This species is known throughout lowland Costa Rica, Panama, and Caribbean drainages of Colombia, Venezuela, and Trinidad and Tobago, and was previously considered a synonym of Leptodactylus bolivianus(Heyer 1974. Contrib. Sci. Los Angeles Co. Mus. Nat. Hist. Mus. 253:1–46; Savage 2002. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica: a Herpetofauna beween Two Continents, between Two Seas. Univ. Chicago Press, Illinois. 934 pp.), but was resurrected as L. insularum by Heyer and de Sá (2011. Smithson.
Contrib. Zool. 635:1–58). Little is known about the diet of L.insularum, and it has been suggested to feed primarily on arthropods and almost any small animal prey (Savage 2002, op. cit.). However, no specific information exists about food habits of this species. Herein we provided detailed information on the diet of
L. insularum from Río Manso Reserve (5.66600°N, 74.77450°W; datum WGS 84; elev. 220 m) in the municipality of Norcasia, Caldas department, Colombia.
Seven individuals of L. insularum(mean 82.7 SVL; range 77.85–88.2 mm) were collected around a wetland between 1900 and 2200 h on 12–20 May 2010. Stomach flushing was used for the extraction of stomach contents and each prey item was identified to order or family, and measured for length and width using manual calipers (nearest 0.1 mm). The prey volume was estimated using the formula for a prolate spheroid. L. insularumwas confirmed to be a generalist frog (Savage 2002, op. cit.). In addition, several freshwater insect families were found in the stomachs (e.g., Belostomatidae, Psychodidae, Lycosidae; see Table 1). L. insularumis a species associated with ponds, explaining why the majority of their stomach contents were aquatic insects, as reported in other frogs found living near lentic waters, such as L. bufonis, L.fragilis, L. latinasus, and L.poecilochilus(Duré and Kehr 2004. Herpetologica 60:295–303; Gonzalez– Duran et al.
2011. Herpetol. Rev. 36:583–584; Savage 2002, op. cit.).