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Small, volant and nocturnal, bats face strong challenges to avoid heat loss. Among aerial insectivores, body mass varies by two orders of magnitude between the smallest and the largest species. At low temperatures, physiological constraints should be harsher for smaller bats, as they lose more heat through their body surface than larger species. So, temperature variations should lead to distinct behavioural responses by bats of different body masses. Also, because they feed on arthropods, dependent on ambient temperature, aerial insectivores should halt feeding at low temperatures. Using ultrasound detectors and temperature and humidity sensors, we investigated how aerial insectivores of the coldest region in austral Brazil respond to nightly temperature variations and compared those responses between guilds of distinct body masses. We predict that smaller bats reduce their activity faster than larger bats, but that foraging should reduce simultaneously in the two guilds, as they depend on ectothermic prey. Bat activity reduced significantly below 12 °C. Larger bats maintained their activity at temperatures where the activity of smaller bats had already halted. However, larger bats foraged mostly during the first half of the night, at higher temperatures than those chosen by smaller bats to forage. We associate these differential responses to the thermal convection process, which may increase prey availability at higher altitudes, where larger molossids are known to forage. Smaller species, mostly edge-space hunters, probably take advantage of less variable prey availability during the night, resulting in a more regular behavioural pattern of navigation and foraging.

Changes in moonlight intensity can affect predation risk and induce changes in habitat use and activity of nocturnal species. However, the effect of moonlight on animal activity is rarely evaluated in human-modified landscapes and can be of vital importance to understand possible changes in ecosystem services provided by light-sensitive taxa, such as insectivorous bats. Fragmentation changes forest structure and affects light penetration across the landscape. In this case, the effects of fragmentation on bat activity can be modulated by cyclical variations of moonlight intensity. We acoustically quantified the activity of nine aerial insectivorous bat species in relation to moonlight at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazonia. We aimed to understand species-level variation in activity across habitats (continuous forest, fragments and secondary forest) at different temporal scales: lunar cycle, dark vs. bright nights and within nights. Amazonian aerial insectivorous bats responded more to habitat type than to moonlight, with two and six species showing reduced activity in fragments and secondary forest, respectively, compared to continuous forest. The lower activity in secondary forest suggests that despite c. 30 years of secondary forest regeneration, it is still less attractive as foraging habitat. An interactive effect of habitat type and moonlight on bat activity was most evident when contrasting dark and bright nights. Our results indicate that fragments have reduced bat activity on extremely bright nights, probably due to higher predation risk in small fragments. Species that emit constant-frequency calls (Pteronotus spp.) were the ones that most modulated their responses to habitat disturbance and moonlight. Otherwise, moonlight had little effect on hourly activity levels, irrespective of habitat type. Moonlight is capable of modulating the responses of some bat species in disturbed habitats, particularly in fragments.

Habitat use is a dynamic process that varies spatially and temporally. Such variations can be associated with environmental heterogeneity and seasonal fluctuations in food availability. We investigated the habitat use of three sympatric Amazonian primates (Humboldt’s cuxiu—Chiropotes sagulatus, pied tamarin—Saguinus bicolor, and tufted capuchin monkey—Sapajus apella) along a topographic gradient and across two seasons with contrasting food resource availability. Through sampling conducted along linear transects, in an area covering 25 km2 of continuous dense rainforest in central Amazonian Brazil, we obtained 137 primate records with 420 km of sampling effort. Although the slope of the terrain used did not differ between seasons, the distribution of two primate species with contrasting food habits (Humboldt’s cuxiu and tufted capuchin monkey) was mediated by terrain elevation during the period of lower fruit availability (dry season). Tufted capuchins monkey and Humboldt’s cuxiu appeared to segregate by elevation when resources were scarcer, with the capuchins using areas between lowland valley and intermediate elevations, and cuxius using high plateaus. Our study suggests that sympatric primate species from a central Amazonian rainforest use the topographic gradient differently, and their habitat use is, at least in part, influenced by seasonality.

With continued forest loss in tropical regions, it is important to understand whether and how public policies influence deforestation rates. One potentially important policy is Brazil’s “Native Vegetation Protection Law” (NVPL), passed in 2012 and popularly known as the New Forest Code. The goal of the law is to prevent forest loss; however, its success at maintaining forest is unclear. We analyze the effectiveness of the law in the state of Amazonas, Brazil by measuring forest loss in 2009 and 2012, pre implementation of the new vegetation protection law (NVPL) and comparing this to loss that occurred in 2015 and 2018, post-NVPL, in Settlement Projects (SP) affected by NVPL and Indigenous Lands (IL) and State/National Forests which were not under the mandate of the NVPL. We used these last two categories as Control Areas. Forest loss was greatest in SP during both time periods relative to two other categories considered. Implementation of the NVPL did not reduce overall deforestation in SPs. However, it did keep deforestation within the 20% limit set by NVPL in 31 of 35 SPs surveyed. In addition, forest cover decreased in only a few SPs. The variable with the strongest influence on deforestation within SP and IL was intensity of human land use in surrounding areas. We also found that IL and CU categories play an important role in maintaining overall forest cover.

Throughout the tropics, regenerating secondary forests occupy vast areas previously cleared for agriculture and cattle ranching. However, despite the importance of regenerating forests in mitigating the pervasive negative consequences of forest loss and fragmentation on forest-associated biodiversity, longitudinal studies on species' phylogenetic responses to matrix regeneration are rare.\ud We surveyed bats in continuous primary forest, primary forest fragments and in the regenerating secondary forest matrix of a whole-ecosystem Amazonian fragmentation experiment, ~15 and ~30 years after forest clearance, to investigate how changes in matrix quality through forest recovery affect phylogenetic α- and β-diversity.\ud We found that temporal changes in phylogenetic α-richness were more marked in the secondary forest matrix than in forest fragments and continuous forest, evidencing a significant increase in total evolutionary history over time. However, when the effects of species richness were accounted for, the phylogenetic structure of each assemblage was reduced close to zero, evincing a random pattern of lineages in all habitat types. Temporal differences in phylogenetic β-diversity were driven mainly by βreplacement in secondary forest and continuous forest ~30 years after forest clearance. Both habitats also clustered together in terms of βrichness, indicating similar levels of evolutionary heritage. Consequently, regenerating secondary forest showed a reduction in the extinction probability of lineages over time.\ud Synthesis and applications. Approximately 30 years of secondary forest regeneration were sufficient for phylogenetic richness to recover to levels similar to those observed in continuous forest. Promoting forest succession on degraded land through a combination of natural and active restoration, while ensuring the long-term protection of secondary forests regardless of their age, is of key importance for conserving tropical bat diversity and their associated ecosystem services. Such restoration measures would stimulate the recolonization of fragments and matrix habitats by evolutionarily distinct bat species, safeguarding phylogenetically diverse assemblages and ecological functions. Our study suggests that forest restoration in tropical degraded areas should be encouraged and secondary forests be protected by law, especially in countryside ecosystems with high primary forest cover, and in the surroundings of protected areas.

