Check List 12(4): e19531, doi: 10.15560/12.4.1929
Herpetofauna of protected areas in the Caatinga V: Seridó Ecological Station (Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil)
expand article infoFrancis Luiz Santos Caldas‡, Taís Borges Costa‡, Daniel Orsi Laranjeiras‡, Daniel Oliveira Mesquita§, Adrian Antonio Garda|
‡ Universidade Federal da Paraíba, Brazil§ iversidade Federal da Paraíba,| Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

Corresponding author: Francis Caldas ( francisluizmetal@gmail.com )

© 2017 Francis Caldas, Taís Costa, Daniel Laranjeiras, Daniel Mesquita, Adrian Garda.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation: Caldas F, Mesquita D, Costa T, Laranjeiras D, Garda A (2016) Herpetofauna of protected areas in the Caatinga V: Seridó Ecological Station (Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil). Check List 12(4): 1929. https://doi.org/10.15560/12.4.1929
Open Access
Abstract
We provide a list of lizards, snakes, chelonians, and amphibians collected during a 30-day expedition to the Seridó Ecological Station (ESEC Seridó), Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil. We sampled species using thirty-seven pitfall trap stations composed of four buckets each, along with glue traps and active searches. We recorded 13 species of lizards, eight snakes, 19 amphibians, and one chelonian. Rarefaction curves suggest local biodiversity is still underestimated. Sampling during rainy season was crucial to stabilize rarefaction curve for amphibians. Comparisons of our results with data from literature show we did not capture some arboreal and semifossorial lizards known for the area. Seridó Ecological Station fauna is characterized mainly by generalist species common to lowland Caatinga sites. Still, several Caatinga endemics species are found, which underscore the importance of this small but representative protected area.
Keywords
Anurofauna; squamate reptiles; chelonians; distribution; endemism; conservation