Diversity of harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones) in Parque da Onça Parda, southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Diversity of harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones) in Parque daABSTRACT. The environment most diverse in harvestmen species is the Atlantic Forest of São Paulo. However, there remains a lack of studies regarding their communities in certain regions. Among these regions is one south of the Paranapiacaba mountain range in the state of São Paulo, the Parque da Onça Parda (POP). Through nocturnal collections and pitfall traps, the region's harvestmen community has been studied. The observed richness of this site included 27 species, with dominance of three species: Holcobunus nigripalpis Roewer, 1910, Neosadocus maximus (Giltay, 1928 and Munequita sp., accounting for 68.4% of harvestmen abundance. This makes the diversity of POP more similar to the semideciduous Atlantic Forest communities of the interior than to those of the Coastal Atlantic Forest that contains the park. Its geographic location places it within the Southern São Paulo State (SSP) area of endemism, along with the Parque Turístico do Alto Ribeira (PETAR), with which it shares up to 12% similarity regarding harvestmen fauna. Richness and abundance of harvestmen were positively related to temperature and humidity. The period of animal activity (as measured by abundance and richness) varied throughout the night, being highest in the early hours during both studied seasons (summer and winter). KEYWORDS. Daddy longlegs, Alpha diversity, Atlantic Rain Forest.RESUMO. O ambiente mais diverso em opiliões é a Mata Atlântica paulista, no entanto ainda há carência de estudos sobre suas comunidades em determinadas regiões; uma delas é o sul da Serra do Paranapiacaba no estado de São Paulo, onde está o Parque da Onça Parda (POP). Através de coleta noturna e montagem de armadilhas de queda, estudou-se a comunidade de opiliões da região. A riqueza do parque é de 27 espécies, porém a dominância de três espécies (Holcobunus nigripalpis Roewer, 1910; Neosadocus maximus (Giltay, 1928) e Munequita sp., que perfazem 68,4% da abundância total de opiliões), torna a diversidade do POP mais semelhante com a região de Mata Atlântica Semidecídua do interior do que com as da Mata Atlântica Costeira, onde o parque está inserido. Sua localização geográfica o coloca dentro da área de endemismo do Sul de São Paulo (SSP), juntamente com o Parque Turístico do Alto Ribeira (PETAR) e Intervales, com quem possui uma semelhança na fauna de opiliões de 12%. Os opiliões responderam aos parâmetros ambientais, com abundância e riqueza positivamente relacionadas à umidade e temperatura. Por fim, o período de atividade desses animais (medida pela distribuição da abundância e da riqueza) parece ser bastante distinto ao longo da noite, sendo maiores nas primeiras horas, nas duas épocas do ano (verão e inverno).

The harvestmen fauna (Arachnida: Opiliones) of the Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho, and the Floresta Nacional de Ipanema, São Paulo, Brazil

“…According to Bragagnolo et al (2007), the high dominance of few species of Eupnoi seems to be associated to human disturbance in the environment. This same pattern of dominance was recorded in Onça Parda (only 5 km from PE Carlos Botelho) by Resende et al (2012). According Resende et al (2012), the exploitation of wood for charcoal production in that region may have been responsible for the disturbances in that environment.…”

“…Besides the higher richness, the effective number of species of FLONA Ipanema was also higher than that of the Serra do Japi (effective number : 6.1, see Resende et al 2012) and the Morro do Diabo (3.098).…”

“…In their study, Pinto-da-Rocha et al (2005) Resende et al (2012) also places the park as an area of great diversity in the country (Resende et al 2012).…”

“…To calculate the beta diversity, a similarity analysis , using the Jaccard index (S= a/(a + b + c)) (Magurran 1988, Resende et al (2012), were used. A Mantel test was performed to analyze the correlation between the similarity (Jaccard) and geographic distance (Euclidian) matrices.…”

“…Recent studies were carried out, using standardized collecting protocols, in several areas during the project "Biodiversity of Arachnida and Myriapoda of São Paulo", between 2000 and 2004. Other areas were inventoried later, such as the Estação Ecológica Juréia-Itatins (Brescovit et al 2004), Reserva Morro Grande (Bragagnolo et al 2007) and Reserva Particular do Patrimônio Natural da Onça Parda (Resende et al 2012).…”