Vol. 17 No. 1 (2022)
Articles

The effect of weight and prey species on gut passage time in an endemic gecko Quedenfeldtia moerens (Chabanaud, 1916) from Morocco

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  • Jalal Mouadi,
  • Panayiotis Pafilis,
  • Abderrafea Elbahi ,
  • Zahra Okba,
  • Hassan ElOuizgani,
  • El Hassan El Mouden,
  • Mohamed Aourir
Jalal Mouadi
Laboratory “Biodiversity and Ecosystem functioning”, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir
Panayiotis Pafilis
Section of Zoology and Marine Biology, Department of Biology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupolis, 15784 Athens
Abderrafea Elbahi
Laboratory of Aquatic Systems: Marine and Continental Ecosystems, Faculty of sciences, University Ibn Zohr, Agadir
Zahra Okba
Laboratory of Aquatic Systems: Marine and Continental Ecosystems, Faculty of sciences, University Ibn Zohr, Agadir
Hassan ElOuizgani
Laboratory of Aquatic Systems: Marine and Continental Ecosystems, Faculty of sciences, University Ibn Zohr, Agadir
El Hassan El Mouden
Laboratory “Water, Biodiversity and Climatic Change”, Faculty of Sciences Semlalia, Cadi Ayyad University, Marrakech
Mohamed Aourir
Laboratory “Biodiversity and Ecosystem functioning”, Faculty of Sciences, Ibn Zohr University, Agadir
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/a_h-12326

Published 2022-04-29

Keywords

  • GPT,
  • prey weight,
  • Acheta domesticus,
  • Tenebrio molitor,
  • Quedenfeldtia moerens,
  • Morocco
    • ...More
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How to Cite

Mouadi, J., Pafilis, P., Elbahi , A. ., Okba, Z. ., ElOuizgani, H. ., El Mouden, E. H. ., & Aourir, M. . (2022). The effect of weight and prey species on gut passage time in an endemic gecko Quedenfeldtia moerens (Chabanaud, 1916) from Morocco. Acta Herpetologica, 17(1), 21–26. https://doi.org/10.36253/a_h-12326
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Abstract

Gut passage time (GPT), a key factor in digestive procedure, is of pivotal importance for digestion. Several parameters may affect GPT, such as temperature, length of gastrointestinal tract and body size. Here, we examine the influence of prey weight and prey species on GPT in the endemic diurnal gecko Quedenfeldtia moerens, from the Anti-Atlas Mountains in central Morocco. We used two prey species, house crickets (Acheta domesticus, AD) and mealworms (Tenebrio molitor, TM). Lizards were fed with the larval stage of TM and nymphs of AD. The influence of prey weight and prey species was tested at a constant temperature. We used three weight classes of each prey species to test the influence of prey weight on GPT. Our results showed that prey species affected GPT in a distinct way: mealworms induced a longer gut passage time compared to house crickets. Moreover, GPT increased with the increasing weight of prey for both prey species. Our finding demonstrates that the effect of prey species and prey weight affect digestion and thus should be better clarified in future studies. 

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