干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

We studied the diet of Chalcides ocellatus (Forskal, 1775) from southern Egypt using stomach contents from a large series of specimens collected during the Yale University Prehistoric Expedition to Nubia. Only 2.5% of specimens contained identifiable prey items. Insect larvae, coleopterans and orthopterans were the most important prey items. The first two of these prey categories are typically among the most important in the diet of this species in other areas of its broad distribution. Males and females differed somewhat in their diets and had a dietary overlap of 0.607. Males had relatively larger head widths than females, but this is likely to be related to sexual selection rather than dietary segregation.