During the last decades, the use of bioacoustics as a non‐invasive and cost‐effective sampling method has greatly increased worldwide. For bats, acoustic surveys have long been known to complement traditional mist‐netting, however, appropriate protocol guidelines are still lacking for tropical regions. Establishing the minimum sampling effort needed to detect ecological changes in bat assemblages (e.g., activity, composition and richness) is crucial in view of workload and project cost constraints, and because detecting such changes must be reliable enough to support effective conservation management. Using one of the most comprehensive tropical bat acoustic datasets, collected in the Amazon, we assessed the minimum survey effort required to accurately assess (1) the completeness of assemblage inventories and (2) habitat selection in fragmented forest landscapes for aerial insectivorous bats. We evaluated a combination of 20 different temporal sampling schemes, which differed regarding: (i) number of hours per night, (ii) number of nights per site and (iii) sampling only during the wet or dry season, or both. This was assessed under two different landscape scenarios: (a) in primary forest fragments embedded in a matrix of secondary forest, and (b) in the same forest fragments, but after they had been re‐isolated through clearing of the secondary forest. We found that the sampling effort required to achieve 90% inventory completeness varied considerably depending on the research aim and the landscape scenario evaluated, averaging ~80 and 10 nights before and after fragment re‐isolation, respectively. Recording for more than four hours per night did not result in a substantial reduction in the required number of sampling nights. Regarding the effects of habitat selection, except for assemblage composition, bat responses in terms of richness, diversity, and activity were similar across all sampling schemes after fragment re‐isolation. However, before re‐isolation, a minimum of four to six sampling hours per night after dusk and three to five nights of sampling per site were needed to detect significant effects that could otherwise go unnoticed. Based on our results, we propose guidelines that will aid to optimize sampling protocols for bat acoustic surveys in the Neotropics.

The extrinsic factors that most influence animal activity are weather and light conditions, which can be assessed at hourly, monthly, and even lunar-cycle timescales. We evaluated the responses of tropical aerial-insectivorous bats to temperature, rainfall, and moonlight intensity within and among nights. Temperature positively affected the activity of two species (Cormura brevirostris and Saccopteryx bilineata). Moonlight reduced Myotis riparius activity and increased the activity of Pteronotus rubiginosus and S. leptura. Rainfall can promote an irregular activity peak during the night compared to nights without rainfall, but the bats in our study were not active for a longer time after a rainfall event. Our findings indicate that moonlight and temperature are the variables with the highest impact on the activity of tropical insectivorous bat species and that some species are sensitive to small variations in rainfall among and within nights.

Riparian areas around streams are those areas in which biological communites are directly influenced by the stream. The size of protected riparian areas and their conservation has become a controversial topic after changes implemented in the Brazilian Forest Code (BFC): a set of laws that regulates the size of Permanent Protection Areas (PPA). Here, we investigate the influence of distance from water bodies on bat-species and guild composition in a lowland Amazonian rainforest. Our hypotheses were that bat assemblages would change depending on the distance to the water body and that the abundance of herbivorous bats (frugivorous and nectarivorous) would be greater in areas close to water. Bats were captured with mist-nets in 24 riparian and 25 non-riparian plots within a trail grid in an old-growth terra-firme forest, northeast of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil. Each plot was sampled three times in a total of 7056 net-hours. We captured 1191 bats, comprising 51 species. We used model selection based on AIC (Akaike Information Criterion) to compare linear and piecewise regressions to estimate the ecological thresholds for different bat assemblages. Piecewise models with one breakpoint were more parsimonious than linear models for abundance data, and the species and guild composition of animalivorous and frugivorous bats. Animalivorous-bat abundance increased from the stream to about 181 m, and frugivorous-bat abundance decreased within 50 m of the stream. The patterns of guild abundance suggest that frugivorous bats may need greater access to streams than animalivorous bats. The most conservative model suggests that most of the variation in bat composition occurs close to the stream and extends to up 114 m from the banks. Therefore, the 30 m wide strip of riparian forest protected by Brazilian law would maintain a relatively small fraction of bat-species assemblages in Ducke Reserve, and is insufficient to represent most of the assemblage-composition variation within the riparian zone. The suggestion to reduce the width of the protected riparian zone from 30 to 15 m for streams smaller than 10 m wide, as is under discussion, would likely be prejudicial for bat assemblages.

Owing to major technological advances, bioacoustics has become a burgeoning field in\ud ecological research worldwide. Autonomous passive acoustic recorders are becoming widely\ud used to monitor aerial insectivorous bats, and automatic classifiers have emerged to aid\ud researchers in the daunting task of analyzing the resulting massive acoustic datasets.\ud However, the scarcity of comprehensive reference call libraries still hampers their wider\ud application in highly diverse tropical assemblages. Capitalizing on a unique acoustic dataset\ud of more than 650,000 bat call sequences collected over a 3-year period in the Brazilian\ud Amazon, the aims of this study were (a) to assess how pre-identified recordings of free-flying\ud and hand-released bats could be used to train an automatic classification algorithm (random\ud forest), and (b) to optimize acoustic analysis protocols by combining automatic classification\ud with visual post-validation, whereby we evaluated the proportion of sound files to be postvalidated\ud for different thresholds of classification accuracy. Classifiers were trained at species\ud or sonotype (group of species with similar calls) level. Random forest models confirmed the\ud reliability of using calls of both free-flying and hand-released bats to train custom-built\ud automatic classifiers. To achieve a general classification accuracy of ~85%, random forest\ud had to be trained with at least 500 pulses per species/sonotype. For seven out of 20 sonotypes,\ud the most abundant in our dataset, we obtained high classification accuracy (>90%). Adopting\ud a desired accuracy probability threshold of 95% for the random forest classifier, we found that\ud the percentage of sound files required for manual post-validation could be reduced by up to\ud 75%, a significant saving in terms of workload. Combining automatic classification with\ud manual ID through fully customizable classifiers implemented in open-source software as\ud demonstrated here shows great potential to help overcome the acknowledged risks and biases\ud associated with the sole reliance on automatic classification.

