Dati preliminari sulla dieta autunnale dei geotritoni della Sardegna (genere Speleomantes)

European cave salamanders (genus Speleomantes) represent the only Plethodontid salamanders in Europe. Five of them are endemic to Sardinia. These amphibians evolved a projectable tongue which is used to prey. To date, studies on European cave salamanders diet only focused on two of mainland species, whereas the diet of Sardinian species was never analysed. With this study we investigated the autumn diet of Sardinian species of Speleomantes. We used stomach flushing to obtain and identify the stomach contents of individuals. We recognized 1570 prey belonging to 27 different orders. S. genei, S. supramontis and S. imperialis showed a more differentiated diet from those of S. flavus and S peleomantes, which are more similar. Adults showed the major number of recognizable prey, as they have the opportunity to ingest bigger preys which require more time to be digested. This study will be implemented with data on spring season; however this is the first study on diet of Sardinian Cave salamanders.