Biogeography and conservation of the herpetofauna of the Upland Pine-Oak Forests of Honduras

Abstract

The upland pine-oak forest herpetofauna constitutes the smallest segment distributed in the major habitat types in Honduras, due to its occurrence at moderate elevations in relatively inhospitable environments, compared to more mesic habitats in the country. This segment, however, is subject to considerable environmental threat as a consequence of annual burning and logging. Of the 356 herpetofaunal species known from Honduras, 105 are known from these habitats. These forests occur throughout much of the mountainous interior of Honduras. They are subject to the Intermediate Dry climate. Four salamanders, 27 anurans, four turtles, 29 lizards, and 41 snakes comprise the herpetofauna. These species are partitioned into restricted, widespread, and peripheral distributional categories. They can be allocated to eleven broad distributional categories, with most belonging to the category containing species whose ranges extend from somewhere in Mexico north of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to somewhere in South America. The large majority are terrestrial forest inhabitants, arboreal forest inhabitants, terrestrial pondside species, or terrestrial forest pondside species. Most species are judged common, with the next largest group considered to be of infrequent occurrence, and the smallest group of rare occurrence. Upland pine-oak forest species are distributed among four ecophysiographic areas, with the greatest number of species being found in the Southeastern Uplands. Construction of a CBR diagram illustrates that the herpetofaunas of the Northwestern and Northeastern Uplands, the Northeastern Uplands and Southeastern Uplands, and the Southeastern Uplands and Southwestern Uplands are about equally related to one another. The greatest significance of the upland pine-oak forest herpetofauna lies in the relatively high percentage of members presently possessing stable populations, indicating their apparent greater ability to resist anthropogenic habitat disturbance. Few species currently have populations in decline, but about a third lack sufficient data to characterize their population status, indicating the need for considerable additional fieldwork before their conservation issues can be properly addressed.

Cryptic Diversity, but to What Extent? Discordance Between Single-Locus Species Delimitation Methods Within Mainland Anoles (Squamata: Dactyloidae) of Northern Central America

“…In Northern Central America, the Chortís Block biogeographic province is increasingly being recognized as an important and distinctive area for herpetofaunal diversity (Figure 1; Townsend, 2014). This geologically and ecologically-delimited region, also referred to as “Eastern Nuclear Central America” (Campbell, 1999; Wilson and Townsend, 2007; Townsend, 2009), is comprised of eastern Guatemala, all of mainland Honduras and El Salvador, and northern Nicaragua, including Isla del Tigre, the Honduran Islas de la Bahía, and the Nicaraguan Cayos Miskitos (Townsend, 2014). Over 400 reptile and amphibian species are found here, and importantly, over 37% of those recognized species are endemic to the region, including more than half of the area’s amphibians and over 30% percent of its squamates (Townsend, 2014).…”