Dataset - Life stage dependent predator-prey reversal between a frog (Litoria aurea) and a dragonfly (Anax papuensis)
Description
This dataset contains a list of observations from the publication in the journal Ecology titled 'Life stage dependent predator-prey reversal between a frog (Litoria aurea) and a dragonfly (Anax papuensis)'. Beranek et al. (2021) report that adult Australian emperor dragonfly (Anax papuaensis) prey on green and golden bell frog tadpoles. Here we report observations of green and golden bell frogs preying on Australian emperor dragonfly larvae. Together, our observations and those of Beranek et al. (2021) pose an example of predator-prey reversal between a frog species and a dragonfly species that shifts from dragonfly larva eating tadpoles in the aquatic environment to frogs eating dragonflies in the terrestrial environment. We documented instances of predation of frogs by dragonflies in a routinely monitored population of the green and golden bell frog across four years during austral spring and summer (2016-2017, 2017-2018, 2018-2019 and 2019-2020). The monitoring consisted of surveying 9 wetlands (mean surface area: 2360 m² ± 1700 SD, mean depth: 0.7 m ± 0.5 SD) at night (from 1 - 6 hours after sunset) weekly from September – April which spans the entire breeding season of the green and golden bell frog. We concurrently monitored dragonfly predation by the bell frogs and counts of emerging dragonfly larvae. References Beranek, C. T., S. Sanders, J. Clulow, and M. Mahony. 2021b. Predator-free short-hydroperiod wetlands enhance metamorph output in a threatened amphibian: insights into frog breeding behaviour evolution and conservation management. Wildlife Research 49:360-371.
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Steps to reproduce
We concurrently counted individual Australian emperor dragonflies that were in the process of metamorphosing while conducting frog surveys. The dragonflies emerged from the wetlands and usually climbed a reed to undergo metamorphosis at night and were readily observable with a white light. Counts were made for each wetland, where an entire lap of the wetland was made without double-backing to avoid double-counting. Information on the wetlands provided in the dataset can be found in Beranek et al. (2020). If you intend to use this dataset, please cite the original article in Ecology titled 'Life stage dependent predator-prey reversal between a frog (Litoria aurea) and a dragonfly (Anax papuensis)'. References Beranek, C. T., J. Clulow, and M. Mahony. 2020. Wetland restoration for the threatened green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea): development of a breeding habitat designed to passively manage chytrid-induced amphibian disease and exotic fish. Natural Areas Journal 40:362-374.