Habitat loss and fragmentation rank high amongst the most pressing threats to biodiversity. Understanding how variation in functional traits is associated with species vulnerability in fragmented landscapes is central to the design of effective conservation strategies. Here, we used a whole-ecosystem ecological experiment in the Central Amazon to investigate which functional traits of aerial-hawking insectivorous bats best predict their sensitivity to forest fragmentation. During 2014, bats were surveyed using passive bat recorders in six continuous forest sites, eight forest fragments, eight fragment edges, and eight forest clearings. The interaction between functional traits, environmental characteristics, and species distribution was investigated using a combination of RLQ and fourth-corner analyses. Our results showed that echolocation call structure, vertical stratification, and wing aspect ratio were the strongest predictors of sensitivity to forest fragmentation. Frequency of maximum energy, body mass, and relative wing loading did not show any correlation with the environmental variables. Bat species with constant-frequency calls were associated with high vegetation density, being more susceptible to forest fragmentation than species with frequency-modulated calls. Vertical stratum preference was also correlated with vegetation structure, indicating that understory species were more sensitive to forest loss than canopy species. Finally, species with high aspect ratio wings were linked to forest edges and clearings. Our findings suggest that species functional traits determine the vulnerability of aerial-hawking insectivorous bats toward fragmentation and, similarly, environmental conditions determine if a species is likely to become locally extinct due to fragmentation. Preserving structurally complex forests will be crucial to ensure the long-term persistence of the most sensitive and vulnerable species of this bat ensemble in fragmented landscapes across the Neotropics. © Copyright © 2019 Núñez, López-Baucells, Rocha, Farneda, Bobrowiec, Palmeirim and Meyer.

To determine the effect of rivers, environmental conditions, and isolation by distance on the distribution of species in Amazonia. Location: Brazilian Amazonia. Time period: Current. Major taxa studied: Birds, fishes, bats, ants, termites, butterflies, ferns + lycophytes, gingers and palms. We compiled a unique dataset of biotic and abiotic information from 822 plots spread over the Brazilian Amazon. We evaluated the effects of environment, geographic distance and dispersal barriers (rivers) on assemblage composition of animal and plant taxa using multivariate techniques and distance- and raw-data-based regression approaches. Environmental variables (soil/water), geographic distance, and rivers were associated with the distribution of most taxa. The wide and relatively old Amazon River tended to determine differences in community composition for most biological groups. Despite this association, environment and geographic distance were generally more important than rivers in explaining the changes in species composition. The results from multi-taxa comparisons suggest that variation in community composition in Amazonia reflects both dispersal limitation (isolation by distance or by large rivers) and the adaptation of species to local environmental conditions. Larger and older river barriers influenced the distribution of species. However, in general this effect is weaker than the effects of environmental gradients or geographical distance at broad scales in Amazonia, but the relative importance of each of these processes varies among biological groups.

The subgenus Phyllodia (genus Pteronotus) comprises 9 species ranging from the western coast of Mexico to central Brazil, including Greater and Lesser Antilles. Two of them, Pteronotus rubiginosus and Pteronotus sp. 1, form an endemic South American clade within Phyllodia and are reported in sympatry for several localities in Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and northern Brazil. We herein performed a comprehensive investigation to fully characterize the cranial variation and genetic intraspecific structuring within this clade. We also integrated genetic, morphological, and acoustic evidence to formally describe the species previously reported as Pteronotus sp. 1. Specimens of P. rubiginosus occurring in sympatry with the new species have a more distinctive cranial phenotype than those from allopatric areas, suggesting character displacement as a potential force promoting divergence by decreasing resource competition or reproductive interactions between them. Although the 2 species are sympatric in several localities, the divergence in their echolocation calls also may be promoting resource partitioning at the microhabitat level, with P. rubiginosus foraging in less cluttered areas and the new species restricted to more cluttered areas. © 2018 American Society of Mammalogists, www.mammalogy.org.

Large losses of tropical forests result from the flooding of terrestrial ecosystems by mega hydroelectric dams. Because run-of-the-river dams operate based on smaller reservoirs with limited water storage, they have been generally considered less harmful to the environment, but their actual effects on biodiversity have been rarely measured. We herein estimate immediate impacts resulting from the flooding of the run-of-the-river Santo Antônio Hydroelectric on phyllostomid bat assemblages, based on the variation of their richness, abundance and species composition over the first two years after the establishment of the dam. We designed a standardized study integrating temporal sampling in areas that would and would not be flooded, before and after the establishment of the dam. We sampled 12 Pre-flood plots, and 34 plots that remained unflood. Among the non-flood plots, 25 were resampled after the river damming. We captured 3096 bats belonging to 59 species and found that the abundance of fruit bats decreased posterior to the formation of the dam. Moreover, the composition of fruit bats was different between the sampling periods, with a clear segregation of the várzea plots of the pre-flood period. Comparisons between pre- and post-unflood plots revealed that 60% of the plots decreased in abundance of bats, and 68% decreased in abundance of phyllostomid fruit bats. Our results demonstrate that the run-of-the-river dam altered the phyllostomid species composition in the non-flooded areas after the establishment of the dam, reducing the abundance of frugivorous bats. Also, the remaining unflood areas did not incorporate bat assemblages from the várzea forests that were permanently flooded by the reservoir. Based on our results, we suggest that environmental policies regulating the licensing processes for the implementation of large hydroelectric power stations should include orientation for the establishment of protected areas, as a condition for their operation. These areas can work as systematic instruments for biodiversity conservation, with special attention to the protection of the irreplaceable floodplain forests.

