Northwestern Ecuador Research Articles

Evaluation of physical growth of children in a rainforest community of northwestern Ecuador.

The physical growth of children under 5 years of age was studied in relation to patterns of nutrition, morbidity, and health care utilization in three remote villages of tropical Ecuador. Age-specific comparisons of height and weight to growth curves from reference populations (US National Child Health Survey) indicated moderate to severe stunting in the population of male and female children. Examination of height-weight relationships as a measure of recent nutritional status provided little evidence that male children were underweight for their height. However, the observation that female children fell between the 3rd and 50th centile channels of the reference population in their height-weight relationship suggested moderate wasting in addition to substantial stunting. Endemic parasitism and a high rate of diarrheal illnesses were detected in the study population and were likely contributing agents to the stunting observed in male and female children. No dichotomy in the incidence of diarrhea was detected between male and female children, and if the episode was mild it was typical not to treat the illness, regardless of sex. In more severe cases, female children were more frequently taken to traditional healers. However, when familial self-treatment or local clinics were used, male children were more likely to be the beneficiary. Thus it seems possible that this advantage, along with the cultural practice of investing more of the family's resources in male children, may be responsible for the wasting detected in young females. Tropical conditions, chronic undernutrition, compromised cellular immunity, and inadequate health care services were likely causes of the high morbidity and mortality of children under age 5. Community-based programs of health promotion and disease prevention appear to offer the best potential as intervention strategies in these villages.

Two new species of the genus Coccoloba (Polygonaceae)

Coccoloba ecuadorensis sp. nov, a large‐leaved species from the humid coastal forest of Northwestern Ecuador, and C. trollii sp. nov., a small‐leaved species from an isolated patch of dry forest in central Bolivia are described.

Field-adapted method for high-performance thin-layer chromatographic detection and estimation of chloroquine and desethylchloroquine in urine

A high-performance thin-layer chromatographic (HPTLC) method which can be used in remote field locations lacking electricity has been developed for selective and sensitive detection and estimation of chloroquine (Cq), desethylchloroquine (DECq) and two other antimalarial compounds in urine. The method requires a single extraction step and has a detection limit of 0.25 μg/ml for both Cq and DECq. The HPTLC method was coupled with a colorimetric field assay for Cq and metabolites in urine and a field-interfaced, laboratory-based, high-performance liquid chromatographic assay of Cq and DECq in finger-stick blood to survey antimalarial drug use practices in Esmeraldas Province in northwestern Ecuador. Fourteen of 66 patients from whom urine samples were obtained were found to have detectable Cq and DECq. Results of the three assays are compared for these individuals, and the role of the HPTLC method in field studies is assessed.

Observations on the Neogene of Northwestern Ecuador

A micropaleontological study of Neogene samples from the region of Esmeraldas defines ages and sheds light on depositional settings and regional history. The late Middle to early Late Miocene Borbon Formation consists mostly of tuffaceous diatomites and mudstones, best dated by their radiolarian component. The overlying Esmeraldas (Punta Gorda) tuffaceous mudstones yield a rich foraminiferal fauna of Pliocene (Zanclean) age, but few siliceous remains. The benthonic foraminifera of the Miocene are typical of a Caribbean/East Pacific tropical province. The Pliocene foraminiferal fauna is distinct, allied to that of California. Miocene sediments were deposited in mid-bathyal depths. The Pliocene foraminiferal fauna suggests deposition in the upper bathyal zone. A wide bathymetric range of molluscan species is attributed to taphonomic dispersal of molluscan shells by large predators. Presumably these sediments were emplaced on top of a progressively shoaling accretionary wedge, which underwent faulting as sediments accumulated and which emerged in the latest Pliocene or in Pleistocene time.

