Rodrigo Barbosa Ferreira

• PhD in Ecology and Conservation
• Volunteer Professor at Federal University of Espírito Santo

Darwin proposed two contradictory hypotheses to explain the influence of congeners on the outcomes of invasion: the naturalization hypothesis, which predicts a negative relationship between the presence of congeners and invasion success, and the pre-adaptation hypothesis, which predicts a positive relationship between the presence of congeners and...

Understanding the response of species with differing life-history traits to habitat edges and habitat conversion helps predict their likelihood of persistence across changing landscape. In Brazil's Atlantic Forest, we evaluated frog richness and abundance by breeding guild at four distances from the edge of a reserve: i) 200 m inside the forest, ii...

A crucial step in any ethological study is to distinguish and classify the observed behavior into categories. The literature on anuran antipredator mechanisms is largely scattered and descriptive due to the opportunistic nature of the observations and the lack of a simple, widely accepted classification scheme. We propose an explanatory classificat...

Leptodactylidae consists of more than 200 described species distributed throughout the Neotropics. The five species in the genus Crossodactylodes are the only species in this family that complete their entire life cycle in rainwater accumulated between bromeliad leaves. We surveyed bromeliads for Crossodactylodes izecksohni in its type locality: th...

Allocation and use of available energy can determine species’ life history strategies. Herein, we estimated the phylogenetic signal of energy density across nine treefrog species and tested whether energy density varied by habitat and functional traits. We estimated the relationships between energy density and species distribution and four function...

Understanding species composition across temporal and spatial scales through participatory monitoring has contributed to the development of several studies focused on biodiversity in Neotropical ecosystems. Habitat loss and the illegal collection of bromeliads pose significant threats to bromeligenous frogs, which depend on the rainwater collected...

The spatial arrangement of organisms is significantly influenced by the structure of vegetation. Bromeliads, characterized by a remarkable architectural design featuring rosette‐like leaf arrangements for rainwater storage, act as habitats for various organisms. These organisms use bromeliads for shelter, foraging, reproduction and the supply of nu...

A four-day herpetofauna survey was undertaken monthly from October 2018 to September 2019 at the Estação Biologia Marinha Augusto Ruschi (EBMAR) nature reserve, a coastal forest remnant in south-eastern Brazil. Each survey involved active visual and auditory searching at night, pitfall traps and incidental observations. This study revealed 31 speci...

Phoresy is likely a commensal interaction, in which a phoront attaches itself to the body of a host for dispersal. Host traits and environmental characteristics may determine phoresy patterns. We examined whether the density of microscopic phoronts on frogs living in the water between the leaves of bromeliads (phytotelma) was determined by the spec...

Crossodactylodes is a leptodactylid genus of bromeligenous frogs, currently comprising six species distributed in southeastern and northeastern Brazil. The number of species in the genus is underestimated, as suggested by a recent study that identified at least three putative new species. Here we describe one of these species from the montane Atlan...

Congeneric species have similarities in phenotypic and ecological traits. The sympatry of congeneric species constitutes an opportunity for studies on coexistence. Two bird species of Mimidae, the native Tropical mockingbird, Mimus gilvus Oberholser, 1919, and the restinga invader Chalk-browed mockingbird, Mimus saturninus (Lichtenstein, 1823), cur...

Anurans communicate using different modes, such as acoustic, visual, and chemical signaling, which can be displayed independently or in a multimodal context. While knowledge of anuran acoustic communication has advanced substantially in recent decades, few reports have shown that amphibians communicate using seismic signals. Here we describe the vo...

Scinax is the most species-rich genus of Neotropical treefrogs, with 129 currently recognized species divided between two major clades, the S. catharinae and S. ruber clades. The S. catharinae clade includes 52 species currently placed in the S. perpusillus and S. catharinae groups, whereas the S. ruber clade is composed of 77 species, 13 of which...

Phylogenetic signals indicate the phenotypic similarity of antipredator mechanisms among related species. Herein, we assessed the antipredator mechanisms of the horned frog Proceratophrys laticeps, compiled a database including closely phylogenetically-related species, and evaluated their phylogenetic signals. Our dataset comprises 80 records for 1...

The genus Crossodactylus has taxonomic problems due to the difficulty in properly identifying some populations to the species level. The deficient species diagnosis rises mostly due to high intraspecific variation and lack of information on topotypes. Crossodactylus timbuhy was described based only on external morphology of preserved adult specimen...

We describe a new species of Rain Frog from Brazil’s Atlantic Forest, which harbors high richness, endemism and threatened species of anurans. Ischnocnema crassa sp. nov. is a leaf litter breeder from the montane rainforest of Santa Teresa, state of Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil. Remarkably, the new species is so far unique amongst Ischnocnem...

