Modeling the potential geographic distribution of the poorly known Neotropical lizard Anotosaura vanzolinia Dixon, 1974 (Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae) in Northeast Brazil

Abstract

The gymnophthalmid genus Anotosaura currently comprises two named species: Anotosaura collaris Amaral, 1933 and Anotosaura vanzolinia Dixon, 1974. Anotosaura vanzolinia (Figure 1) was described as A. collaris vanzolinia by Dixon (1974) based on specimens from the municipality of Agrestina, in the Agreste region of the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Two years later, Vanzolini (1976a) elevated A. c. vanzolinia to specific rank. It is an insectivorous species that feeds mainly on ants and termites, as well as other arthropods of the edaphic microfauna (Oliveira and Pessanha, 2013). It has a cryptic and semifossorial habit, and it inhabits microhabitats with warmer temperatures, abundant leaf litter, and no incidence of direct sunlight (Delfim and Freire, 2007; Freire et al., 2009). The species has a disjunct and relictual distribution within the Caatinga Domain, where it is found only in mesic areas (Rodrigues, 1986, 2003). The geographical distribution of the species has been based on 12 different locations reported in the literature for the states of Bahia,

Prediction of present and future distribution of the Schlegel’s Japanese gecko (Gekko japonicus) using MaxEnt modeling

“…The five environmental variables used in the model were selected based on previous studies and our expert knowledge from field survey of G. japonicus: altitude, slope, land cover type, Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and distance to the nearest urban and built-up area (Fattahi et al 2014;Zhang et al 2014;Acheson and Kerr 2018;Kim et al 2018;Ribeiro et al 2018). The altitude and slope for each location were extracted from the WorldClim database (ver.…”