Food habits of clouded salamanders (Aneides ferreus) in Curry County, Oregon (Amphibia: Caudata: Plethodontidae)

Authors

John O. Whitaker Jr., Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana
Chris Maser, U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Forestry Sciences Laboratory, Corvallis, Oregon
Robert M. Storm, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon
Joseph J. Beatty, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon

Abstract

Stomach contents of 650 clouded salamanders (Aneides ferreus), collected monthly throughout the year from Curry County, Oregon, were examined. Samples from three age classes were involved: (1) 489 adults, (2) 131 juveniles, and (3) 30 hatchlings. Foods did not vary by sex, but did vary by age and by season. Hatchlings ate small items, particularly mites, springtails, flies, and small beetles. Juveniles fed mainly on flies, isopods (sowbugs), beetles, mites, and centipedes in winter; beetles, ants, and isopods in spring; ants and beetles in summer; and isopods, beetles, and ants in fall. Adults ate isopods and beetles as their major foods in winter, spring, and fall and isopods, ants, beetles, and earwigs in summer. Four species were exceedingly important as foods for these salamanders: an unidentified isopod, the snout beetle (Trachyphloeus bifoveatus), the European earwig (Forficula auricularia), and an ant (Lasius alienus).

Recommended Citation

Whitaker, John O. Jr.; Maser, Chris; Storm, Robert M.; and Beatty, Joseph J. (1986) "Food habits of clouded salamanders (Aneides ferreus) in Curry County, Oregon (Amphibia: Caudata: Plethodontidae)," Great Basin Naturalist: Vol. 46: No. 2, Article 8.
Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/gbn/vol46/iss2/8