Niche occupancy and dietary profiling of Polypedates maculates tadpoles in temporary ponds of Northen Odisha

All living creatures, whether plants or animals depend on the food available in the system for nourishment and energy necessary for the completion of their life cycle. Feeding constituents are always been the important aspect of biology of tadpoles, which is the main target of this study. Available dietary resources in the ecosystem is especially important in tadpoles because they need to attend the early stage in very short-lived aquatic environments i.e. temporal ponds and tadpoles need to consume food that will ensure their metamorphosis prior to drying up the pond. Tadpoles of Polypedates maculatus were collected from temporary ponds of northern Odisha. The guts of tadpoles were dissected out and analysed for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of food consumed. Diet is basically composed of microalgae and relatively low amount of detritus. The algae belonging to class Chlorophyceae, Bacillariophyceae, Cyanophyceae and Euglenophyceae were recorded. The numeric frequency (NF%) and frequency of occurrence (FO%) of different food items show the species richness and abundance, which is consumed by tadpole. Huge diversity of algal flora as tadpole’s food items are determined by the two diversity indices i.e. Simposon and Shannon-Weiner. Niche breadth of the tadpole was analysed through Levin’s measure. The physicochemical parameters of water signifies the pollution free tadpole’s habitat, which the support the growth and metamorphosis of tadpoles. The diet preference and choice of algae as food indicates that the conservation of habitat in terms of algal diversity is essential for survival and completion of their life cycle of the tadpoles for successful survival of anurans.