About 90% of the Amazon’s energy potential remains unexploited, with many large hydroelectric dams yet to be built, so it is important to understand how terrestrial vertebrates are affected by reservoir formation and habitat loss. We investigated the influence of the construction of the Santo Antônio Hydroelectric dam on the Madeira River in southwestern Amazonia on the structure of frog assemblages based on samples collected in two years before the dam flooded (pre-stage) and one (post1-stage) and four years (post2-stage) after its construction. We surveyed five 500-ha plot systems three times during each stage; in the pre-stage we sampled 19 plots in low-lying areas that would be flooded by the dam, (from now called flooded pre-stage plots) and 45 plots in terra-firme forest (from now called unflooded pre-stage plots). At the post1-stage we sampled the 45 unflooded plots and in the post2-stage we sampled the remaining 39 unflooded plots. We detected frogs by active visual and acoustic searches standardized by both time and sampling area. Few species recorded in the pre-stage flooded plots were not found in the pre-stage unflooded plots or in stages after flooding. However, the composition of frog assemblages based on relative densities in flooded pre-stage plots did not re-establish in plots on the new river margins. In unflooded areas, frog assemblages were distinct among the flooding stages with no tendency to return to the original assemblage compositions even four years after the dam was filled. For the areas that were not flooded, there was an increase in species richness in 82% of the plots between the surveys before dam construction and the first surveys after dam completion, and 65% between the pre-stage and surveys four years after dam completion. Lack of understanding by the controlling authorities of the long-term effects of landscape changes, such as water-table rises, means that studies covering appropriate periods post construction are not required in legislation, but the data from Santo Antônio indicate that changes due to dam construction are either long-term or difficult to distinguish from natural fluctuations. Future environmental-impact studies should follow strict BACI designs.

The use of bioacoustics as a tool for bat research is rapidly increasing worldwide. There is substantial evidence that environmental factors such as weather conditions or habitat structure can affect echolocation call structure in bats and thus compromise proper species identification. However, intraspecific differences in echolocation due to geographical variation are poorly understood, which poses a number of issues in terms of method standardization. We examined acoustic data for Pteronotus cf. rubiginosus from the Central Amazon and the Guiana Shield. We provide the first evidence of intraspecific geographic variation in bat echolocation in the Neotropics, with calls significantly differing in almost all standard acoustic parameters for the two lineages of this clade. We complement our bioacoustic data with molecular and morphological data for both species. Considerable overlap in trait values prevents reliable discrimination between the two sympatric Pteronotus based on morphological characters. On the other hand, significant divergence in the frequency of maximum energy suggests that bioacoustics can be used to readily separate both taxa despite extensive intraspecific variability in their echolocation across the Amazon. Given the relative lack of barriers preventing contact between bat populations from the Central Amazon and French Guiana, the documented acoustic variation needs to be further studied in geographically intermediate locations to understand the potential isolation processes that could be causing the described divergence in echolocation and to determine whether this variation is either discrete or continuous.

It is commonly assumed that aerial insectivorous bats in the tropics respond to moonlight intensity by decreasing their foraging activity during bright nights due either to an increase in predation risk, or to a reduction in insect availability. The effect of moonlight on bat activity can be measured both between nights and within a single night. However, few studies have simultaneously used both approaches, and most authors generally compare bat activity with lunar phases. Our main aim was to evaluate how moonlight influences aerial insectivorous bat activity at different time scales: between nights and within the same night. Activity of five bat species was measured using autonomous ultrasound recording stations and moonlight intensity percentages retrieved from the Moontool program nightly throughout a 53-day sampling period. Only one species (Myotis riparius) responded negatively to moonlight, while two species (Pteronotus parnellii and Saccopteryx leptura) increased their foraging activity in moonlight. For Cormura brevirostris and S. bilineata, moonlight intensity did not affect activity level. Bat activity was greater for all species at the beginning of the night, independent of the presence of the moon, indicating that foraging just after the sunset is adaptive. Thus, bat response to the effect of moonlight intensity is more apparent between nights than within a single night and may depend on species-specific traits, such as flight speed, flexibility in habitat use and body size.

We synthesize findings from one of the world’s largest and longest-running experimental investigations, the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP). Spanning an area of ~1,000 km2 in central Amazonia, the BDFFP was initially designed to evaluate the effects of fragment area on rainforest biodiversity and ecological processes. However, over its 38-year history to date the project has far transcended its original mission, and now focuses more broadly on landscape dynamics, forest regeneration, regional- and global-change phenomena, and their potential interactions and implications for Amazonian forest \ud conservation. The project has yielded a wealth of insights into the ecological and environmental changes in fragmented forests. For instance, many rainforest species are naturally rare and hence are either missing entirely from many fragments or so sparsely represented as to have little chance of long-term survival. Additionally, edge effects are a prominent driver of fragment dynamics, strongly affecting forest microclimate, tree mortality, carbon storage and a diversity of fauna. \ud Even within our controlled study area, the landscape has been highly dynamic: for example, the matrix of vegetation surrounding fragments has changed markedly over time, succeeding from large cattle pastures or forest clearcuts to secondary regrowth forest. This, in turn, has influenced the dynamics of plant and animal communities and their trajectories of change over time. In general, fauna and flora have responded differently to fragmentation: the most locally extinction-prone animal species are those that have both large area requirements and low tolerance of the modified habitats surrounding fragments, whereas the most\ud vulnerable plants are those that respond poorly to edge effects or chronic forest disturbances, and that rely on vulnerable animals for seed dispersal or pollination.\ud Relative to intact forests, most fragments are hyperdynamic, with unstable or fluctuating populations of species in response to a variety of external vicissitudes. Rare weather events such as droughts, windstorms and floods have had strong impacts on fragments and left lasting legacies of change. Both forest fragments and the intact forests in our study area appear to be influenced by larger-scale environmental drivers operating at regional or global scales. These drivers are apparently increasing forest productivity and have led to concerted, widespread increases in forest dynamics and plant growth, shifts in tree-community composition, and increases in liana (woody vine) abundance. Such large-scale drivers are likely to interact synergistically with habitat fragmentation, exacerbating its effects for some species and ecological phenomena. Hence, the impacts of fragmentation on \ud Amazonian biodiversity and ecosystem processes appear to be a consequence not only of local site features but also of broader changes occurring at landscape, regional and even global scales.

