T marmoratus feeding on L boscai?

[pms17]

Last weekend, I found a T marmoratus(I think it was a male) eating a L boscai in the pond near my house. Is this their normal behavior or does this mean that there is not enough food in the pond???

 

[Mark]

Newts are opportunistic feeders - they don't know when their next meal is coming so they take what they can get. I don't know how significant predation of small bodied newts by large bodied newts is. Chances are the L.boscai was already dead, sick or just in the wrong place at the wrong time. If predation levels are high I imagine the two species would have learnt to avoid each other by now. As it is, Triturus often share breeding sites with Lissotriton which suggests predation of adults is fairly low.

 

[Azhael]

Predation of T.marmoratus over L.boscai has been documented a few times and observed informally too. It seems that the incidence is relatively low, although if i recall properly, i think there was a study that showed that T.marmoratus females predate on adult L.boscai with certain frequency, at least in some populations.
Even if there is significant predation, i think L.boscai populations are capable of sustaining it, they have faster reproductive cycles and are quite numerous where the conditions are suitable. I doubt adults get eaten often, though, they are fast little buggers when they have to be.

 

[pms17]

There are A LOT of L boscai larvae in the pond so they'l survive the hungry marms XD.