Microhabitat use, daily activity pattern and diet of Liolaemus etheridgei in the Andean Polylepis forests of Arequipa, Peru

This study describes the microhabitat use, daily activity pattern and diet
of Liolaemus etheridgei Laurent 1998
in the El Simbral and
Tuctumpaya Polylepis forests in Arequipa, Peru. El
Simbral is a fragmented forest, whereas Tuctumpaya is
unfragmented. Our results reveal that L.
etheridgei shows no positive selection for any of the
microhabitats we identified in Polylepis forests; on the
contrary, it selects negatively against Polylepis trees
and non-thorny bushes. The daily activity patterns indicate a bimodal
pattern with peaks at 9:00-10:59 and 13:00-13:59 h. The diet
of L. etheridgei consists mainly of plant material, and
the most important animal prey category is Lygaeidae: Hemiptera, which is
selected for positively. In particular, microhabitat
selection varied for non-thorny bushes, which were
selected negatively in the Tuctumpaya population but neither positively
nor negatively in the El Simbral population. According to the proportions
of plant material found, the L. etheridgei from El
Simbral were found to be omnivorous, whereas the Tuctumpaya
population washerbivorous. However, the percentage
of plant material consumed in the El
Simbral population was close to the critical value for
herbivory-omnivory. We conclude that the three ecological
aspects of L.
etheridgei studied here are virtually
identical in El Simbral and Tuctumpaya;
therefore, this species is not affected significantly by
the current fragmentation of forest.