Context\ud Habitat loss, fragmentation and degradation are widespread drivers of biodiversity decline. Understanding how habitat quality interacts with landscape context, and how they jointly affect species in human-modified landscapes, is of great importance for informing conservation and management.\ud \ud Objectives\ud We used a whole-ecosystem manipulation experiment in the Brazilian Amazon to investigate the relative roles of local and landscape attributes in affecting bat assemblages at an interior-edge-matrix disturbance gradient.\ud \ud Methods\ud We surveyed bats in 39 sites, comprising continuous forest (CF), fragments, forest edges and intervening secondary regrowth. For each site, we assessed vegetation structure (local-scale variable) and, for five focal scales, quantified habitat amount and four landscape configuration metrics.\ud \ud Results\ud Smaller fragments, edges and regrowth sites had fewer species and higher levels of dominance than CF. Regardless of the landscape scale analysed, species richness and evenness were mostly related to the amount of forest cover. Vegetation structure and configurational metrics were important predictors of abundance, whereby the magnitude and direction of response to configurational metrics were scale-dependent. Responses were ensemble-specific with local-scale vegetation structure being more important for frugivorous than for gleaning animalivorous bats.\ud \ud Conclusions\ud Our study indicates that scale-sensitive measures of landscape structure are needed for a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of fragmentation on tropical biota. Although forest fragments and regrowth habitats can be of conservation significance for tropical bats our results further emphasize that primary forest is of irreplaceable value, underlining that their conservation can only be achieved by the preservation of large expanses of pristine habitat.

Recent studies predict a future decrease in precipitation across the tropics, particularly the Amazon, likely causing significant droughts that have negative consequences for Amazonian freshwater biomes, especially lakes. Furthermore, immediate consequences of global warming for terrestrial fauna associated with tropical lakes are poorly understood as the vast majority of studies come from temperate regions. Here, we assess the seasonal importance of lakes for the conservation of aerial insectivorous bats in the Central Amazon using passive bat recorders. We compared richness, general bat activity and foraging activity between lakes and adjacent forest. Of a total of 21 species/sonotypes recorded in both habitats, all were detected over lakes, and 18 were significantly more active over lakes than in forest. Only two species had significantly higher activity levels in the forest than at the lakes. Species richness and general bat activity over the lakes were higher in the dry than in the rainy season. Foraging activity was also greater over the lakes than within the forest in both seasons. Moreover, both variables were positively correlated with lake size, although the effect on activity was species-specific. Climate change-driven shrinking of lakes may have detrimental consequences for aerial insectivorous bats, especially for the most water-dependent species. Compared to permanent water bodies of other regions, the value of tropical lakes for functionally important taxa, such as bats, has been understudied. Higher bat activity levels over lakes than in forest in both seasons and comprising the whole ensemble of aerial insectivorous bats of the study region, indicate that lakes embedded in Amazonian terra firme forests deserve special attention for future bat conservation. © 2018 The Authors. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Zoological Society of London.

Tropical forest loss and fragmentation are due to increase in coming decades. Understanding how matrix dynamics, especially secondary forest regrowth, can lessen fragmentation impacts is key to understanding species persistence in modified landscapes. Here, we use a whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment to investigate how bat assemblages are influenced by the regeneration of the secondary forest matrix. We surveyed bats in continuous forest, forest fragments and secondary forest matrix habitats, ~15 and ~30 years after forest clearance, to investigate temporal changes in the occupancy and abundance of old-growth specialist and habitat generalist species. The regeneration of the second growth matrix had overall positive effects on the occupancy and abundance of specialists across all sampled habitats. Conversely, effects on generalist species were negligible for forest fragments and negative for secondary forest. Our results show that the conservation potential of secondary forests for reverting faunal declines in fragmented tropical landscapes increases with secondary forest age and that old-growth specialists, which are often of most conservation concern, are the greatest beneficiaries of secondary forest maturation. Our findings emphasize that the transposition of patterns of biodiversity persistence in island ecosystems to fragmented terrestrial settings can be hampered by the dynamic nature of human-dominated landscapes. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T16:53:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2018-05-01 Várzea forests account for 17% of the Amazon basin and endure an annual inundation that can reach 14 m deep during 6–8 months. This flood pulse in combination with topography directly influences the várzea vegetation cover. Assemblages of several taxa differ significantly between unflooded terra firme and flooded várzea forests, but little is known about the distribution of medium and large sized terrestrial mammals in várzea habitats. Therefore, our goal was to understand how those habitats influence mammalian species distribution during the dry season. Specifically, we: (1) compared the species composition between a terra firme (Amanã Sustainable Development Reserve) and a várzea forest (Mamirauá Sustainable Development Reserve); and (2) tested the influence of the várzea habitat classes on the number of records, occurrence and species composition of mammalian assemblages. The sampling design in each reserve consisted of 50 baited camera trap stations, with an overall sampling effort of 5015 camera trap days. We used Non-Metric Multidimension Scaling (NMDS) to compare species composition between terra firme and várzea forests, and used Generalized Linear Models (GLM) to assess how habitat types and a habitat diversity index affect mammal distributions. We recorded 21 medium and large sized mammalian species, including 20 species in terra firme and only six in várzea (3443 records). Flood pulse and isolation in várzea forest drove the dissimilarity between these two forest types. In várzea forest, medium size mammals, in general, avoided habitats associated with long flooding periods, while jaguars (Panthera onca) appeared to prefer aquatic/terrestrial transition zones. Habitats that remain dry for longer periods showed more mammalian occurrence, suggesting that dispersion via soil is important even for semi-arboreal species. This is the first study to evaluate differential use of várzea habitats by terrestrial mammalian assemblages. Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (INPA) Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável Mamirauá (IDSM) Departamento de Biologia Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM) Graduate Group in Ecology Department of Wildlife Fish and Conservation Biology University of California Ecosystem Dynamics Observatory Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp) Ecosystem Dynamics Observatory Instituto de Geociências e Ciências Exatas Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)

Regenerating forests occupy large areas in the tropics, mostly as a result of deforestation for livestock and agriculture, followed by land abandonment. Despite the importance of regenerating secondary forests for tropical biodiversity conservation, studies of temporal effects of matrix regeneration on species responses in fragmented landscapes are scarce. Here, we used an Amazonian whole-ecosystem fragmentation experiment to investigate how changes in matrix quality over time through secondary forest regeneration affect bat assemblages from a functional perspective. We found that forest regeneration in the matrix positively affected functional α diversity, as well as species- and community-level functional uniqueness, reflecting an increase of species that perform different ecological functions in secondary forest over time. According to functional trait composition, animalivorous species showed the clearest signs of recovery associated with matrix regeneration. Consequently, between-period differences in functional β-diversity were highest in secondary forest compared to fragments and continuous forest, determined mainly by trait gains. However, ~ 30 years of secondary forest regeneration were not sufficient for the functional recovery of bat assemblages to levels observed in continuous forest. Restoring degraded habitats while protecting primary forest will be an important strategy for safeguarding high functional diversity of bats and their vital contributions to ecosystem functioning in fragmented tropical landscapes.

