Journal
BIOLOGICAL JOURNAL OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY
Volume 85, Issue 1, Pages 125-134Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8312.2005.00476.x
Keywords
adaptive radiation; diet; niche overlap; pupfish; Schoener's index; sympatric speciation
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Analysis of the gut contents of six syntopic Cyprinodon species from Laguna Chichancanab, Mexico, shows that the supposed basal form, C. beltrani, feeds on detritus and has the longest gut. All other species have significantly shorter guts. Whereas C. simus exclusively ingests detritus despite short gut length, all other species additionally rely on different benthic invertebrates. Each species has developed specific preferences: C. labiosus (amphipods), C. uerecundus (bivalves), C. maya (ostracods and gastropods) and C. esconditus (ostracods and chironomid larvae). However, all of them ingest a minimum of c. 40% detritus. According to Schoener's index, pairwise niche overlap varies from c. 40% to over 95% in the species flock. Contrary to this, there is almost no overlap between the members of the flock and the only other native fish species, Garnbusia sexradiata, which feeds nearly exclusively on terrestrial arthropods dropping on the water surface. Recently, the cichlid genus Oreochromis and the characid Astyanax fasciatus gained access to the lake. The cichlids show moderate to high niche overlap, whereas in A. fasciatus it is low. (c) 2005 The Linnean Society of London.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available