Amphibians and reptiles from Floresta Nacional de Pau-Rosa, Amazonas, Brazil: an important protected area at the heart of Amazonia

Abstract

Amazonia harbors the largest and most diverse tropical forest in the world, but knowledge about the species diversity of the region is still far from ideal. Given this low level of faunal and floral knowledge, we present an annotated list of the species of amphibians and reptiles found in Floresta Nacional do Pau-Rosa (FNPR), along the Rio Paraconi, municipality of Maués, state of Amazonas, Brazil. Herpetofauna of the FNPR was sampled with pitfall traps, active search and occasional encounters from February 18 to March 28, 2009. A total of 270 specimens were collected, representing 39 species of amphibians and 24 species of reptiles. At least seven of the species collected at FNPR represented, at the time, unnamed taxa (four of which have now been named). The number of taxa collected and the high number of unnamed taxa highlight the importance of this area in terms of biodiversity and as a priority for conservation. We also discuss about the amphibian diversity in Amazonia.

Ticks from the Brazilian Amazon: Species, Distribution and Host-Relations

“…The class Amphibia includes the orders Anura, Caudata, Gymnophiona, whereas the class Reptilia includes the orders Squamata, Testudines and Crocodylia. There are 331 amphibian and 550 reptile species in the Brazilian Amazon (Figure 1), although that faunal records are far from complete [2,19]. Brazil has witnessed an increasing number of reports on tick parasitism of amphibians and reptiles over the past few years [20][21][22][23][24].…”

Anuran species composition of Cancão Municipal Natural Park, Municipality of Serra do Navio, Amapá state, Brazil

“…In the Brazilian Amazonia, knowledge has increased in the last ten years based on studies on anurans composition conducted mostly in the state of Amazonas (França and Venâncio 2010, Ilha and Dixo 2010, Pantoja and Fraga 2012, Prudente et al 2013, Waldez et al 2013, Ferrão et al 2016, Ferreira et al 2017), state of Pará (Ávila-Pires et al 2010, Mendes-Pinto and Souza 2011, Bernardo et al 2012, Vaz-Silva et al 2015), state of Rondônia (Ávila-Pires et al 2010, Piatti et al 2012) and state of Acre (Bernarde et al 2011, Bernarde et al 2013, Miranda et al 2015, Venâncio and Souza 2016, França et al 2017). …”