Euryphagy in a Tropical Snake, Coniophanes fissidens

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Abstract
C. fissidens exhibits individual, ontogenetic, temporal and geographic variation in diet. Stomach content analysis revealed 127 prey items of at least 15 spp., including reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates and eggs from reptiles and amphibians. Correlation and partial correlation analyses demonstrated positive predator-prey size relationships. An upper size limit of ingestable prey was determined by the width of the widest prey type, anurans, and all large anurans were ingested head first. Previous studies of tropical snake assemblages, hampered by small samples, often failed to consider the potential for diet variation, and they may have prematurely treated most species as stenophagic.