Da Silva Helio Ricardo, Alves-Silva Ricardo
Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro Laboratório de Herpetologia Instituto de Biologia, Departamento de Biologia Animal Caixa Postal 74524 - CEP 23851-970 Seropédica, RJ - Brazil; Email:
Zootaxa. 2013 Jan 29;3609:213-22. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.3609.2.7.
The hylid frog Scinax perpusillus species group comprises 13 species that share, in addition to a few morphological features, reproduction that occurs exclusively associated with bromeliads. Among the species in the group, Scinax v-signatus (Lutz, 1968) is one of the few with a relatively large geographic distribution, occurring in association with bromeliads growing on granitic outcrops above 800 m along the Serra dos Órgãos (a local designation of Serra do Mar) in the Atlantic forest, State of Rio de Janeiro. Here we demonstrate that previous assessment of the distribution of this species was overestimated, and reevaluate the available data on its occurrence. The distributional data analyzed was based on three levels of evidence. First, we assessed the distribution of the bromeliad, Alcantarea imperialis (Carrière) Harms, which is used by S. v-signatus at the type locality. We plotted potential occurrence data for this plant using Google Earth (GE) by visually inspecting GE images in search of indications of granitic outcrops where groups and large individual bromeliads could be identified. Second, we plotted the distribution of these plants and that of the frog based on locality data taken from the literature and voucher specimens in natural history collections and checked for congruence between these sets of data. Third, as a second test of accuracy of this methodology we visited four new localities indicated by the bromeliad-occurrence GE prediction map and searched for the occurrence of both the frog and the bromeliad. This simple process has proven efficient and accurate in finding new collecting sites and determining the distribution of the two involved taxa. We discuss this and other possibilities of using Google Earth as a tool for mapping and discovering the distribution of organisms and habitats. Furthermore, this study has shed light on a more accurate and realistic estimate of the distribution of Scinax v-signatus with implications for the assessment of its conservation status.
雨蛙科的小皱蛙物种组包含13个物种，这些物种除了具有一些形态特征外，繁殖都仅与凤梨科植物有关。在该物种组中，V形纹皱蛙（Scinax v-signatus，卢茨，1968年）是少数地理分布相对较广的物种之一，它与生长在里约热内卢州大西洋森林中沿塞尔拉多斯奥尔冈斯（塞尔拉多马尔的当地名称）海拔800米以上花岗岩露头的凤梨科植物共生。在此，我们证明先前对该物种分布的评估被高估了，并重新评估了其出现的现有数据。所分析的分布数据基于三个证据层面。首先，我们评估了V形纹皱蛙在模式产地所利用的凤梨科植物帝王巨凤梨（Alcantarea imperialis，卡里埃）哈姆斯的分布。我们通过在谷歌地球（GE）上目视检查GE图像，寻找能识别出成群和大型单株凤梨科植物的花岗岩露头迹象，绘制了这种植物的潜在出现数据。其次，我们根据从文献中获取的地点数据以及自然历史收藏中的凭证标本，绘制了这些植物和青蛙的分布，并检查这两组数据之间的一致性。第三，作为对该方法准确性的第二项测试，我们走访了凤梨科植物出现情况的GE预测图所显示的四个新地点，寻找青蛙和凤梨科植物的出现情况。这个简单的过程已证明在寻找新的采集地点和确定两个相关分类单元的分布方面既有效又准确。我们讨论了将谷歌地球用作绘制和发现生物及栖息地分布工具的这种及其他可能性。此外，这项研究为更准确和现实地估计V形纹皱蛙的分布提供了线索，对评估其保护状况具有重要意义。
