Abstract
ABSTRACT The present study encompasses the species composition and ecological characteristics of the snake community in a Cerrado-Amazon transition zone in Midwest of Brazil (state of Mato Grosso). The data were collected during six excursions to the "Tanguro" (study area) by visual encounter survey, pitfall traps with drift fences and non-systematic sampling. We collected 194 specimens, distributed in 34 species, 26 genera, and eight families. The most abundant species were Crotalus durissus Linnaeus, 1758 (n = 50), Philodryas olfersii (Lichtenstein, 1823) (n = 15), Philodryas nattereri Steindachner, 1870 (n = 13), Xenodon rabdocephalus (Wied, 1824) (n = 12), Lachesis muta (Linnaeus, 1766) (n = 10) and Erythrolamprus almadensis (Wagler, 1824) (n = 10). The composition of species found here represents a combination of Cerrado and Amazonian savanna fauna.
Highlights
Ecology and phylogeny may account for the structure of a snake community, and the morphological variation among species might be a response to ecological factors such as habitat use and diet (França et al, 2008)
The municipality is located within the ample transition zone between the Amazonian and Cerrado biomes, this locality belongs to the Legal Amazonia political division (IBGE, 2005)
The first-order Jackknife estimate of species richness indicated a potential richness of 38 species, suggesting that few species have yet to be recorded in the study area
Summary
Composição e padrões ecológicos da assembleia de serpentes em uma zona de transição Amazônia-Cerrado no Brasil. Avaliamos neste estudo a composição de espécies e características ecológicas de uma comunidade de serpentes em área de transição Cerrado-Amazônia, no Centro-Oeste do Brasil (Estado do Mato Grosso). Historical factors are directly related to the diversity and distribution of species, and the same occurs with snakes (Cadle & Greene, 1993; Ávila-Pires, 1995). Basic information about feeding ecology, reproductive biology, and habitat use of South American snakes have all been relatively well studied, providing the basis for the identification of certain patterns, such as the reproductive seasonality of species inhabiting temperate zones (Marques & Puorto, 1998; Pizzato et al, 2007), and the lack of seasonality in tropical climates (SantosCosta et al, 2006; Maschio et al, 2007; Prudente et al, 2007; Albarelli & Santos-Costa, 2010; Bernarde & Abe, 2010; Maschio et al 2010, Siqueira et al 2012). The Cerrado is characterized by a high rate of endemism and 117 species have been described so far (Sawaya et al, 2008)
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