02170nas a2200193   4500008004100000020001400041245011600055210006900171300000800240520150100248653001601749653002001765653002101785653002601806653002001832100002401852700002901876856007101905       2016                        eng d  a0944-200600aPreference for different prey allows the coexistence of several land planarians in areas of the Atlantic Forest0 aPreference for different prey allows the coexistence of several   a - 3 a<p>AbstractLand planarians are recognized as important predators, yet studies on their feeding habits are usually restricted to invasive species. Thus, it is difficult to determine the real ecological role of this group in ecosystems and how their communities are structured. In the present study, we analyzed the diet of six co-occurring Neotropical land planarians and their success in capturing prey, based on experiments in the laboratory, in order to determine how they share resources in the same environment. We also calculated indices of food niche breadth and food niche overlap for land planarians for the first time. The diet of Luteostriata abundans comprises only woodlice and the diets of Obama ficki and Obama ladislavii are composed only of gastropods, while Paraba multicolor and Obama anthropophila feed on both gastropods and other land planarians. An invasive species recently found in Western Europe, Obama nungara, showed the highest food niche breadth, feeding on gastropods, earthworms and planarians. We found the highest niche overlap between O. anthropophila and P. multicolor. The results suggest that land planarians are frequent predators of woodlice and land gastropods in the Neotropical ecozone and thus are important for the maintenance of native ecosystems and for the control of invasive species. The coexistence of several species in the same habitat is possible due to the use of different species as main prey, which reduces interspecific competition.</p>
10aGeoplanidae10aLevins’ index10aPianka’s index10aPlanarian food niches10aPlatyhelminthes1 aBoll, Piter, Kehoma1 aLeal-Zanchet, Ana, Maria  uhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S094420061630021600487nas a2200133   4500008004100000022002500041245007600066210006900142300001400211490000700225100002400232700002900256856006800285       2015                        eng d  a0022-2933, 1464-526200aPredation on invasive land gastropods by a {Neotropical} land planarian0 aPredation on invasive land gastropods by a Neotropical land plan  a983–9940 v491 aBoll, Piter, Kehoma1 aLeal-Zanchet, Ana, Maria  uhttp://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00222933.2014.981312