Work Description

Date: 23 August 2018

Title of related publication: Ecological interactions between arthropods and small
vertebrates in a lowland Amazon rainforest
Authors: Rudolf von May, Emanuele Biggi, Heidy Cárdenas, M. Isabel Diaz,
Consuelo Alarcón, Valia Herrera, Roy Santa-Cruz, Francesco Tomasinelli, Erin Westeen,
Ciara M. Sánchez-Paredes, Joanna G. Larson, Pascal Title, Maggie R. Grundler,
Michael C. Grundler, Alison R. Davis Rabosky, Daniel L. Rabosky
Contact: Rudolf von May rvonmay@umich.edu

Research Overview, encompassing a broader scope than the deposited data:
Ecological interactions such as those involving arthropod predators
and parasitoids and their prey or hosts provide evidence for selective pressures
influencing small vertebrate populations, and are key to understanding the many
connections that shape food webs in tropical rainforests. Here, we document 15
predator-prey interactions involving different types of arthropod predators and
vertebrate prey including frogs, lizards, snakes, and a mammal. We also document three
cases of fly myiasis in frogs, and provide further evidence of a commensal relationship
involving a tarantula and a narrow-mouthed frog in lowland Amazonian Peru.

Research Methodology,encompassing a broader scope than the deposited data:
The data are descriptions, photographs, and videos documenting
observations of predator-prey interactions involving arthropod
predators and parasitoids and their prey or hosts.

Data-specific Description:
Nighttime and diurnal surveys in the lowland Peruvian Amazon of Los Amigos Biological
Station were conducted in order to describe herpetological diversity at this site. As a
result of these surveys, the predation event between a Pamphobeteus sp. and Marmosops sp.
and the myiasis of Ranitomeye uakarii were observed. The video footage was recorded in
order to document these interesting interactions between arthropod predators and
parasites and vertebrate prey and hosts, and are included for publication in the short
communication "Ecological interactions between arthropods and small vertebrates in a
lowland Amazon rainforest" in the journal Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.

Data-specific Methodology:
On 18 November 2016, at 2313 h during a night survey, we observed a theraphosid spider,
Pamphobeteus sp. (Theraphosidae) preying upon a small grey mouse opossum, Marmosops sp.
(Didelphidae). We filmed the interaction using an iPhone 5s. On 20 January 2017, at 1230
h, we observed an individual of Ranitomeya uakarii hopping on the leaf litter; we
captured it and placed it in a plastic bag and took it to the lab to process it later the
same day. When we returned from fieldwork around 1630 h, the frog was dead and we noticed
a maggot that periodically emerged from a small lesion on its back. This observation took
place in terra firme forest near Madre Selva Biological Station
(3°37'14.8" S, 72°14'48.5" W), Loreto region, northern Peru.

Files contained here: Three videos are included here, two of which document
the predation of a Marmosops sp. by a Pamphobeteus sp. (in .MOV format), and one of which
records a frog of the species Ranitomeya uakarii that has been infected by a maggot (in mp4 format).

Use and Access:
These data are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license
(CC BY-NC 4.0).

To cite data:

--For the related publication:

von May R, Biggi E, Cárdenas H, Diaz MI, Alarcón C, Herrera V, Santa-Cruz R,
Tomasinelli F, Westeen E, Sánchez-Paredes CM, Larson JG, Title P, Grundler MR,
Grundler MC, Davis Rabosky AR, Rabosly DL. Ecological interactions between arthropods
and small vertebrates in a lowland Amazon rainforest. Amphibian and Reptile Conservation,
forthcoming.

--For the dataset:

Grundler, M.C., Grundler, M.G., Herrera, V. (2018).
Video data of predation and parasitism by arthropods on small vertebrates in lowland
Peruvian Amazon [Data set]. University of Michigan Deep Blue Data Repository.
https://doi.org/10.7302/Z2862DP1