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

The Zapata Toad (Peltophryne florentinoi) is reported from a new locality, Guajimico, which extends the distribution of this species to the Cienfuegos Province, in the central region of Cuba.

The gryllacridid Brachybaenus domingensis sp. nov. is described and illustrated from specimens collected in various localities of the Dominican Republic. The morphology of the new species is compared to that of the Cuban species Brachybaenus cubensis (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1888), which may be its closest relative. Although these species are similar, diagnostic features of B. domingensis are the yellowish coloration of the face, spines on the anterior tibiae shorter than the eye length, and wings that markedly surpass the abdominal end. In B. cubensis the face is mostly black, the spines in the anterior tibiae are as long or longer than the eye length and the wings barely surpass the abdominal end. This is only the second species of gryllacridids reported from Hispaniola, the fourth species of Brachybaenus Karny in the Caribbean and the 17th species of the genus.

Reduced biodiversity and high number of endemics characterize island ecosystems. Island natives and endemics are considered more vulnerable than continental species to exotic species invasions and habitat changes. The effect of replacing a native forest by an exotic wood plantation was studied on the assemblage of native and endemic ant species. The main hypothesis was that endemic and native ant species were more vulnerable to habitat changes than the exotic ant species. Nevertheless, it was found that native ants were more numerous and specious in both native and exotic plantations. Also, high numbers of two endemic ants were detected within exotic plantations, while only one exotic ant Hypoponera opacipeps was relatively abundant, particularly on native forest. In conclusion, exotic ant species did not dominate the communities studied nor the native and endemic ant assemblages seemed to be affected negatively by the forest replacement.

Epibiotic algae are identified in three brachyuran crabs that inhabit intertidal pools.Crustaceans were collected by SCUBA diving and all the algae present in the exoskeleton were removed. Fifteen epibiotic algae are identified on Macrocoeloma trispinosum (Latreille, 1825), Omalacantha bicornuta (Latreille, 1825) and Actaea bifrons Rathbun, 1898. The most frequent species are filamentous and small algae of the families Ceramiaceae and Cladophoraceae. The algae Sphacelaria tribuloides and Cladophora catenate were identified on the exoskeletons of the three species of brachyrans.

A new location is registered for the head snake W Ialtris dorsalis (Günther, 1858) in Baní, Peravia province, Dominican Republic.

An illustrated identification guide of the chiropters of Hispaniola, based on 10 years of field and laboratory work is presented, while several keys previously published are considered. Two dichotomic keys are included, one for families and one for species, both suplemented by figures and photographs that will aid in the determination of taxa, sex, sexual maturity, and common structures of the chiropters or bats. 18 species are considered, distributed in the six families recognized for the island: Noctilionidae, Phyllostomidae, Molossidae, Mormoopidae, Natalidae, and Vespertilionidae. Important data on the ecology and distribution of these species is included.

An inventory of the reptiles present in the protected area and wildlife refuge El Cañón del río Gurabo or Furnia de Gurabo, located southwest of the municipality of Mao, Valverde province, Dominican Republic. A total of 15 species are registered for the area, grouped into 10 families and 12 genera. A new locality of the Hispaniolan Giant Gecko, Aristelliger lar is reported.

Vector-borne diseases represent a great risk for global health because of their genetic and evolutionary diversity, as well as their potential to cause life-threatening illness. Among them, those transmitted by mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) deserve special attention, particularly the arbovirosis. With the aim of deepening the preferred breeding habitats of Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus, 1762), a retrospective and descriptive study was carried out through the documentary review of the sample registry of the Laboratorio de Entomología Departamental (LED) of Jutiapa, in the southeastern region of Guatemala. As a result of the periodic quarterly, intra and peridomiciliary inspections, carried out in the urban and rural universe, 56 types of deposits colonized by preimaginal stages of Ae. aegypti, were reported, of which 17 were house implements (30.35 %), which amounted 90.00 % of the deposits with the presence of the mosquito. The washing sink was highlighted, which contributed 36.26 % of the positivity of the catching, of which 88 % were located outdoor. There were a great variety of artificial deposits in the domiciliary environment in Jutiapa, therefore females of Ae. aegypti did not oviposit in natural deposits, reporting solely the presence of the vector in seven coconut shells and 11 tree hollows, contributing to 0.16 % and 0.25 % of the rearing places, respectively.

We revise the species of Audantia, a genus of dactyloid lizards endemic to Hispaniola. Based on our analyses of morphological and genetic data we recognize 14 species in this genus, four of which we describe as new species (A. aridius sp. nov., A. australis sp. nov., A. higuey sp. nov., and A. hispaniolae sp. nov.), and two are resurrected from the synonymy of A. cybotes (A. doris comb. nov., A. ravifaux comb. nov.). Also, we place Anolis citrinellus Cope, 1864 in the synonymy of Ctenonotus distichus (Cope, 1861); Anolis haetianus Garman, 1887 in the synonymy of Audantia cybotes (Cope, 1863); and Anolis whitemani Williams, 1963 in the synonymy of Audantia saxatilis (Mertens, 1938). Finally, we designate a lectotype for Anolis cybotes Cope, 1863, and for Anolis riisei Reinhardt & Lütken, 1863. Our main focus is on the populations of anoles formerly referred to as Audantia cybotes which we demonstrate to be a complex of seven distinct species. For these seven species we provide a standardized description of external morphology, color descriptions in life, color photographs in life, description and illustration of hemipenis morphology (if available), distribution maps based on the specimens examined, comments on the conservation status, and natural history notes. Finally, we provide a dichotomous key for the identification of the 14 species of the genus Audantia occuring on Hispaniola.

The results of an inventory of the spiders from El cañón del río Gurabo wildlife refuge, Dominican Republic are presented. A total of 73 species, 64 genera and 32 families are registered from this protected area. The known distribution of Yabisi guaba Rheims et Brescovit, 2004 (Hersiilidae), a rare endemic species, is extended. The distribution of the endemic species Antillena sp. and Pozonia sp., as well as the exotic invasive species Cyrtophora citricola (Forskål, 1775), is commented. The following 16 endemic species are considered as conservation targets for this refuge: Anasaitis elegantissima (Simon, 1888), Anelosimus fraternus Bryant, 1948, Antillena sp., Ariadna sp., Bolostromus sp., Cyrtopholis sp., Hentzia mandibularis (Bryant, 1943), Jollas crassus (Bryant, 1943), Modisimus cuadro Huber et Fischer, 2010, Modisimus sp., Odo sp., Pozonia sp., Selenops sp., Trichopelma sp., Truncattus sp., Yabisi guaba Rheims et Brescovit, 2004.