New records for the bryophyte flora of the Brazilian Amazon

Results from recent botanical excursions in northern Brazil include 38 new state and country records. In summary, seven (five liverworts and two mosses) taxa are newly confirmed for Brazil, 18 (10 liverworts and eight mosses) new to Amazonas state and 20 (16 liverworts and four mosses) new to Roraima state.


Introduction
Brazil harbors approximately 1,524 species of mosses, hornworts and liverworts making it the richest country in the Neotropics with respect to bryophytes (Costa & Peralta 2015). Most of this richness has been documented in the Atlantic rainforests of southeastern Brazil, followed by the Amazonian rainforest and finally the Cerrado of central Brazil, respectively. The recently published Brazilian list of the bryoflora has immensely contributed to the knowledge of bryophyte distributions throughout the country but gaps remain particularly for the northern region where collection is scarce due to its immense size and isolation (Costa & Peralta 2015;Hopkins 2007).
Previous studies of bryophytes in the recent past conducted in the states of Amazonas and Roraima have greatly contributed to our knowledge of the bryophyte flora of northern Brazil (Gradstein & Costa 2003;Griffin III 1979;Lisboa 1976;Lisboa & Yano 1987;Schäfer-Verwimp & Vital 1989;Schäfer-Verwimp 1989;Yano & Camara 2004;Yano & Mello 1992;Zartman & Ackerman 2002;Zartman & Ilkiu-Borges 2007). Recent field work in Amazonian mountains of northern Brazil has furthermore resulted in new country records (Costa 2017;Ellis et al. 2015) as well as new species descriptions .
The aim of this paper is to register new country and state records from the Brazilian Amazon.

Material and Methods
Here we studied recent bryophyte collections from various localities in northern Brazil and present a list of new records for the Brazilian Amazon.
The specimens were haphazardly collected at the remote tepui complexes of Serra

Lepidozia cupressina (Sw.) Lindenb.
A cosmopolitan species distributed from tropical Americas to Africa, and Western Europe (Gradstein & Costa 2003;Gradstein 2013). This new current record in Roraima, a disjunction of more than 2,000 km suggests that this species may be more widely spread in Brazil than presently recognized Brazil: BA; PE; RJ; SP.

Leptolejeunea tridentata Bischl.
Known from western Colombia and Brazil (Bischler 1969;Gradstein & Costa 2003 Reimers. Known from Venezuela and Ecuador. This is a rare Neotropical species known only from the Guyana highlands of Venezuela (Fulford 1966;Rico & Pócs 2004), and the Cerro Plateado of the Ecuadorian Andes (Ellis et al. 2014).

**Micropterygium grandistipulum Steph.
Known only from a few scattered collections in northern South America (Venezuela and Guiana) (Fulford 1966). This species is easily recognized by its leafy, isophyllous shoots which vary from lanceolate to acute and/or acuminate leaves and underleaves (Fulford 1966;Schuster 2000). Further records are expected for the state of Roraima (Reimers 1933;Gradstein & Costa 2003 Known from the tropical Andes, Central America, Guyana highlands, and southeastern Brazil (Bischler 1962b;Fulford 1968 Pantropically distributed. This species has probably been overlooked in the Neotropics (Gradstein 1994 Known from northern South America (Venezuela, Colombia and Peru) (Frahm 1991). This species is found commonly above 3,500 m usually growing on rocks and boulders, as an occasional epiphyte. According to Frahm (1991) it is an Andean element that should probably occur in Ecuador and Costa Rica. This is its first record for Brazil.

**Campylopus cubensis Sull.
Known from the Caribbean, Central and northern South America (Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guyana) (Frahm 1991). This species is commonly found between 500-2,000 m altitude on soil, rotten wood and base of trees of tropical montane forests.

Campylopus julicaulis Broth.
Prior to this publication the species was only known from the Atlantic Forest in Brazil (Frahm 1991). It is found commonly between 500 and 2,000 m altitude on soil, rotten wood and base of trees in tropical forest. Brazil: BA; MG; PR; RJ; RS; SC; SP.

Leucobryum albidum Brid.
This widespread species was not registered in the past in Yano (2011)

Leucobryum bowringuii Mitt.
Widespread in Asia (Yamaguchi 1993), but rare in the Neotropics in Mexico, Costa Rica and the Caribbean (Jamaica) (Sharp et al.1994). Brazil: Ro; RJ (Yano 1982;Yano 2011). This is a rare species which occurs on moist soil and cliffs in cloud forests from 600-750 m (Frahm 1991). The species was registered for Roraima (Yano 1982), and mentioned in the catalogue of Brazilian bryophytes (Yano 2011). Even though this species was included in the Flora of Brazil (2011) it was not included in Costa & Peralta (2015). We examined the specimen registered from Roraima state (Prance et al. 21595 INPA!) and this one (Amazonas), and compared it with the original description from Asian material (Yamaguchi 1993) confirming this record. Tropical America. occurring on tree stumps, logs, soil, humus in forests above 1000-2,300 m. Brazil: BA; ES; MG; RJ; SP; RS; SC. The present record may indicate a continuous distribution from northern South America to southern Brazil for this species (Reese 1993

Discussion
In the present paper, we report a total of 38 new records, including 35 species and four varieties.
The new records represent seven species new for Brazil (five liverworts and two mosses), 20 new state records from Roraima (16 spp. of liverworts and three spp. and two varieties of mosses) and 18 from Amazonas (10 spp. of liverworts and seven spp. and two varieties of mosses The state records for Roraima in proportion to the samples studied (43% resulted in new occurrences) illustrate an exceptionally high ratio of distributional novelties. Many of these taxa are indeed common and widespread (Cyclolejeunea convexistipa, Colura greig-smithii, Drepanolejeunea inchoata, Diplasiolejeunea brunnea, and Frullania apiculata) in neighboring states. Nonetheless, noteworthy (Bazzania bidens, Ceratolejeunea spinosa, Drepanolejeunea infundibulata, Micropterygium duidae and Campylopus bryotropii) as well as recently described species from these same sites  suggest that continued investment in bryophyte surveys of northern Brazilian should continue to result in numerous taxonomic and floristic novelties.