Daños por depredación y tamaño de concha del caracol diádromo Neritinavirginea (Gastropoda: Neritidae) en el Río Mameyes, Puerto Rico

 

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Autores: Blanco-Libreros, Juan Felipe, Arroyave-Rincón, Andrea
Formato: artículo original
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de Publicación:2009
Descripción:We compared predators’ damage with shell size in live indi-viduals and empty shells (n=5066) of the snail Neritina virginea in the Mameyes River (Puerto Rico, Greater Antilles). According to the literature and direct observations, damages on empty shells were attributed to preda-tion by aquatic birds (e.g. Gallinula chloropus) and decapods (e.g. Macrobrachium spp.), while damages on live individuals were due to rasping by co-specifics and erosion. Predation by decapods and birds, as estimated by the proportion of empty shells, was low (2 and 0.36%, respectively). Shell size was significantly different between types of predators (range: decapods: 3.5-15.0mm, birds: 8.1-19.4mm). By comparing sizes of the empty shells and the live individuals, we concluded that decapods specialize on large groups of small migratory juve-niles, while birds specialize on the largest resident individuals. Worn shells were highly frequent in both empty shells and live individuals, and sizes did not differ between samples. A comparison by slow-flow and fast-flow habitats showed that predators do not discriminate shell sizes between environments. However, the frequency of damage by birds and decapods was greater under slow-flow conditions. Despite of the little contribution of predation to the population dynamics in this species, predation might be an important driver of size-dependent behavioral responses such as upstream migration and microhabitat selection.
País:Portal de Revistas UCR
Institución:Universidad de Costa Rica
Repositorio:Portal de Revistas UCR
Lenguaje:Español
OAI Identifier:oai:portal.ucr.ac.cr:article/5447
Acceso en línea:https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/article/view/5447
Palabra clave:Neritina virginea
gasterópodos migratorios
efectos dependientes de la talla
daños de conchas
depredación
diadromous snails
size-dependent effects
shell damage
predation