Diet in phenotypically divergent sympatric species of African weakly
electric fish (genus: Campylomormyrus) – a hybrid capture/NGS
metabarcoding approach
Abstract
Ecological speciation within the mormyrid genus Campylomormyrus resulted
in sympatric species exhibiting divergence in their feeding apparatus
and electric organ discharge (EOD). This study provides direct evidence
to support the suggested ecological speciation scenario that
Campylomormyrus radiation is caused by an adaptation to different food
sources. We performed diet assessment of sympatric Campylomormyrus
species with markedly different snout morphologies and EODs using hybrid
capture/NGS DNA metabarcoding of their stomach contents. Our approach
allowed for high taxonomic resolution of prey items, including benthic
invertebrates, allochthonous invertebrates, and vegetation. Comparisons
of the diet compositions using quantitative measures and diet overlap
indices revealed that all species are able to exploit multiple food
niches in their habitats, i.e. fauna at the bottom, the water surface,
and the water column. The major part of the diet is larvae of aquatic
insects, such as dipterans, coleopterans, and trichopterans, known to
occur in holes and interstitial spaces of the substrate. The results
showed that different snout morphologies and the associated divergence
in the EOD translate into different prey spectra. This suggests that the
diversification in EOD and the morphology of the feeding apparatus is
under functional adaptation.