Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Here we describe and confirm the westernmost record of the Short-nosed Rock Lizard (Petrosaurus repens) and provide comments about its distribution. 

We report an event of a Caiman crocodilus consuming the catfish Pterygoplichthys pardalis. A list of known prey items of C. crocodilus was also compiled from the literature, including known vertebrate and invertebrate items for this species. The predation event was observed at the margin of a lagoon in Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke, located in the municipality of Manaus, Amazonas state, Brazil, during a fieldwork study in 2020. The literature survey revealed 250 distinct prey items for this caiman, of which 150 are invertebrates (89 Insecta, 24 Crustacea, 14 Mollusca,10 Arachnida, 10 Myriapoda, 2 Annelida, and 1 Platyhelminthes) and 100 are vertebrates (53 fishes, 16 reptiles, 11 amphibians, 10 birds, and 10 mammals). Among fishes, only three Siluriformes have been taxonomically identified as C. crocodilus preys: Hoplosternum littorale, Clarias batrachus, and Ameiurus nebulosus. Therefore, the catfish P. pardalis represents a new prey specie for C. crocodilus. Our field observation and the presented literature review reinforce the view of C. crocodilus as a generalist predator, with fish as the most important vertebrate prey in the diet of this species.

Abronia anzuetoi is a lizard endemic to Agua Volcano in Sacatepéquez, Guatemala. The species was previously known from only six specimens corresponding to the type series. The last known specimen of the species was collected in 1974. Herein we report the rediscovery of the species after collecting five new specimens, 48 years after its last sighting. The specimens were collected at two localities on the western slope of Agua Volcano in Alotenango, Sacatepéquez, Guatemala. Our report represents a range extension of 7.5 km NW from the nearest known locality for the species. The forest at these new localities is highly threatened by deforestation and fragmentation so we discuss priority conservation measures. 

Despite the high species richness in Pristimantis frogs, their acoustic repertoire remains poorly known, particularly defensive acoustic signals such as the distress call that have gone largely undocumented. Herein, we provide quantitative data of the distress call emitted by a female of Pristimantis racemus and extend the geographical distribution 187 km south from previously known localities in the southwestern Colombian Andes.

We report the first predation event of the red-headed Basilisk (Basiliscus galeritus) by the Blunt-headed treesnake (Imantodes cenchoa) in a tropical rainforest in Colombia. This new record contributes to a better understanding of the natural history and trophic ecology of two species of reptiles in their predator-prey interaction.

We document the presence of Hypopachus ustus in Sinaloa after 41 years without records of the species in that state based on observation of an individual from southern Sinaloa.

Pristimantis taeniatus (Boulenger 1912) is a relatively common terrarana in Colombia and Panama, recently recorded from Costa Rica. However, the taxonomic status and the phylogenetic position of the Costa Rican population are currently unknown. Here, we report P. taeniatus from two new localities in Costa Rica, describe the advertisement call and assess the phylogenetic position within its distribution range using available molecular sequences and some newly generated sequences for this study. We found that P. taeniatus is formed by two clades with deep genetic distances hat might represent different species.

Anuran communities and their associated biotic components, as well as the surrounding physical habitat, vary between regions. The success of research on amphibian biodiversity will then depend on knowing the efficiency of the different sampling techniques that are applied in each particular environment analyzed. In this context, we evaluated the relative registration effectiveness (RRE) of four different techniques in a lacustrine wetland located in the Juan Bautista Alberdi Reserve (JBAR), in east -central Argentina. Research was carried out from December 2021 to March 2022 (summer season), adding an autumn sampling (May/2022). Techniques used were: A) pitfall traps, b) larval sampling, c) acoustic survey transects and d) visual survey transects. In each case, the RRE was calculated by standardizing the records according to the sampling effort measured in minutes. To study the effect of the sampling technique on RRE, a randomized linear model was created using a permutation test, applying 1,000 iterations. A total of 11 species were recorded, with Boana pulchella, Scinax nasicus and Rhinella dorbignyi being the most frequently detected. The sampling technique was found to influence RRE (P = 0.001). The acoustic survey transect was the most successful technique, with an RRE of 24.44%, followed by the search for larvae with a net (3.70%) and the visual survey transect (3.38%). However, these last two allowed us to find species not detected by the first technique. Consequently, a design integrating different techniques is necessary to adequately study the amphibian communities of the JBAR. Improving the effectiveness of sampling allows us to strengthen our understanding of the biodiversity of this taxonomic group, which is so necessary in the context of current global decline.

Colombia is home to 17 of the 738 species of microhylids frogs currently known. Among these, Hamptophryne boliviana is a species widely distributed in the Amazon basin, but with few records in this country. In this paper we present two new records, extending its distribution area by more than 100 linear km, northwest of the nearest known locality (municipality of Solano, Caquetá, Colombia). The new records are located in fragments of tropical rainforest, located in the Andean-Amazon piedmont (< 500 m a.s.l.) of the department of Caquetá, in one of the areas with the highest rate of deforestation in Colombia. The geographic distribution of the species in northwestern Amazonia is discussed.

We describe a new species of lizard of Selvasaura genus from Cordillera del Cóndor, in southeastern Ecuador. The new species is morphologically different from the other three species of Selvasaura mainly in its smaller body size (SVL: male 32.4 mm, female 33.5 mm) and coloration patterns; from the geographically closest species S. almendarizae, it differs mainly by having pentagonal frontoparietal scales, a higher number of transversal scales on the neck, and a longitudinal dorsal stripe more homogenous and weakly delimited by black. Phylogenetically, the new species is inferred within the genus Selvasaura as sister species of S. almendarizae, although this relationship has a low posterior probability. With this description, we recognize four species of Selvasaura, two of which are reported from Ecuador. The new species is known from two localities in the Cordillera del Cóndor that have serious threats such as large-scale mining and land-use change, among others.