Abstract:The arboreal snake Imantodes lentiferus (Cope, 1894) is distributed in lowland rainforests of the Amazon basin and Guiana region, reported from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Suriname, French Guiana, Guyana, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Brazil. In Brazil it occurs in the north and central-west regions, in the states of Acre, Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, and Mato Grosso. This study reports new records of Imantodes lentiferus from Pará and Mato Grosso. These new records fill a large gap in the known distribution of this species.
We describe a new species of Imantodes, morphologically similar to I. chocoensis, from the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. This new species is distinguished from all congeners by the following combination of morphological characters: smooth dorsal scale rows 17/17/15; apical pits absent; infralabials 12-13; ventrals 227-236; subcaudals 147-148; presence of loreal scale; cloacal plate divided; dark temporal stripe on the suture between the lower edge of temporal scales and upper region of supralabials; dorsum of body light brown with dark brown transversal streaks, weakly evident in lateral view; hemipenis in situ extending to the level of 11th subcaudal and reaches the 10th subcaudal when everted; hemipenis with sulcus spermaticus expanded at the base of capitulum and extending distally. Additionally, we discuss the lateral expansion of the sulcus spermaticus in the new species, similar to that of species of Leptodeira.
Infectious diseases are one of the main threats to biodiversity. The fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) is associated with several amphibian losses around the globe, and environmental conditions may dictate the success of pathogen spread. The Brazilian Amazon has been considered climatically unsuitable for chytrid fungus, but additional information on Bd dynamics in this ecoregion is still lacking. We sampled 462 amphibians (449 anurans, 4 caudatans and 9 caecilians), representing 57 species from the Brazilian Amazon, and quantified Bd infections using qPCR. We tested whether abiotic variables predicted the risk of Bd infections, and tested for relationships between biotic variables and Bd. Finally, we experimentally tested the effects of Bd strains CLFT 156 and CLFT 102 (from the southern and northern Atlantic Forest, respectively) on Atelopus manauensis. We detected higher Bd prevalence than those previously reported for the Brazilian Amazon, and positive individuals in all 3 orders of amphibians sampled. Both biotic and abiotic predictors were related to prevalence, and no variable explained infection load. Moreover, we detected higher Bd prevalence in forested than open areas, while the host’s reproductive biology was not a factor. We detected higher mortality in the experimental group infected with CLFT 156, probably because this strain was isolated from a region characterized by discrepant climatic conditions (latitudinally more distant) when compared with the host’s sampling site in Amazon. The lowland Brazilian Amazon is still underexplored and future studies targeting all amphibian orders are essential to better understand Bd infection dynamics in this region.
We present a new record of the Asian Mourning Gecko, Lepidodactylus lugubris (Duméril & Bibron, 1836) in the Atlantic Forest of eastern South America. Lepidodactylus lugubris is a widely distributed lizard currently occurring throughout most of the northern Neotropical Region, including the Galapagos and the eastern Pacific islands. Unlike the Amazon Rainforest, which has wide forested cover and essentially diurnal geckos, the threatened Atlantic Forest has had most of its original vegetation removed. The arrival of L. lugubris in the region deserves attention and study, aiming understand the impact of this exotic gecko on the Atlantic Forest native gecko fauna.
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