There is increasing interest in the restoration/regeneration of degraded tropical habitats yet the potential role of natural regenerators remains unclear. We test the hypothesis that the richness and functional diversity of terrestrial mammals differs between forest regrowth stages. We quantified the richness and functional diversity of eight terrestrial mammal seeddisperser species across a forest regrowth gradient in the eastern Brazilian Amazon. We installed camera-traps in 15 sites within small-holder properties with forest regrowth stage classified into three groups, with five sites each of: late second-regrowth forest, early second- regrowth forest and abandoned pasture. Species richness and functional dispersion from the regrowth sites were compared with 15 paired forest control sites. Multi model selection showed that regrowth class was more important for explaining patterns in richness and functional diversity than other variables from three non-mutually exclusive hypotheses: hunting (distance to house, distance to river, distance to town, small holder residence), land cover (% forest cover within 50 meters, 1 kilometer and 5 kilometers) and land use (regrowth class, time since last use). Differences in functional diversity were most strongly explained by a loss of body mass. We found that diversity in regrowth sites could be similar to control sites even in some early-second regrowth areas. This finding suggests that when surrounded by large intact forest areas the richness and functional diversity close to human small-holdings can return to pre-degradation values. Yet we also found a significant reduction in richness and functional diversity in more intensely degraded pasture sites. This reduction in richness and functional diversity may limit the potential for regeneration and increase costs for ecological regeneration and restoration actions around more intense regrowth areas. © 2018 Arévalo-Sandi et al. This is an open ccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and eproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Summary: Understanding how interspecific variation in functional traits influences species’ capacity to persist in fragments and use patches in fragmented landscapes is fundamental for the creation of effective conservation plans. This study uses phylogenetic comparative methods to investigate which functional traits of bat species are correlated with their vulnerability to fragmentation in a tropical landscape with low fragment–matrix contrast. Bats were captured over two years in eight forest fragments, nine control sites in continuous forest, and in the secondary forest matrix at the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project, Central Amazon, Brazil. We tested the hypothesis that there is a significant relationship between species functional traits, environmental gradients (continuous forest and fragment interiors, edges and matrix) and patterns of species distribution using phylogenetic generalized least squares (PGLS) models, as well as a combination of RLQ and fourth-corner analyses. Mobility, body mass, wing morphology, and trophic level were the most important traits linked to fragmentation sensitivity based on the PGLS analysis, while body mass and trophic level emerged as the best predictors in the fourth-corner analysis. These last two traits were correlated with the loss of continuous forest characteristics, such as high-stature trees and forest cover. Many animalivorous bat species rarely persist in small fragments ( Synthesis and applications. Functional traits of species and environmental variables jointly predict local variation in patterns of bat occupancy and abundance in fragmented tropical landscapes. To minimize local extinctions, we recommend increasing habitat availability and enhancing structural and functional connectivity at the landscape scale through the creation, restoration and maintenance of corridors and stepping stones. These measures should be coupled with improving matrix quality by promoting secondary forest regeneration and persistence to effectively reduce fragment–matrix contrast.

Riparian areas often are assumed to be necessary sites for foraging by insectivorous bats because of high insect availability and ease of movement and echolocation in the forest. However, effects of vegetation clutter and insect availability on bat activity have not been compared between riparian and nonriparian areas. We used autonomous recorders to evaluate the effects of vegetation structure, insect mass, and assemblage composition on the activity of the aerial insectivorous bat Pteronotus parnellii along stream channels and nonriparian areas in a tropical rainforest in central Brazilian Amazonia. We quantified vegetation clutter using horizontal photographs, captured nocturnal insects with light traps, and recorded bat activity for 110 nights (1,320 h) in 22 sampling plots. Pteronotus parnellii was more active in sites with dense understory vegetation, which were more common away from riparian zones. Bat activity was related to insect availability (mass and composition), independent of the habitat type. Ability to detect insects on vegetation and avoid obstacles should not restrict the activity of P. parnellii in cluttered sites. This suggests that mass and species composition of insects had stronger influences on habitat use than did vegetation clutter. Pteronotus parnellii probably selects cluttered places as feeding sites due to the availability of higher quality prey. © 2015 American Society of Mammalogists.

In recent years, large clearings (>1000 ha) accounted for gradually smaller amounts of total annual deforestation\ud in the Brazilian Amazon, whereas the proportion of small clearings (

In Amazonia, the assemblages of several taxa differ significantly between upland terra firme and white-water flooded varzea forests, but little is known about the diversity and distribution of bats in these two forest types. We compare the spatio-temporal patterns of bat assemblage composition and structure in adjacent terra firme and varzea forests in the lower Purus River region of central Brazilian Amazonia. Bats were sampled using mist nets at five sites in each forest type during 40 nights (2400 net-hours). We captured 1069 bats representing 42 species and Phyllostomidae bats comprised 99.3 percent of all captures. The bat assemblages in varzea and terra firme forests were significantly different, mainly due to a marked dissimilarity in species composition and in the number of captures during high-water season. In addition, bat assemblages within forest types differed significantly between seasons for both terra firme and varzea. Frugivores dominated the bat assemblages in both forest types. Overall guild structure did not change between varzea and terra firme or between seasons, but frugivore and animalivore abundance increased significantly in varzea forest during the inundation. The difference in assemblage structure observed in the high-water season is probably caused by the annual varzea flooding, which provides an effective barrier to the persistence of many understory bats. We also hypothesize that some bat species may undertake seasonal movements between forest types in response to fruit abundance, and our results further underline the importance of floodplain habitats for the conservation of species in the Amazon.

