101 Correspondence All articles available online at http://www.salamandra-journal.com © 2010 Deutsche Gesellschat für Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde e.V. (DGHT), Rheinbach, Germany Correspondence Predation attempts on Trachycephalus cf. mesophaeus (Hylidae) by Leptophis ahaetulla (Colubridae) and Ceratophrys aurita (Ceratophryidae) Mirco Solé 1 , Euvaldo Marciano-Jr 1 , Iuri Ribeiro Dias 1 & Axel Kwet 2 1) Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Rodovia Ilhéus-Itabuna, km 16, 45662-000 Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil 2) Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Zoology, Rosenstein 1, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany Corresponding author Mirco Solé, mksole@uesc.br Manuscript received: 31. October 2008 he genus Trachycephalus Tschudi, 1838 is distributed from the lowlands of México, through Central and South America east of the Andes, to southern Argentina and eastern Brazil (Frost 2008). Species of Trachycephalus are known to emit a white volatile, noxious alkaline skin se- cretion when handled, which has been reported as being extremely irritating to mucous membranes (Savage 2002). he function of this venomous secretion has been reported as being a defense against predators (Leary & Razafin- dratsita 1998). Probably due to this strategy, only a few predators have been reported so far for frogs of this ge- nus, e. g., the colubrid species, Leptophis ahaetulla (Prado 2003) and Liophis poecilogyrus (Silva Jr et al. 2003, Albu- querque & Di-Bernardo 2005) for Trachycephalus venu- losus. To date, the only predator known for Trachycephalus mesophaeus is Liophis miliaris (Oliveira & Silva 2007). Trachycephalus mesophaeus inhabits the Atlantic forest from Rio Grande do Sul state northeast to extreme south- ern Pernambuco state, Brazil (IUCN 2006). However, frog populations assigned to this species from southern Bahia to Pernambuco might belong to a diferent, yet undescribed species. herefore we refer to frogs of this population as Trachycephalus cf. mesophaeus. During ieldwork in a rapid amphibian and reptile as- sessment at the village Ponta da Tulha (14° 35’ 28’’ S, 39° 03’ 56’’ W, 7 m above sea level), municipality of Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil, we found on 15 August 2008 at 17:26 h at the en- trance of a shade cacao plantation an adult female Lepto- phis ahaetulla (SVL 81.0 cm, tail length 45.7 cm, MZUESC [= Zoological Collection of the Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz] 6960) trying to swallow an adult Trachycepha- lus cf. mesophaeus (SVL 7.2 cm, MZUESC 6821) (Fig. 1). he posterior part of the snake’s body was hidden in a pile of lumber, and the tree frog tried to hold on the lumber with his toe pads while emitting loud agonistic calls. Only slightly increased skin secretion production in the frog was observed during this interaction. Ater 15 minutes the snake tried to drag the hylid into the lumber pile and the colubrid was captured by one of us (MS) immediately re- leasing the frog. To our knowledge this is the irst report for a predation attempt of the Parrot Snake L. ahaetulla on T. mesophaeus. Other cases or attempts of predation on T. mesophaeus are known. Lutz (1973: 259–260) reported a predation attempt on T. mesophaeus by the colubrid Liophis poecilogyrus (cit- ed as Phylodryas schottii (?) sic). During this interaction, which was observed in November 1939 during daytime, the frog emitted loud, insistent calls and was released when poking the snake with a long stick. he escaping hylid was caught and had two sets of fang marks, but it survived. Apparently, Trachycephalus mesophaeus is less venomous than presently thought, or the venom has diferent efects on diferent species. Lutz (1973: 257) herself stated that the sticky secretion of T. mesophaeus was not irritating to the human skin in a series of collected specimens, as reported for T. venulosus (Lutz 1973: 247). However, the secretion of a half-grown female raised from an egg tasted by Lutz was found “slightly caustic and bitter”. We are also aware of a large specimen of Ceratophrys aurita, which one of us (AK) found recently during a sur- vey in the herpetological collection of W. Ehrhardt in the Zoological Museum Hamburg (see Gutsche et al. 2008). his well-prepared, adult female specimen (ZMH A01401, found together with ZMH A01400, a male, under the former collection number ZMH 1573) has an adult speci- men of Trachycephalus mesophaeus in its mouth (Fig. 2). According to the jar label, both specimens were collected 1907 at Joinville, Jaragua, Itapucu (sic) by the German col- lector Wilhelm Ehrhardt. his “locality” refers to the basin of the Itapocú River between Joinville, Corupá and Jaraguá do Sul, Northeastern Santa Catarina. Although Ceratophrys aurita is known predating on frogs, it is not clear, if this is a valid prey record. It is also possible, that SALAMANDRA 46(2) 101–103 20 May 2010 ISSN 0036–3375