Birds of a Tropical Deciduous Forest in Extreme Northwestern Peru

From 14 June to 5 July 1979 we studied the avifauna at two localities in Depto. Tumbes, Peru, near the Ecuadorean border. We obtained specimens of six species and 1 5 subspecies new for Peru, and collected specimens and natural history information on such poorly known taxa as Ortalis erythroptera, Synallaxis tithys, Automolus erythrocephalus, and Thamnophilus zarumae. RESUMEN. Entre el 14 de junio y el 5 de julio de 1979 estudiamos la avifauna de dos localidades cercanas a la frontera con Ecuador en el Departamento de Tumbes, Peru. Obtuvimos especimenes de seis especies y 1 5 subespecies nuevas para el Peru y coleccionamos especimenes e information sobre la historia natural de taxa poco conocida como: Ortalis erythroptera, Synallaxis tithys, Automolus erythrocephalus y Thamnophilus zarumae. In South America west of the Andes, the ranges of many humid tropical forest bird species extend from Colombia south to western Ecuador. The climate of this narrow, coastal corridor becomes much drier in southwestern Ecuador, and many species found in the more humid forests to the north are absent. The dry area extends from northwestern Peru in the Deptos. of Piura and Tumbes into west-central Ecuador, with a narrow arm extending into coastal northwestern Ecuador, and is bounded on the east by the Andean Cordillera. Noting the high endemism of birds, as well as other organisms, in the region, Chapman (1926) designated them as the Equatorial Arid Fauna. This region has been studied very little by ornithologists in recent years. Jelski and Stolzmann visited Tumbes in 1876, going on to collect at Lechugal, and in nearby Ecuador at Palmar (= Palmales; Taczanowski 1877). Collecting in the region was not extensive, however, until just after the turn of the century when several expeditions from the American Museum of Natural History worked in the area of Ecuador just north and east of what is now the Depto. Tumbes, Peru. Collectors from the American Museum spent about 200 field-days in the area between 1913 and 1922 (Chapman 1926). M. A. Carriker, Jr., later collected at La Laja, Peru, now near the Ecuadorean border (Bond 1945). From 14 June to 5 July 1979 a field party (the authors, J. W. Eley, and Manuel Sanchez S.) from the Louisiana State University Museum of Zoology (LSUMZ) studied the birds of northeastern Depto. Tumbes near the Ecuadorean border. The aim of our collecting was to clarify the ranges of the forms that reach their southern limit in this region, which is believed to be at or near the southern terminus of Chapman's Colombian-Pacific Fauna, to gather information on the poorly known species of the area, and to provide the Peruvian government with an initial faunal inventory of the Bosque Nacional de Tumbes. Our camp was ca. 2 km east of the Peruvian military post at El Caucho, on Quebrada Faical, about 24 km southeast of Pampa de Hospital (3°49'S, 80°l 7'W; Fig. 1), at about 400 m elevation. During this period, we also visited Campo Verde (3°51'S, 80°H'W), another military outpost ca. 11 km eastsoutheast of El Caucho and at 750 m elevation (30 June; 1, 3, and 4 July). At these localities we collected six bird species not previously recorded in Peru, and recorded 1 5 subspecies new for the country. Because of the extensive earlier collections in nearby Ecuador, most species that we recorded new for Peru had previously been taken within 100 km of our El Caucho camp. Thus, most records are not major range extensions, and in most cases extend the range westward, not

Redescriptions of Three Little-Known Eleutherodactylus from Northwestern Ecuador (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae)

Peters (1955) published a list of herpetological type-localities in Ecuador. For most of the species of Eleutherodactylus named from South America, the type-locality is the only known locality at which the species has been collected. This paucity of knowledge does not reflect the rarity of species so much as it reflects the lack of collections, difficulty of identification of specimens, and failure of herpetologists to report on eleutherodactyline frogs. The species of the genus Eleutherodactylus are difficult to identify inasmuch as there is little in the way of useful literature on the genus in South America. Few specimens of the genus are collected by the diurnal collector except at higher elevations in the Andes where the populations of the relatively few species which occur there are very large. In the course of field work in Ecuador by William E. Duellman, myself, and other parties from the University of Kansas, we have collected several hundreds of specimens of Eleutherodactylus representing nearly 75 species. More species of the genus have been named from Ecuador (49) than from any other political unit in the Americas. Of the numerous named forms, many lack precise locality data. The purpose of this paper is to record locality records and other information concerning three little-known species of the genus from northwestern Ecuador. As noted by Peters (1960), Ecuador is made up of three obvious parts (Pacific lowlands, Andes, and Amazonian lowlands), which are not to be confused with zoogeographic units. Eleutherodactyline frogs occur in most regions of Ecuador but as yet are not known from the Guayas region. There are at least three faunal regions on the Pacific lowlands and slopes of Ecuador (1. The Guayas region; 2. The Esmeraldas region, the very wet Ecuadorian component of the Choco which narrows to the south and is restricted to the base of the Andes; and 3. The slope region, which is found between 1000 and 3000 meters on the Pacific slopes of at least the northern two-thirds of the Ecuadorian Andes. Some members of this faunal group get into the interandean basins or valleys). Peters (1960) considered the interandean faunal unit to be

Systematics and Evolution of the Mesoamerican Salamander Genus Oedipina

The genus Oedipina is the most specialized genus within the family Plethodontidaeo Fifteen species are recognized and are placed into two species groups: an Oedipina parvipes group with four species (parvipes, complex, elongata, and carablanca*) and an Oedipina uniformis group with el e v en species (collaris, poelzi, pseudouniformis*, altura*, cyclocauda, uniformis, paucidentata*, alfaroi, taylori, ignea, and stuarti*); an asterisk indicates species described as new in this paper. Several taxa previously recognized ar e reduced to synonymy: Ophiobatrachus vermicularis, Haptoglossa pressicauda, Oedipina syndactyla, 0. bonitaensis, 0. longissima, 0. gracilis, 0. pacificensis, and 0. inusitata are referred to Oedipina uniformis; 0. alleni to Oedipina parvipes. Oedipina apparently evolved sometime during late early Tertiary or early middle Tertiary in the Costa Rica western Panama region and shortly thereafter diverged into two separate species groups, the Oedipina parvipes group and the Oedipina uniformis group. The species range from Estado de Chiapas, Mexico, southward through western Colombia to extreme northwestern Ecuador and occur primarily in low lands or low montane areas up to 2286 m (7500 fto) elevation. Oedipina is primarily fossorial and is often found along road cuts beneath very wet moss or beneath and in rotting logs in pastures of forested areaso Some forms occasionally occur in loose sand or gravel along stream banks.

XV.—Descriptions of two new fishes of the genus Loricaria from North-western Ecuador

XV.—<i>Descriptions of two new fishes of the genus</i> Loricaria <i>from North-western Ecuador</i>

X.—Descriptions of new batrachians and reptiles from North-western Ecuador

X.—<i>Descriptions of new batrachians and reptiles from North-western Ecuador</i>