Lasiurus egregius (Peters, 1870) is a rare Neotropical vespertilionid bat and virtually no data on its ecology and echolocation calls are currently available. We report the capture of four individuals in the Central Amazon, representing the first record for the region and a significant (> 800 km) expansion of the species’ known range. Echolocation calls, recorded for the first time under natural conditions, were 1.5–8 ms in duration, and characterized by high mean bandwidth (18 kHz) and a mean frequency of maximum energy of 30 kHz.

We tested the removal effect on nectar production in four bat-pollinated cerrado flowers. We compared the amount of nectar after 7–12 removals with the accumulated nectar in non-manipulated flowers after 12 h. In all, but one species, removals increased volume by 1.5–4.6 times and sugar content by 1.6–4 times, which may affect flower visitation by bats, pollen flow, and reproduction. Abstract in Portuguese is available in the online version of this article.

Succession in the Brazilian Amazon depends on prior land-use history. Abandoned clearcuts become dominated by Cecropia trees and exhibit species replacements characteristic of natural succession in forest lightgaps. In contrast, abandoned pastures are dominated by Vismia trees that inhibit natural succession for a decade or more. Here we explore how advance regeneration and limited seed dispersal may contribute to the arrested succession in Vismia-dominated stands. Vegetation surveys showed that every Vismia stem in 3-8 year old Vismia stands originated as a re- sprout. In Cecropia stands, all tree species, including Vismia, originated mostly from seeds, after deforestation and abandonment. The 100% re-sprouts of Vismia in the abandoned pastures confirms that Vismia dominance results from re-sprouting following pasture fires. Seed rain in both Vismia and Cecropia dominated stands was limited almost exclusively to second growth species already reproducing in those stands, suggesting that the bats and birds foraging there were not bringing mature forest seeds into the second growth, but simply feeding and depositing local second growth species. As dispersal was similar in both stand types, dispersal differences cannot account for the ongoing dominance of Vismia relative to the ongoing successional transitions in Cecropia stands. Overall, advance regeneration in the form of Vismia re-sprouts is much more likely to be the driver of Vismia dominated succession than differential dispersal of mature forest seeds. In order to avoid extensive forest conversion into unproductive Vismia wastelands in the Amazon Basin, forestry permits for harvesting timber should include restrictions on subsequent anthropogenic degradation, such as conversion to pasture and prescribed burning. © Lindsay M. Wieland, Rita C. G. Mesquita, Paulo Estefano D. Bobrowiec, Tony V. Bentos, and G. Bruce Williamson.

The process of secondary succession on degraded lands in the Amazon depends on their land-use histories. In this scenario, little is known about how animal communities respond to different types of secondary vegetation in the region. We examined the effects of abandoned cattle pasture, Vismia- and Cecropia-dominated regrowth on the abundance of bat species and community composition in the Central Amazon, Brazil, based on 11 netting sites and on landscape characteristics. We captured 1444 bats, representing 26 species and two families (Phyllostomidae and Mormoopidae). Among the six most-captured Phyllostomidae bats, Sturnira lilium and Sturnira tildae had significantly higher capture rates in abandoned pasture, while Rhinophylla pumilio predominated in both Vismia- and Cecropia-dominated regrowth. An hybrid multidimensional scaling ordination revealed significant differences in the bat community among the three types of secondary vegetation. Phyllostominae bats were more common and richer in the less-disturbed areas of Cecropia-dominated regrowth, while Stenodermatinae species were more captured in abandoned pastures. Our results suggest that the type of secondary vegetation, together with its land-use history, affects bat community composition in the Central Amazon. The Phyllostominae subfamily (gleaning animalivores) was habitat selective and disappeared from areas experiencing constant disturbances. On the other hand, Stenodermatinae frugivorous bats often used and foraged in altered areas. We suggest that secondary vegetations in more-advanced successional stages can be used to augment the total area protected by forest conservation units.

Across the tropics, vast deforested areas are undergoing forest regeneration due to land abandonment. Although secondary forest is an expanding type of landscape matrix that has been shown to buffer some of the negative consequences of forest loss and fragmentation on taxonomic diversity, little is known in this regard about the functional dimension of biodiversity. We took advantage of an ecosystem-wide fragmentation experiment to investigate longer term changes in functional diversity of a mega-diverse Amazonian bat assemblage associated with regrowth development in the matrix. We found that matrix regeneration affected several facets of bat functional diversity in secondary forest over time, increasing functional α diversity, species- and community-level functional uniqueness, altering functional trait composition, and resulting in functional β-diversity changes via trait gains. However, approximately 30 years of matrix regeneration were insufficient for functional diversity to recover to the same levels as in continuous forest. Our results suggest that a combination of natural, human-assisted, and active restoration is likely to be the most successful strategy for restoring functional biodiversity of bats in human-modified tropical landscapes, a finding that most likely also applies to many other taxa. © The Author(s) 2018.

Morphological identification of prey fragments in vampire bat feces is impossible because of an exclusively blood-based diet. Therefore, studies of their foraging ecology require innovative approaches. We investigated the diet of Desmodus rotundus using a PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) molecular method by amplifying the cytochrome b mitochondrial gene (380 bp) from DNA fecal samples collected from captive bats fed with blood from chickens, cattle, pigs, dogs, and humans - the 5 most frequently attacked prey species in rural areas of the Brazilian Amazonia. The prey preference of the vampire bat was investigated in 18 riverine villages, where the availability of domestic animals to bats was quantified. Prey DNA amplified from fecal samples exhibited no visible signals of vampire bat DNA. A PCR - RFLP flowchart and a combination of 2 DNA restriction enzymes allowed the direct identification of prey to species level. The enzymes' restriction profile did not overlap with those of vampire bats or wild mammal and avian species. Chickens were the most attacked prey species (61.4% of the identifications, n = 27), but pigs were highly preferred in relation to prey availability. This suggests a preference for mammalian blood in D. rotundus diet, with chickens exploited as a secondary food source. No wild vertebrate species was identified in the fecal samples, indicating that vampire bats are selectively feeding on the blood of domesticated animals, probably because they are more predictable and easily accessed resources. © 2015 American Society of Mammalogists.

