SEASONAL-VARIATION IN DIET COMPOSITION AND PREY SELECTION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN GECKO TARENTOLA-MAURITANICA

The diet of the gecko Tarentola mauritanica was studied over a two-yea r period at a fanning area in central Spain. The overall ai ms were to investigate the general consensus that nocturnal geckos are opportuni stic feeders, arid to analyze seasonal changes in prey use and dietary overlap among age and sex classes. T. mauritanica ate a wide range of arthropods, indicating that it forages in several microhabitats. Diet ary overlaps were generally high among age and sex classes, both for p rey size and type. Seasonal analysis showed significant temporal shift s in diet, which appeared to be largely due to changes in prey-size se lection. We suggest that these results are concordant with an energy o ptimization foraging strategy, and that such a strategy may be facilit ated in this nocturnal species because of low predation risk during ac tivity.