Anurans of a threatened savanna area in western Brazil

The Upper Paraguay River Basin is located in the center of South America and harbors one of the largest wetland in the world, known as Pantanal. This floodplain is surrounded by uplands, which presently have most of their area converted into pastures or monocultures, besides being poorly known scientifically. Also, most of these upland areas are considered conservation priorities. Here we present a list of anuran species from a savanna-like area (municipality of Camapuã, state of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil) inserted in the uplands surrounding the Pantanal floodplain, in the Upper Taquari River sub-basin, and evaluate the effectiveness of the sampling effort. Data were obtained through active searches in 22 plots in aquatic habitats, during the rainy season (from December 2009 to April 2010). We found 26 species, in four families. Although sampling effort was found to sufficiently represent the local anuran assemblage, future inventories in this region should ideally include samplings during the dry and early rainy seasons, and include both active and passive capturing methods.

A bacia do Alto Paraguai, localizada no centro da América do Sul, abriga uma das maiores áreas inundáveis do mundo, conhecida como Pantanal. Essa planície alagável é rodeada por planaltos, os quais possuem grande parte de sua área convertida em pastagens ou monoculturas, além de serem pouco conhecidos cientificamente. Além disso, a maioria das áreas de planalto são consideradas prioritárias para a conservação. Apresentamos uma lista de espécies de anuros de uma área semelhante a savanas (município de Camapuã, estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil) inserida nos planaltos de entorno do Pantanal, na sub-bacia do Alto Taquari, e avaliamos a efetividade do esforço amostral. Os dados foram obtidos através de busca ativa em 22 parcelas em ambientes aquáticos, durante a estação chuvosa (de Dezembro de 2009 a Abril de 2010). Encontramos 26 espécies, em quatro famílias. Apesar de considerarmos o esforço amostral suficiente para representar da comunidade de anuros local, sugerimos que futuros inventários nessa região contemplem a estação seca e início da chuvosa, bem como o uso adicional de métodos passivos de captura.

Addendum to the checklist of the helminth parasites of vertebrates in Costa Rica

In this work, we present an addendum to the "Checklist of the helminth parasites of vertebrates in Costa Rica" with a parasite-host list as well as a host-parasite list. This addendum updates the available information on this group of parasites in Costa Rica, since very recently a new input has been made to describe the helminth fauna of vertebrates, particularly at the Area de Conservación de Guanacaste. In this paper, we add 33 records, representing 23 species. This raises the number of helminth species described in vertebrates from Costa Rica to 325, represented by 89 species of digeneans, 23 of monogeneans. 63 of cestodes, 13 of acanthocephalans, and 137 of nematodes. In total, 133 species of vertebrates have been studied for helminths in Costa Rica (31 species of fishes. 7 amphibians, 18 reptiles, 40 birds, and 37 mammals). Currently, 67 species (20.6 %) have been recorded as new species from Costa Rica and most of them are endemic to particular regions. The Colecci6n de Helmintos de Costa Rica, housed at the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR), San José, is the depositary of only 23% of the species recorded so far; however this situation is changing and people recognizes.