Semideciduous Forest In Southeastern Brazil Research Articles

Diet of the Scaly-Headed Parrot (Pionus maximiliani) in a Semideciduous Forest in Southeastern Brazil

The diet of the Scaly-headed Parrot (Pionus maximiliani) was studied during three consecutive years in a 250 ha semideciduous forest in southeastern Brazil. The parrots showed a generalist and seasonal diet. Seeds composed 70.4 percent of the diet of parrots, followed by flowers (20.3%), corn from plantations that surround the forest (7.7%) and fruit pulp (1.6%). In the dry season flowers constituted 38 percent of the diet and leguminous fruits comprised 41.2 percent of its diet. Parrots are important predispersal seed predators and have a high impact on the fitness of plants in semideciduous forests, due to their high consumption of seeds and flowers.

Resources and conservation of neotropical butterflies in urban forest fragments

Three remnants of native semideciduous forest in southeastern Brazil within the urban area of Campinas (100 km north of São Paulo, nearly 900 000 inhabitants) were censused weekly for butterflies and their adult and larval food-plants. Seventy-eight species were recorded in the larger (12 ha) peripheral area while 47 and 46 species were found in two small (1–2 ha) woods in the residential zone of the city. At least 16 species reproduce in the small woods, which may aid the survival of some scarce butterfly species in the urban area. Limitation of adult food resources in the woods had a great influence on populations of two different butterfly guilds (nectar- and fruit/sap-eating species).