Ecology of Lysapsus limellum in the Brazilian Amazon river basin

Lysapsus currently comprises three species distributed east of the Andes, from Guyana to northern Argentina. Lysapsus limellum occurs along the Amazon and Paraná river basins in ponds associated with river floodplains. We analyse geographic distribution, diet, reproduction, habitat use and diel activity of L. limellum from several populations in the Brazilian Amazon. Wide floodplains and open areas are common features of habitats of L. limellum, and populations are found either in savanna fragments or in floodplains along the Amazon river and its major tributaries. In savanna fragments of Humaitá, Amazonas, L. limellum is active during day and night and prefers areas with floating vegetation only. Frogs are active and prone to move during the day but remain motionless and call more at night. Most important diet items were dipterans, hemipterans/homopterans and odonates, underscoring the generalist behaviour of the species and its particular preference for dipterans. Females were significantly larger than males, but females and males were not different in shape. Neither number nor volume of eggs was related to female snout–urostyle length (SUL), while testis volume was significantly related to male SUL. In summary, L. limellum is a widely distributed small aquatic frog with a generalist diet that inhabits ponds in open floodplains.