The Neotropical tribe Sphaenorhynchini is composed of 15 recognized species commonly named as "lime treefrogs". Gabohyla pauloalvini occurs in Atlantic Forest lowlands through the states of Bahia and Espírito Santo, Brazil. Based on field observation, literature review, and evaluation of audio files, we conclude that previous bioacoustic descriptio...

The Scinax catharinae clade comprises the S. perpusillus and S. catharinae groups. The S. catharinae group has 38 species, mostly from Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. We describe a new species of S. catharinae group based on external morphology, color pattern, and bioacoustics. The new species calls from herbaceous vegetation of slow-flowing streams from...

Ants present a wide variety of nesting sites, feeding habits, and trophic interactions, but the biology of most species remains unknown. Dinoponera lucida is a poneromorph ant forest-specialist and solitary forager, endemic to the Brazil’s Atlantic Forest. Herein we describe foraging activities, guard and maintenance of the nests, orientation mode,...

Vocal sounds occur in most anurans and are often emitted as simple and stereotyped acoustic signals. Some frog groups, however, have complex signals and others can produce distinctive acoustic structures, such as purely ultrasonic calls. Crossodactylodes is a genus of bromeligenous frogs that is understudied in many aspects. This genus has been his...

Dinoponera lucida is a poneromorph ant endemic to the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. The species is classified as endangered in Brazil’s Red List due to its peculiar reproductive biology and high habitat fragmentation. Herein, we characterize D. lucida foraging activity and response to litter surface temperature in a lowland forest remnant in south-eas...

Anurans are predator and prey, playing an important role in ecosystem functioning. The diet composition is closely related to feeding strategy, and the information about prey items is useful to understand intra and interspecific interactions in trophic webs. Here we determined diet composition, feeding strategy, and relation between prey ingestion...

Many animals breed exclusively in plants that accumulate rainwater (phytotelma; e.g., bromeliad, bamboo, fruit husk, and tree hole), to which they are either physiologically or behaviorally specialized for this microhabitat. Of the numerous life‐history modes observed in frogs, few are as striking or potentially consequential as the transition from...

Crossodactylodes is a poorly known genus of small-sized bromeligenous frogs, endemic to Brazil. They have a patchy distribution across the mountains of the Atlantic Forest and the ‘‘campo rupestre’’ ecosystem. To better resolve their evolutionary relationships, we performed phylogenetic analyses using a multigene DNA matrix and representative sampl...

A Percepção Ambiental é um instrumento metodológico que possibilita o entendimento sobre o conhecimento popular e pode contribuir par a criação ou reajuste de estratégias que visem ao manejo e à conservação de áreas protegidas. O presente estudo envolveu a perspectiva dos moradores residentes no entorno de uma Unidade de Conservação em relação aos...

Aim Species distributions are one of the most important ways to understand how communities interact through macroecological relationships. The functional abilities of a species, such as its plasticity in various environments, can determine its distribution, species richness and beta diversity patterns. In this study, we evaluate how functional trai...

The genus Zachaenus Cope is the least specious within Cycloramphidae, including two species: Z. carvalhoi Izecksohn, and Z. parvulus (Girard). Both are leaf litter species distributed across Atlantic forest remnants in Southeastern Brazil. Zachaenus carvalhoi occurs westerly in the states of Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais, and Z. parvulus easterly...

A checklist of the amphibians of Santa Teresa municipality, in southeastern Brazil is presented based on fieldwork, examination of specimens in collections, and a literature review. This new amphibian list of Santa Teresa includes 108 species, of which 106 (~98%) belong to Anura and two (~2%) to Gymnophio-na. Hylidae was the most represented family...

p>A Percepção Ambiental é um instrumento metodológico que possibilita o entendimento sobre o conhecimento popular e pode contribuir par a criação ou reajuste de estratégias que visem ao manejo e à conservação de áreas protegidas. O presente estudo envolveu a perspectiva dos moradores residentes no entorno de uma Unidade de Conservação em relação ao...

Climate refuges have been used by several species over historical climate change. Ectothermic species often display good models for climate change studies because they are highly sensitive to temperature. Analysis of species loss with ecosystem and evolutionary values helps to understand environmental processes and climate change consequences. We d...

Many ecological aspects of Physalaemus crombiei remain unstudied. Thus, the present study describes the diet and fecundity in a population of P. crombiei from southeastern Brazil. We analyzed the diet of 38 individuals of P. crombiei (25 males and 13 females). Sex ratio at reproductive habitat was slightly biased toward males. Females had greater s...

Nestedness among species assemblages implies that sites of lower species richness are subsets of richer sites in a regional species pool. This nestedness is a reflection of a non-random process of species loss as a consequence of factors that promote the disaggregation of assemblages. The impoverishment of assemblage diversity is more often observe...

