Wasps versus frogs

[Frog News]

AJC's Frogroom (UK) August 30th, 2010 09:26 AM: Wasps versus frogs

Besides their great species diversity, Malagasy anurans exhibit a wide array of behavioural patterns, including diverse reproductive behaviour. They display 11 different reproductive modes out of 29 recognized across the world. Being static, frog eggs have limited options for defense, compared with older and much more agile life stages like tadpoles or froglets. Eggs therefore suffer high levels of predation in the water. Most arboreal egg clutches are deposited on flimsy leaves or branches so that the majority of vertebrate predators are discouraged from reaching them, although they may be preyed upon by snakes and insects.

One such predation event was observed on egg clutches of Guibemantis, a genus of mantellid frogs from Madagascar. The clutch was preyed on by a wasp on 2 February 2007 in the morning hours, during warm, humid and mostly cloudy weather with sunny and rainy spells. A wasp of the genus Ropalidia was flying around several clutches attached to palm leaves and hanging above the small pond in the Orchid Park. It tried on several occasions to get into the gelatinous clutch, and then stuck its head into it. The wasp grasped the first embryo and pulled it out of the gelatinous mass, then placed it on a branch and consumed it. Afterwards, the wasp stacked several embryos on the branch before starting to eat them. The embryos in the egg clutch were seen moving away slightly from the predator.

Wasp predation on Malagasy frog egg clutches. Salamandra 46(1): 53 54, 20 February 2010

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