Vegetation clutter is a limiting factor for bats that forage near ground level, and may determine the distribution of species and guilds. However, many studies that evaluated the effects of vegetation clutter on bats have used qualitative descriptions rather than direct measurements of vegetation density. Moreover, few studies have evaluated the effect of vegetation clutter on a regional scale. Here, we evaluate the influence of the physical obstruction of vegetation on phyllostomid-bat assemblages along a 520 km transect in continuous Amazonian forest. We sampled bats using mist nets in eight localities during 80 nights (3840 net-hours) and estimated the ground-vegetation density with digital photographs. The total number of species, number of animalivorous species, total number of frugivorous species, number of understory frugivorous species, and abundance of canopy frugivorous bats were negatively associated with vegetation clutter. The bat assemblages showed a nested structure in relation to degree of clutter, with animalivorous and understory frugivorous bats distributed throughout the vegetation-clutter gradient, while canopy frugivores were restricted to sites with more open vegetation. The species distribution along the gradient of vegetation clutter was not closely associated with wing morphology, but aspect ratio and wing load differed between frugivores and animalivores. Vegetation structure plays an important role in structuring assemblages of the bats at the regional scale by increasing beta diversity between sites. Differences in foraging strategy and diet of the guilds seem to have contributed more to the spatial distribution of bats than the wing characteristics of the species alone. © 2015 Marciente et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Ant gardens (AGs) are a multi-partner specialized ant-plant interaction involving several ant and epiphyte species. Although studies on AGs have reported possible roles for some species in this system, there are unanswered questions regarding the process of epiphyte incorporation in the AGs and the role of less aggressive ant species in AG protection. In this study, we used AGs in the Brazilian Amazon forest formed by two parabiotic ant species to test a set of hypothesis regarding two main questions: 1) How is AG plant community composition affected by the surrounding environment? 2) Does Crematogaster levior play a role in the chemical detection of herbivory in the AGs? After identifying epiphytes occurring at AGs at the forest edge and in the interior, we found that ant gardens in each environment exhibited different compositions, and that plant species bearing oil or extrafloral nectar glands were more frequent in AGs located in the forest interior than in those at the forest edge. By performing experiments with volatile compounds emitted from injured epiphytes, we detected that only Camponotus femoratus was responsive, responding almost eight times faster in response to plant extracts than water treatments. Our results support the idea that environmental conditions affect ant preference for feeding resources provided by epiphytes and consequently shape the structure of the epiphyte community in AGs. On the other hand, the role of C. levior in AGs remains unknown, since it seems to play no direct or indirect role in AG protection.

Historically for bats, the southwestern Brazilian Amazon has had scant biological data available, which compromised large-scale comparisons and macroecological studies that could support conservation initiatives in the area. We tested faunal similarity among 26 well-sampled bat assemblages distributed throughout the Amazon, including our database from surveys in the upper Madeira River region, a core area of the southwestern Brazilian Amazon. To document bats we conducted nocturnal mist-net sampling under standardized Rapid Assessments for Long-term Ecological Research (RAPELD) protocols in forests and farmlands, and diurnal search of roosts in rocky outcrops located along the riverbed of the Madeira River. We captured 2930 bats representing 66 species, 20 of which were previously unreported for the region. Thirty-four species recorded were exclusive to forests, and two to the rocky outcrops of the Madeira River. Frugivores outnumbered the other trophic guilds, followed by the gleaning insectivores in for...

This study evaluated the potential of lowland tapirs as seed dispersers in the northern Brazilian Amazon. The study analyzed the viability of seeds after passage through the gut. Fecal samples were collected from 6 different vegetation physiognomies in Virua National Park during the dry season. The samples were then kept in a greenhouse for 16 months to allow the seeds to germinate. The seedling species were identified and classified according to the type of fruit, plant habit, seed size and type of ingestion. Of the 111 fecal samples, 94 (84.7%) had viable seeds of 75 species. Melastomataceae was the most frequent family with viable seeds in the fecal samples (69.1% of samples, N= 18 species). The data suggest that the importance of the lowland tapirs as dispersers is not restricted to the species consumed actively by frugivory but also extends to species accidentally consumed during browsing. The occurrence of both large and small viable seeds in the fecal samples as well as a number of large drupes, which probably cannot be transported via endozoochory by any other animal species, provide evidence of the ecological importance of lowland tapirs to the dynamics of the forest-campinarana vegetation mosaic in the region.

Cyttarops alecto is a rare bat, poorly recorded along its distribu-tional range. In this paper, we report the fi rst record of C. alecto for the western Brazilian Amazon, provide information on dis-tribution and morphological variation of the species along with taxonomic comments based on comparisons of our specimen with the previous information reported in the literature, and we reinterpret the precise type locality for the species.Keywords: Brazil; distribution; emballonurids; Rond o nia; western Amazonia. The subtribe Diclidurina (Chiroptera: Emballonuridae) is confi ned to the Neotropical region and contains eight gen-era (Lim 2007 ). The monotypic genus and species Cyttarops consecutive nights near potential prey for vampire bats, such alecto (Thomas 1913 ), the smoky sheath-tailed short-eared bat, is medium-sized (forearm 45 – 47 mm) with a blackish gray, long, and silky dorsal pelage. Cyttarops has a greatly expanded clavicle, a deeply grooved tibia, and has no wing sac (Jones and Hood 1993 ). Cyttarops alecto is a rare bat, poorly recorded in its distri-butional range, and most captures of the species are of single individuals (Hood and Gardner 2007 , Velazco et al. 2011 ). Although documented by few specimens in collections, this species is broadly distributed in the Neotropical lowlands. The collecting localities of this species are distributed from Nicaragua to Panama, in Central America (Starrett and de and Langtimm 1993 , Jung et al. 2007 ), southwards in South America to eastern Colombia, northern Bolivia, and central Peru (Ochoa et al. 1994 , Aguirre et al. 2010 , Velazco et al. 2011 ) and eastwards to Guiana Shield localities in Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname (Thomas 1913 , Masson and Cosson 1992 , Lim 2009 ) to the northern state of Par a , Brazil (the type locality), and southern Amazonian Brazil at the Tocantins River Basin (Nunes et al. 2006 ) (Figure 1 ). Herein, we report the fi rst record of