Diet of the Marsupial Micoureus demerarae in Small Fragments of Atlantic Forest in Southeastern Brazil

The diet of the marsupial Micoureus demerarae was studied from fecal samples obtained from live-trapping in Atlantic Coastal Forest fragments at Poço das Antas Biological Reserve, southeastern Brazil, from 1995 to 1997. Among arthropods, the most frequent food items belonged to the orders Coleoptera and Hymenoptera, whereas Arachnida, Orthoptera, Hemiptera and Lepidoptera were also frequent. Lepidoptera and Diptera were represented mostly by larvae and pupae. Crustaceans of the orders Copepoda and Isopoda were also found. Plants were represented by seeds of species from secondary vegetation, mostly belonging to the families Piperaceae, Moraceae and Cecropiaceae, which should reflect frugivory. Predominance of arthropods in the diet was consistent with previous studies. Diet composition was remarkably constant among fragments, sexes, age classes, breeding versus non-breeding seasons, and climatic categories (dry versus humid months). The only significant difference was that diversity of arthropods was higher in the non-breeding than in the breeding season, but this was likely to be due to sampling effects. Given the natural abundances of the food items, the constancy of the diet is likely to reflect opportunism rather than food selection.