Resumen

PAVES, Héctor; PEQUENO, Germán; BERTRAN, Carlos  y  VARGAS, Luis. Limnetic feeding in eleginops maclovinus (valenciennes, 1830) in the valdivia river, Chile. INCI [online]. 2005, vol.30, n.3, pp.120-125. ISSN 0378-1844.

Eleginops maclovinus is a common fish in littoral, estuarine, and tidally influenced riverine environments in southern South America and the Malvinas Islands. Its feeding habits were previously studied in littoral and estuarine environments, where it was observed to feed on autochthonous fauna (estuarine mussels, marine crustaceans, polychaets, etc.). The present study is the first report on the feeding habits of this species in the riverine (limnetic) environment. The contents of 98 stomachs out of 114 specimens of E. maclovinus analyzed revealed the presence of fauna characteristic of low-salinity environments inhabited by the fishes, confirming this species to be unusually versatile in trophic capability. This versatility is permitted by a broad scope of osmoregulatory capability at the digestive level, which is probably one of the most adaptable among the suborder Notothenioidei, a group of probable Antarctic evolutionary origin.

Palabras clave : Eleginops ; Eleginopidae; Feeding Shifts; Osmoregulation; South America.