Hábitos alimentarios del tiburón mamón común (Mustelus lunulatus) en las costas del Pacífico Ecuatoriano.

Abstract

In Ecuador, 46 species of sharks have been reported, with Mustelus lunulatus being the most important demersal species in artisanal landings. This, together with its limited information in the Ecuadorian Pacific, made it a candidate to update and increase data on its trophic spectrum, for which 48 stomachs were collected from October 2023 to October 2024, in order to identify the most important prey species in its diet, finding a total of 24 food items recognized up to the minimum possible taxon, with the crustacean species Achelous, Achelous iridescens and Persephona subovata being the most important prey according to the Relative Importance Index, presenting a diet with a moderately high diversity according to the Shannon-Wiener Index (H= 2,872). The Standardized Levin Index showed that females presented a specialist diet concentrated on crustaceans, the most important being Achelous iridescens (Ba= 0,48), likewise the males showed specialist habits mainly towards crustaceans of the genus Achelous (Ba= 0,58). While, the Morisita-Horn Index showed a significant trophic overlap between their diets (Cλ= 0,75) sharing 8 food items, likewise the immature and mature organisms showed specialist feeding habits (I= 0,57; M= 0,48), where, the Immature organisms showed a certain preference towards crustaceans of the genus Achelous, while the Mature organisms showed greater affinity towards Persephona subovata, in addition, no differences were found in their diets (Cλ= 0,82) where they shared 10 prey species.