Anurans from the upper basins of the Rio Grande and Rio Preto: eastern portion of the Serra da Mantiqueira Environmental Protection Area, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

The Neotropical zone stands out for having the greatest richness of amphibians in the world. About 625 species of anurans are known on Atlantic Forest. The southeastern mountainous regions of Brazil called Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira, are very important areas for the diversity of anurans in the country because they shelter remaining strata of the Atlantic Forest that have several endemic species. The present study aims to expand the knowledge about the Serra da Mantiqueira anurans, specifically from the Rio Preto and Rio Grande upper basins. The study area comprised 10 sample centers. We realized 38 campaigns, lasting two days each. During this period, we used active search as visual and auditory cues. The passive search was comprised of pitfall traps. Bioacoustic analyses were used to determine the cryptic species. The sufficiency of the sampling effort was estimated through the accumulation curve using Bootstrap and Jackknife-1 as estimators. During the study 55 species were found, 40 of them in the basin of the Rio Preto, and 44 in the basin of the Rio Grande. Twenty-nine species were found in both areas. The Hylidae family was predominant, followed by Leptodactylidae. In addition to species of the Atlantic Forest, the place houses typical components of the Cerrado biome and altitudinal swamps with unexpected sympatries. This inventory expands the area of occurrence of Scinax duartei, a species considered threatened. Although adjacent to the oldest national park in Brazil, the composition of anuran species of this area was unknown until then.