Aspects of the Feeding Ecology of the 



Little Grass Frog, Pseudacris ocularis 



(Anura: Hylidae) 



Jeremy L. Marshall 1 and Carlos D. Camp 



Department of Biology, Piedmont College 



Demorest, Georgia 30535 



ABSTRACT— We report on the foods of the little grass frog, 

 Pseudacris ocularis, from Georgia. Fifty specimens were collected 

 from two isolated wetlands located in Evans and Grady counties, 

 Georgia, during late spring and summer 1993. Analysis of stomach 

 contents determined that the most abundant food items were 

 small arthropods associated with leaf litter and soil. Almost 

 50% of the food items were collembolans, followed by hymenopterans 

 (17%), acarines (9%), homopterans (8%), and coleopterans (8%). 

 We compared foods of adult males with those of newly meta- 

 morphosed juveniles collected at the same time from the Grady 

 County site. Juvenile frogs ate more individual food items and 

 a greater diversity of prey species than did adult males. This 

 difference could be due to adult Pseudacris selecting larger, 

 more profitable prey than juveniles select. Lower feeding activity 

 exhibited by breeding males might also be a contributing factor. 



Little is known about the feeding ecology of many amphibians, 

 especially intraspecific variability in foods and foraging (Duellman 

 and Trueb 1986). Variation in dietary preferences among population 

 subgroups (e.g., breeding males, non-breeding females, subadults, 

 juveniles, larvae, etc.) has been reported to reflect differences in 

 habitat preference (Lamb 1984), gape (Toft 1980), developmental 

 condition (Brophy 1980, Davie 1991), and other factors. 



The little grass frog, Pseudacris ocularis (Bosc and Daudin), is 

 the smallest North American anuran (Conant and Collins 1991). It 

 occurs in a wide variety of ephemeral and semi-permanent wetlands 

 in the southeastern Coastal Plain and favors grassy areas in and around 

 cypress ponds and similar sites (Harper 1939, Mount 1975). In spite 

 of its relative abundance in many of these areas, virtually nothing 

 is known of the feeding ecology of this frog. The purpose of our 

 study was to describe the diet of P. ocularis and to investigate any 

 potential differences between the feeding of adult frogs and newly 

 metamorphosed juveniles. 



1 Present address: Biology Department, University of Mississippi, University, 

 Mississippi 38677. 



Brimleyana 22:1-7, June 1995 1 



