males was greater than that consumed by females (P=), and the volume of food items in the dry season was greater than in the rainy season (P=). The rarefaction curves for prey category richness were higher in females than in males for both occurrence frequency and count of items. Keywords: Eutropis multifasciatus, feeding ecology, prey items, sun skink. INTRODUCTION Central Vietnam belongs to the Indo-Burma region, that is considered to be one of the biodiversity hotspots of the world [6]. There are more than 10,000 recognized species of worldwide distribution [12], of those reptiles are an important component of the global biodiversity and play a significant role in natural ecosystems. They inhabit both aquatic and terrestrial habitats and additionally, food habits of lizards offer essential information for constructing food webs [2, 9]. Dietary .