Seventy juvenile individuals of Aparasphenodon brunoi were collected on the low parts of tree trunks in an Atlantic Forest remnant. Arthropods were the dominant prey found in their stomachs. Coleoptera (adult and larvae) was the most important prey regarding prey frequency, number, weight, and index of relative importance. Secondary preys included...

Amphibians may use bromeliads for reproduction (i.e., bromeligenous species) or only for refuge and foraging (i.e., bromelicolous species). The partition of bromeliad resources is essential to maintain the coexistence of the associated assemblages. We sampled 913 bromeliads in a sandy coastal plain (i.e., restinga habitat) in southeastern Brazil an...

Bromeliads constitute a good example of symbiosis with organisms that spend their entire life cycle inside the plants, and often depend on them to breed. The bromeliads benefit from this interaction by increasing their nutrients intake. Conservation efforts tend to focus on a single endangered species, but in symbiotic associations, the viability o...

The sequence and intensity of an predator mechanisms may be displayed according to the risk of preda on. We tested this hypothesis using two species of marsupial treefrogs from Brazil’s Atlan c Forest. We observed Gastrotheca recava and G. megacephala displaying nine an predator mechanisms and three types of defensive calls. These behaviours were d...

The lizard species Ameiva ameiva (Linnaeus, 1758) is widely distributed across the Neotropical region from Panama and Caribbean Islands to the north of Argentina, east of the Andes (Vanzolini et al. 1980. Répteis das Caatingas. Academia Brasileira de Ciências, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. 161 pp.; Peters and Donoso-Barros 1986. Catalogue of the neotropi...

Ameiva ameiva is widely distributed across the Neotropical region from Panama and the Caribbean Islands to northern Argentina, east of the Andes (Vanzolini et al. 1980. Répteis das Caatingas. Academia Brasileira de Ciências, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 161 pp.; Peters and Donoso-Barros 1986. Catalogue of the Neotropical Squamata. Part II Lizards and Am...

Bromeliads are used by many frog species due to their capability to accumulate rainwater. The bromeligenous frog, Phyllodytes luteolus, uses bromeliads for its entire life cycle, including shelter, foraging and reproduction. We evaluated the effect of plant morphometrics and the properties of water accumulated in bromeliads on the selection of...

Species lists are a scientific priority in areas imminently threatened by anthropogenic actions across the Atlantic Forest. We sampled 60 epiphyte bromeliads in an abandoned cacao plantation and found 45 individual frogs representing eight species. Three frog species were bromeligenous, which have a life cycle dependent on bromeliads. Five species...

The Greenhouse Frog (Eleutherodactylus planirostris) is one of the most widespread frog species in the world. Because of its high population densities, widespread distribution, and consumption of native invertebrates in some invaded sites, understanding its impacts in Hawaii is important. We analyzed stomach contents of 397 frogs from 10 study site...

We describe a new treefrog species of Dendropsophus collected on rocky outcrops in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. Ecologically, the new species can be distinguished from all known congeners by having a larval phase associated with rainwater accumulated in bromeliad phytotelms instead of temporary or lentic water bodies. Phylogenetic analysis based...

The island rule suggests that, when mainland animals are isolated on islands, large animals tend to become smaller, while small animals tend to become larger. A small frog in eastern Brazil, Phyllodytes luteolus (Wied-Neuwied, 1824), is widely distributed in association with bromeliads. At the end of the last glaciation, parts of the mainland becam...

It reports L. latrans feeding upon a crab.

It reports the occurrence of P. rohdei to the state of Espirito Santo, Brazil.

Short-Note Publication about Hypsiboas polytaenius

It reports the occurrence of I. octavioi to the state of Espirito Santo.

Since Scinax arduous description, many other populations belonging to the Scinax perpusillus group have been recorded for the States of Espírito Santo and Minas Gerais, Southeastern Brazil. Both in collections and publications most of these new specimens are identified as S. arduous, Scinax cf. arduous, Scinax cf. perpusillus, Scinax gr. perpusillu...

The genus Adelophryne is composed of diminutive frogs occurring in northern Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest. Herein we describe a new species of Adelophryne found in the leaf litter of primary and secondary forests in the mountainous region of Espírito Santo state, southeastern Brazil. The new species is characterized by its small body size, two p...

Urbanization has strong negative impact on biodiversity by altering anuran’s breeding sites. The goals of our study were to: i) determine the composition of a frog community and ii) evaluate species spatial distribution along five breeding sites at the campus of Escola Superior São Francisco de Assis (ESFA), municipality of Santa Teresa, Espírito S...

Our observation of rubbing legs followed by substance secretion further indicates that leptodactylids produce toxic or unpalatable substance to predators. To our knowledge, this is the first report of thanatosis and skin secretion in synergy