Feeding habits of sympatric Discoglossus montalentii, Discoglossus sardus and Euproctus montanus during the breeding season

The diets of three Corsican amphibians, Discoglossus montalentii, Discoglos sus sardus and Euproctus montanus, were studied in the Ospedale region duri ng the breeding season. Adult specimens were collected in or around breedin g pools and were stomach flushed in the field. Prey taxa included a large v ariety of terrestrial and aquatic prey items of variable size, indicating o pportunistic predation. All species were able to catch their prey both on l and and in water, but varied in the proportions of aquatic and terrestrial prey consumed. E. montanus fed largely upon benthic macroinvertebrates, sug gesting predation in deep water; D. sardus mainly captured terrestrial prey ; and D. montalentii showed a mixed feeding strategy, preying upon both ter restrial and aquatic prey categories in similar proportions. Discoglossus s ardus showed the highest standardized value of niche breadth (D-s = 0.769), compared to D. montalentii and E. montanus (D-s = 0.544 and D-s = 0.523 re spectively). When prey size frequency distributions were compared, no speci fic differences were observed. These results indicated that, at least durin g the breeding season, trophic segregation among sympatric amphibians was m aintained by different foraging strategies, and that the three species expl oited contiguous microhabitats in different ways.