قراءة كتاب Natural History of the Salamander, Aneides hardii

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Natural History of the Salamander, Aneides hardii

Natural History of the Salamander, Aneides hardii

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دار النشر: Project Gutenberg
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predation was oriented almost wholly on a visual basis. Once they were within 2 to 4 mm. of a fly they would snap out the tongue to secure the fly; they were successful in capturing vestigial-winged flies in about 75 per cent of all tries. The relative success of capture was greater when the animals were fresh from the field and less after they had become fattened. The vigor of their pursuit also decreased noticeably once they became fat. About two days after any new fly colony was placed in the terrarium, a salamander would take up a position just inside the lip of the milk bottle, which was placed on its side. From this vantage point the salamanders took heavy toll of the fly populations, eating both adults and larvae.

Initially the salamanders foraged indiscriminately in daylight or in darkness. Later, as they became fat, they avoided high light intensity and were active only at night or under artificial light of low intensity. The latter pattern of activity is probably typical of the pattern they maintain under natural conditions. Certainly we never saw individuals abroad in daylight at Cloudcroft, yet under favorable environmental conditions they were to be found in sites that required considerable movement over open areas of the ground surface.

For several months two individuals of Eurycea longicauda were kept in with A. hardii. Foraging of these two plethodontids is nearly identical, but the tongue of an adult Eurycea can be extended somewhat more than one-half inch in capturing flies; for A. hardii this distance is usually less than one-quarter inch. The relatively short tongue of A. hardii can be correlated with its life in restricted, subsurface chambers, where prey most frequently is close to salamanders; E. longicauda inhabits significantly more open sites.

Parasites

Thirty of the adult Aneides collected were examined for parasites; most were parasitized by two species of nematodes, Oswaldocruzia sp. and Thelandros sp. The former is found in the anterior part of the small intestine and occasionally in the stomach, and the latter occurs in the rectum. There were no gross intestinal pathological changes in the salamanders resulting from parasitism. In fact, no pathological or structural abnormalities were noted in any of the salamanders examined. We believe the two nematodes are well-tolerated by the salamander.

Table 2.—Occurrence of Parasitic Nematodes in Aneides hardii

  Per cent
of
salamanders
infected
Number of nematodes
per host
Per cent of nematodes that
were immature
range mean July Aug.-Sept.
Oswaldocruzia sp. 83 2-15 3.6 100  20 
Thelandros sp. 90 1-17 3.3 64.6 5.7

The numerical and temporal occurrence of the nematodes is summarized in Table 2. It should be noted that of the 17 worms constituting the maximum infection by Thelandros, only one was an adult worm; the maximum number of adult Thelandros in any one host was five. Similarly,

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