The feeding habits of Herrera's mud turtle (Kinosternon herrerai) were studied from October 1999 through September 2000 in the southern limits of its range, in streams near Xalapa, Veracruz. Turtles were captured by hand and using baited traps, and stomach contents were flushed with water from 48 adults. Frequency of occurrence, numeric frequency, and volume percentage of 21 food items found by examination of stomach contents showed that this turtle primarily consumed decapod crustaceans (Procambarus sp.), animal material, plant material, adult anurans (Eleutherodactylus sp. Rana sp., and Bufo marinus), Ficus sp. fruits, dragonfly larvae, and anuran tadpoles. These turtles are omnivorous, but ingested a higher proportion of animal material than plant (females 92% vs. 52%; males 85.7% vs. 52.4%). Kinosternon herrerai is a generalist feeder throughout all seasons showing an opportunistic response in the exploitation of some food items such as anuran eggs. Trophic diversity of both sexes varied among seasons (Herrera's diversity index: 2.77 to 16.65 for females, and 3.3 to 15.24 for males),yet females showed some seasonal diet specialization during summer, and males during spring and winter, when trophic diversity values were lower for each sex. Diet similarity between males and females weremeasured using the simplified Morisita index was higher in summer and winter (0.67 and 0.66) compared to spring and fall (0.60 and 0.55), suggesting some seasonal resource partitioning takes place between males and females in this species.
