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Diet is one of the most important dimensions of the ecological niche. Pseudopaludicola genus comprises 25 species of which four have their diet studied. In this study, we quantify the diet of the recently described Pseudopaludicola restinga, which is found in sandy coastal environments of southeastern Brazil. We obtained a sample of 137 individuals from Parque Nacional da Restinga de Jurubatiba from which 97 were used in analyses of diet composition. We registered 136 prey items distributed in 10 prey categories. Only arthropods were consumed. Insects were the most common food items. Hymenoptera was the most important item in terms of prey frequency, number, and index of relative importance. The variety of prey categories suggests that P. restinga is an opportunistic predator. In comparison with dietary information available for other four Pseudopaludicola species, P. restinga has intermediate values of the number of prey items, niche breadth, and importance index. This study is the first to document aspects of the natural history of P. restinga and to compare it with data available for congeners. Data brought here provide a better understanding of life history aspects of P. restinga. These information hence could guide development of effective conservation strategies for this poorly known species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although we celebrate the centennial of Brachycephalus garbeanus' discovery, little progress has been done on understanding this species' biology apart from a few morphological and ecological studies, which includes its redescription based on three specimens from the type-series, microhabitat use, sexual dimorphism in body size, and feeding habits. This species is endemic to the Serra dos Órgãos Mountain range, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. Here we redescribe B. garbeanus based on a wide sampling, including its advertisement and aggressive calls, and also the chigger mites infestation pattern. The advertisement call is longer than 25.8 s with pulsed notes series emitted at an average rate of 2.3 notes/s and 14.1 pulses/s; long inter-note interval with 320 ms; notes with distinctly short pulses (1 to 16 ms); low dominant frequency for this genus (3.0-5.4 kHz) and presence of four harmonics. This species is often parasitized by chigger mites of Hannemania, with a prevalence of infection of 67%, mainly affecting the ventral body surface. Females had a higher prevalence of parasites than males and there was no correlation found between the size of specimens and the number of parasites. Our study, provides an important and overdue taxonomical contribution, including a large amount of novel information for B. garbeanus.