Amphibians of the equatorial seasonally dry forests of Ecuador and Peru.

Diego Armijos-Ojeda,Carlos Iván Espinosa,Diana Székely,Adrián Escudero,Leonardo Ordóñez-Delgado,Diego F Cisneros-Heredia,Paul Székely,Dan Cogălniceanu

doi:10.3897/zookeys.1063.69580

Abstract

Seasonally dry forests (SDFs) are one of the most challenging ecosystems for amphibians, fueling the diversity of this group of vertebrates. An updated inventory of native amphibians present in the Equatorial SDF is provided, which extends along the Pacific coast of Ecuador and northwestern Peru. The study is based on an extensive field sampling (two thirds of the total records) carried out throughout the Equatorial SDF, along with a compilation of the available information on distribution of amphibians in the region from published scientific papers, museum collections and on-line databases. The final dataset included 2,032 occurrence records for 30 amphibian species, belonging to eight anuran families. Additionally, data regarding conservation status, habitat use, spawn deposition site, reproductive mode, and body size, along with an identification key for all encountered species are provided. The results indicate a strong sampling bias with a deficit in the Peruvian part of the study area, and a need for urgent inventories targeted at under-sampled areas, using modern taxonomic methods. The study emphasizes the conservation priorities in the Equatorial SDF, based on the distribution, conservation status and life-history data. This information should be useful for the local authorities and institutions involved in the management and conservation of biodiversity in SDF.

Highlights

Dry forests have been recently recognized as a coherent biome distributed across South America (Prado and Gibbs 1993; Pennington et al 2000; Pennington et al 2006; Linares-Palomino et al 2011)
We report 30 amphibian species for the Equatorial seasonally dry forests (SDFs), belonging to 14 genera and eight families (Figs 2–6); all 30 species were present in Ecuador, of which 16 were encountered in Peru (Suppl. material 1: Table 2S)
Epipedobates anthonyi and Leptodactylus labrosus, have a distribution mostly restricted to the Equatorial SDF, with few occurrences in adjacent habitats, characterized by higher humidity/altitude

Summary

Introduction

Dry forests (hereafter SDFs) have been recently recognized as a coherent biome distributed across South America (Prado and Gibbs 1993; Pennington et al 2000; Pennington et al 2006; Linares-Palomino et al 2011). Animal diversity of Neotropical SDFs has received relatively little attention (Sánchez‐Azofeifa et al 2005), a general trend of lower species richness is apparent when compared to neighboring moister forest ecosystems such as rainforests and cloud forests (Espinosa et al 2011; Hanson 2011; Jenkins et al 2013; Guedes et al 2018). This trend is quite evident in amphibians, organisms that are highly dependent of humid conditions. Survey efforts carried out in these habitats have revealed high levels of amphibian endemism, and diverse behavioral and physiological adaptations allowing most of these species to endure long periods of low food availability and hydric stress (Ceballos 1995; Chazdon et al 2011; Stoner and Timm 2011)

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