Amphibians of Santa Teresa, Brazil: the hotspot further evaluated

Rodrigo Barbosa Ferreira,Thiago Silva-Soares,Emanuel Teixeira Da Silva,Karen H Beard,João Filipe Riva Tonini,Fernanda Cristina Ferreira Lirio,Marcio Marques Mageski,Charles Duca,Alexander Tamanini Mônico,Cássio Zocca

doi:10.3897/zookeys.857.30302

Abstract

A checklist of the amphibians of Santa Teresa municipality, in southeastern Brazil is presented based on fieldwork, examination of specimens in collections, and a literature review. This new amphibian list of Santa Teresa includes 108 species, of which 106 (~98%) belong to Anura and two (~2%) to Gymnophiona. Hylidae was the most represented family with 47 species (43%). Compared to the previous amphibian lists for Santa Teresa, 14 species were added, 17 previously reported species were removed, and 13 species were re-identified based on recent taxonomic rearrangements. Of the 14 species added, 11 (79%) were first recorded during our fieldwork and specimen examination. It is also the first list of caecilians for Santa Teresa. This list suggests that Santa Teresa has 0.16 species per km2 (i.e., 108 species/683 km2), one of the highest densities of amphibian species in the world at a regional scale. This richness represents 78% of the 136 anurans from Espírito Santo state and 10% of the 1,080 amphibians from Brazil. We highlight the need for long-term monitoring to understand population trends and develop effective conservation plans to safeguard this remarkable amphibian richness.

Highlights

Species checklists provide a scientific value to areas by identifying the richness that is threatened given anthropogenic actions
The state of Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil harbors 136 (22%) species listed for Atlantic Forest
New species have been described for Santa Teresa (e.g., Lourenço-de-Moraes et al 2014, Ferreira et al 2015, Taucce et al 2018), some species have been reported for the first time in the area (Simon and Peres 2012), and there have been many taxonomic changes (e.g., Pimenta et al 2014, Walker et al 2016), indicating the need to update the species list of this anuran diversity hotspot

Summary

Introduction

Species checklists provide a scientific value to areas by identifying the richness that is threatened given anthropogenic actions. Brazil’s Atlantic Forest is one of the most threatened global biodiversity hotspots and remains under-sampled given the high number of new species recently described (Lourenço-de-Moraes et al 2014, Ferreira et al 2015, Marciano-Jr et al 2017). New species have been described for Santa Teresa (e.g., Lourenço-de-Moraes et al 2014, Ferreira et al 2015, Taucce et al 2018), some species have been reported for the first time in the area (Simon and Peres 2012), and there have been many taxonomic changes (e.g., Pimenta et al 2014, Walker et al 2016), indicating the need to update the species list of this anuran diversity hotspot

Methods

Results

Conclusion