Cercosaura ocellata Wagler, 1830 (Lacertilia, Gymnophthalmidae): distribution extension of Northeastern Brazil

Ampliação da distribuição geográfica de Cercosaura ocellata Wagler, 1830 (Lacertilia, Gymnophthalmidae), Nordeste do Brasil

Abstracts

The lizard, Cercosaura ocellata, with its type-locality suggested as being South America's Northeast, is widely distributed in the North and Midwest regions of Brazil, with scarcity of records for the states in the Northeast Region. This work aims to enlarge the geographical distribution of this species. An individual of C. ocellata was registered in a fragment of Atlantic Rain Forest, Mata de Tejipió (08° 05′ 45.59″ S, 34° 57′ 04.91″ W). This register expands its distribution 585 km north and 770 km south, respectively from its closest locations, Bahia and Ceará, filling a gap of disjunct distribution of approximately 900 km in the northeast region of the country.

lizard; herpetofauna; occurrence; Atlantic Rain Forest; Pernambuco

O lagarto, Cercosaura ocellata, com localidade-tipo sugerida para o Nordeste da América do Sul, apresenta ampla distribuição no Norte e Centro-Oeste do Brasil, com escassez de registros para os estados da Região Nordeste. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo ampliar a distribuição geográfica da espécie. Foi registrado um espécime de C. ocellata em remanescente de Mata Atlântica, Mata de Tejipió/Recife (08° 05′ 45,59″ S, 34° 57′ 04,91″ W). Este registro amplia a distribuição da espécie em 585 km ao norte e 770 km ao sul das localidades respectivamente mais próximas, Bahia e Ceará, preenchendo um hiato de distribuição disjunta de aproximadamente 900 km na região nordeste do país.

lagarto; herpetofauna; ocorrência; Mata Atlântica; Pernambuco

The Gymnophthalmidae family is composed of 232 lizard species (Uetz & Jirí Hošek 2013), 84 of them in Brazil (Bérnils & Costa 2012) and six of them occurring in the Pernambuco state (Moura et al. 2011). According to Doan (2003), this family is widely distributed in South America (absent only in Chile), with a few in Central America (Doan 2003, Pellegrino et al. 2001). They have synapomorphies like: cylindrical body, long tail, reduction of limbs, elongation of body and the loss of eyelids (Presch 1980).

After systematic reviews initiated by Pellegrino et al. (2001) which were continued by Doan (2003), the genres Pantodactylus, Prinodactylusand Cercosaura, were fused in one single clade called Cercossaura, consisting initially of 11 species (Doan 2003) and after that some species were synonymized, being now composed of 7 species (Bérnils & Costa 2012). Morphological analysis made by Presch (1980) show that, unlike the family's characteristics, the group which the genre Cercosaura belongs does not have reduction of the members.

Cercosaura ocellata Wagler, 1830 (type-locality suggested byRuibal (1952) as being South America's northeast) shows common characteristics of the Gymnophthalmidae family, besides presents developed anterior and posterior limbs and, all digits with claws (Ávila-Pires 1995). In Brazil, the species is distributed in the following regions: Midwest: Tocantins (Shepard 2007), Mato Grosso (Valdujo et al. 2009), Mato Grosso do Sul (Uetanabaro et al. 2007), Goiás (Vaz-Silva et al. 2007), North: Amazon (Ávila-Pires et al. 2009), Acre (Bernarde et al. 2011), Amapá (Ávila-Pires 1995), Pará (Mendes-Pinto & Souza 2011), Rondônia (Gainsbury & Colli 2003); Northeast: Ceará (Borges-Nojosa & Caramaschi 2003), Bahia (Couto-Ferreira et al. 2011), Maranhão (Ávila-Pires 1995); Southeast: Minas Gerais (Sousa et al. 2010), São Paulo (Ihering 1898) and South: Rio Grande do Sul (Santos et al. 2005). Occupation in different biomes and ecosystems: Cerrado (Recoder & Nogueira 2007), Campos Sulinos (Santos et al. 2005), Amazon Forest (Ávila-Pires et al. 2009) and Restinga (Couto-Ferreira et al. 2011).

This species occupies terrestrial microhabitats, often found in open areas (Ávila-Pires 1995, Recoder & Nogueira 2007), moist leaf litter (Cunha et al. 1985), forest edge (Cunha et al. 1985,Recoder & Nogueira 2007), forest areas (Cunha et al. 1985, Macedo et al. 2008) and forested area near the rivers (Macedo et al. 2008). Studies of species reproduction are still insufficient (Ávila-Pires 1995, Cassel et al. 2012), however Colli et al. (2007)presented data of spermatozoa ultrastructure and Cassel et al. (2012) of reproductive biology. The species present sexual dimorphism (Cunha et al. 1985, Pellegrino et al. 2001), with presence of femoral pores in males (Pellegrino et al. 2001) and variation in number and shape of ocelli between males, females and juveniles (Cunha et al. 1985), diurnal habit and heliothermal (Ávila-Pires 1995, Cunha et al. 1985). This work aims to enlarge the geographical distribution of species.

A individual of C. ocellata (Figure 1) was collected in a fragment of Atlantic Rain Forest (Mata de Tejipió/08° 05′ 45.59″ S, 34° 57′ 04.91″ W and 15 m elevation) located in Tejipió neighborhood, Recife city, state of Pernambuco Brazil, with permission by Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade (ICMBio) (number 31795-1) and vouchered in the Herpetological and Paleoherpetological Collection of Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco: CHP-UFRPE 1216.

Figure 1.
Cercosaura ocellata collected in Forest Tejipio (08° 05′ 45.59″ S, 34° 57′ 04.91″ W) (25 May 2012), Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. Photograph: Camila Nascimento de Oliveira.

The lizard was registered in May 25, 2012, in Floresta Ombrófila Densa (Veloso et al. 1991), found on ground occupied mainly by grass and other ruderal plants.

This new record expands the geographic distribution of Cercosaura ocellata in 585 km north and 770 km south, respectively from its closest locations, Bahia and Ceará. Regarding the northeast, its geographic distribution was documented only to the states of Ceará (Borges-Nojosa & Caramaschi 2003), Bahia (Couto-Ferreira et al. 2011) and Maranhão (Ávila-Pires 1995), having a gap of occurrence in the state of Piauí and between the states of Rio Grande does Norte, Paraíba, Pernambuco Alagoas and Sergipe, with a gap of 900 km without any record between Ceará and Bahia (Figure 2).

Figure 2.
Distribution map of Cercosaura ocellata, with emphasis to the Northeasthern Brazil. New record represented by star. Records closer to the new location represented by red circle (Planalto da Ibiapaba/CE and Mata de São João/BA).

This manuscript is a contribution of the “Rede de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Saberes Locais” (REBISA), with financial support of FACEPE (APQ-1264-2.05/10).

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  Sept 2013

History

• Received
  9 Oct 2012
• Reviewed
  8 May 2013
• Accepted
  3 July 2013