The food of the tadpoles of Rhacophorus cruciger cruciger (Blyth)

Abstract

1) Examination of food in the alimentary canal of Rhacophorus tadpoles showed that the plankton algae present in the water were ingested without discrimination. @0 Chlorella was the dominant item in the food. Other algae constituted a small fraction. The ingested food also contained a large amount of debris. 3) Except for the diatoms and fragments of green filamentous algae, most of the ingested algae passed out undigested. 4) Experiments showed that starved tadpoles fed on filaments of Spirogyra and the cells of these were partly digested in the alimentary canal.