SEAVR 2018: 074‐075
ISSN: 2424‐8525
Date of publication: 30 September 2018
Hosted online by ecologyasia.com

Diet of Draco spilopterus from Ilocos Norte Provinceand Laguna Province, Philippines
Michael A. TABUG, Levy V. NECESITO, David Emmanuel M. GENERAL & Arvin C. DIESMOS
hmichaeltabug@yahoo.com (Tabug), necesitolevy@gmail.com (Necesito),dmgeneral@up.edu.ph (General), arvin.diesmos@gmail.com (Diesmos)

Observers: Michael A. Tabug, Levy V. Necesito.
Photographs by: Michael A. Tabug, Levy V. Necesito.
Subjects identified by: Michael A. Tabug, David Emmanuel M. General, Arvin C. Diesmos.
Location: Ilocos Norte Metro Watershed and Forest Reserve, Pasuquin, Ilocos Norte Province, Philippines(18.37167°N, 120.64682°E); and Mount Banahaw in Barangay Bukal, Municipality of Majayjay, Laguna Province,
Philippines (14.12292°N, 121.469°E).
Habitat: Trunks of mango, lanzone (langsat), and coconut trees.
Date and time: 12‐15 June 2017, 09:00‐ 16:30 hrs; 14‐17 September 2017, 08:15‐16:00 hrs.
Identity of subject: Philippine Spotted Flying Lizard, Draco spilopterus (Reptilia: Squamata: Agamidae).
Description of record: We collected samples ofDraco spilopterus (Fig. 1U) on July andSeptember 2017 at Ilocos Norte Metro
Watershed and Forest Reserve, Pasuquin,Ilocos
NorteProvince(18.37167°N,120.64682°E) under the Philippine Wildlife
Gratuitous Permit #265 issued by thePhilippine Department of Environment andNatural Resources; and at Mount Banahaw in
Barangay Bukal, Municipality of Majayjay,
Laguna Province (14.12292°N, 121.469°E)
under the research permit of the National
Museum of the Philippines with the approvalof the Municipal Environment and NaturalResources.
Collectedspecimens
wereimmersed in dissolved chloretone toanaesthetize (McDiarmid et al., 2011) and tohalt digestion. We dissected the specimens toremove the stomach for prey items
identification. The ants found in the stomach
were identified to the genus level. Other preyitems were identified to family level.
A total of 1127 individual prey items werequantified and identified. Based on the 25
examined stomachs, the diet of D. spilopterus
was mainly ant arthropods (Formicidae) (Figs.
1A‐1L). Other invertebrates found in thestomach include millipedes (Asiomorpha) (Fig.
1M), bugs and beetles (Chrysomelidae,Coccinelidae, Languriidae) (Figs. 1N‐1Q),
caterpillars (Pyralidae larvae) (Fig. 1R), termites(Isoptera1S)
andscaleinsects(Pseudococcidae) (Fig. 1T).

Fig. 1.

74Remarks: Draco spilopterus is one of 10 endemic species of flying lizard in the Philippines and is widelydistributed across the north and central parts of the country (McGuire & Alcala, 2000). It is known to forage insecondary and disturbed forests (McGuire & Alcala, 2000; McGuire & Heang, 2001). As an arboreal and diurnal
lizard, its foraging habit was easily observed in the field, feeding on arboreal invertebrates found in theirmicrohabitat particularly ant arthropods (Formicidae).
Analysis of gut content revealed that D. spilopterus has a high consumption of Formicidae with frequency ofoccurrence of 100% and a numeric percentage of 98.13%. There are 13 genera of Formicidae identified in the diet
namely Anoplolepis gracilepis (Fig. 1A), Camponotus sp. (Fig. 1B), Carebara sp. (Fig. 1C), Crematogaster sp. (Fig.
1D), Dolichoderus sp. (Fig. 1E), Monomorium sp., Odontoponera sp. (Fig. 1F), Oecophylla smaragdina. (Fig. 1G),
Platythyrea sp. (Fig. 1H), Polyrhachis sp. (Fig. 1I), Tapinoma sp. (Fig. 1J), Tetramorium sp. (Fig. 1K), andTetraponera sp. (Fig. 1L). Hence, the results are related to the abundantly and strongly clumped distribution ofthese genera of ants in the microhabitat inhabited by lizards
In order to further understand dietary pattern, identification and quantification of the diet of other populationsof this flying lizard are required.
References:
McDiarmid, R.W., Mercedes S., Guyer, C., Whitfield Gibbons, J. & Chernoff, N. (2011). Reptile Biodiversity;Standard Methods for Inventory and Monitoring. University of California Press. pp. 424.
McGuire, J.A. and Alcala, A.C. (2000) A taxonomic revision of the Flying Lizards (Iguania: Agamidae: Draco) of thePhilippine Islands, with a description of a new species. Herpetological Monographs. 14, 81‐138
McGuire, J.A. and Heang, K.B. (2001). Phylogenetic systematics of Southeast Asian flying lizards (Iguana:Agamidae: Draco) as inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society,72: 203–229.

75