The Herpetological Journal

Authors: Daniele Dendi, Gabriel Hoinsoudé Segniagbeto, Fabio Petrozzi & Luca Luiselli

Abstract: Dietary generalism promotes ecological flexibility, yet the consistency of prey use across nearby habitats remains poorly understood. We investigated fine-scale variation and repeatability of diet in the West African gecko Hemidactylus angulatus, an urban generalist, across six adjacent houses (four) and walls (two) on the University of Lomé campus, Togo. Faecal analysis from 97 individuals revealed a broad arthropod diet dominated by Diptera and Hymenoptera, with additional prey from Lepidoptera, Araneae and Isopoda. Levin’s standardised niche breadth indices (BA) revealed moderate to high dietary niche breadth across all sites, with BA values ranging from 0.55 to 0.60. Diversity indices showed moderate to high prey richness and evenness, while Bray-Curtis dissimilarity values (23–42%) indicated substantial dietary turnover among sites separated by only tens of metres. Detrended Correspondence Analysis linked dietary composition and diet variability to microhabitat variables, particularly structure height, vegetation cover and refuge availability. Geckos inhabiting taller, more structurally complex microhabitats exhibited broader diets, whereas those in simpler habitats consumed more specialised prey. These results reveal low consistency of prey use among nearby microhabitats by an urban generalist and highlight how microhabitat heterogeneity drives fine-scale trophic differentiation, emphasising the ecological significance of structural complexity in urban environments. By demonstrating that small-scale structural heterogeneity promotes trophic diversification even in urban generalists, our findings indirectly highlight the potential importance of maintaining microhabitat complexity in cities to support urban biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and the conservation value of human-dominated landscapes.

Keywords: dietary generalism, microhabitat heterogeneity, urban environments, Hemidactylus, trophic diversity, spatial dietary variation