The Herpetofauna from Ilha Grande (Angra dos Reis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil): updating species composition, richness, distribution and endemisms

Carlos Frederico Duarte Rocha,Davor Vrcibradic,Paulo Nogueira-Costa,Felipe Bottona Da Silva Telles

doi:10.11606/1807-0205/2018.58.25

Abstract

Ilha Grande is a large continental island (total area of 19,300 ha) situated at the southern coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro, in southeast Brazil, within the Atlantic Forest Biome. Here we provide an update to the previous knowledge of the fauna of amphibians and reptiles occurring in Ilha Grande, based on primary data from our own fieldwork and on secondary data (from institutional collections and from the literature). We report the occurrence at Ilha Grande of a total of 74 species, being 34 amphibians (all of them anurans) and 40 reptiles (27 snakes, 11 lizards, one amphisbaenian and one crocodylian). Our survey added 14 species to the herpetofaunal list of Ilha Grande (three of amphibians and eleven of reptiles) and removed one species (the amphibian Cycloramphus fuliginosus) from the previous list. The data indicated that Ilha Grande houses a considerable portion of the Atlantic Forest amphibian and reptile diversity (ca. 6% and 19%, respectively, of the species occurring in this biome) together with high occurrence of species endemic to this biome plus a few amphibian species endemic to this island. Ilha Grande is thus an important reservoir of both biodiversity and endemism of amphibians and reptiles of the Atlantic Forest of Brazil, which highlights the importance of the conservation of the island and of its different habitats along the insular landscape.

Highlights

Knowing the species composition occurring in an environment is a prerequisite for the approach of the knowledge of local biodiversity and biogeographical and ecological processes, as well as for mapping conservation and management plans in protected areas
Like the other continental islands on the eastern Brazilian coast, Ilha Grande is inserted within the Atlantic Forest Biome, which is one of the world’s biodiversity “hotspots” (Mittermeier et al, 2011)
Ilha Grande represents one of the areas of the Atlantic Forest for which the knowledge on the vertebrate fauna has continually improved with time, especially since the establishment, in 1996, of a research station there: the Centro de Estudos Ambientais e Desenvolvimento Sustentável – CEADS of the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Summary

Introduction

Knowing the species composition occurring in an environment is a prerequisite for the approach of the knowledge of local biodiversity and biogeographical and ecological processes, as well as for mapping conservation and management plans in protected areas. For island communities this knowledge is relevant so that one can select study models for species or populations that provide potential for evaluating the effects of geographical isolation on gene flow (BittencourtSilva & Silva, 2013). There are published introductory species lists for non-volant mammals (Pereira et al, 2001), bats (Esbérard et al, 2006), birds (Alves & Vecchi, 2009), squamatan reptiles (Rocha & van Sluys, 2006) and amphibians (Bittencourt-Silva & Silva, 2013) occurring in that island

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