Anfíbios Anuros do Distrito Federal

The frogs of the Federal District of Brazil are listed and discussed as to habit, biology and ecology. The F. D is situated 22° 54' 24" S. & 43° 10' 21" W Gr. and comprises 1.356 km². Its topography includes sea-shore, maritime scrub, lagoons, plains and marsh, open slopes, forested mountains and great heads of rock. Three thousand feet of altitude are attained at two points. Fifty two different frogs occur in the F.D. Three fifths of them live in open country. Two fifths of these have never been found above the plains; the others range higher but mostly in open country. Their environment offers conditions suitable for average tadpoles and adults. these frogs are more or less unspecialized. There are six genera and thirty species. Two thirds of the latter belong to the type genera of the large neotropical families Bufonidae, Leptodactylidae and Hylidae. Only in the maritime scrub formation are conditions somewhat different. Water for average tadpoles is provided by the lagoons. The xerophytism of the vegetation is, however, so marked that bromeliads growing on the ground provide almost the only appropriate shelter for adult tree-frogs used to sleeping upright on the vegetation. One large Hylid genus lives entirely in them. It is casque-headed and phragmotic, shutting the lumen of the leaf-cup with head used as a plug. Another large Hylid genus shows a lesser degree of the same specialization. (Lutz A & Lutz B, 1939 II). One genus with two species is entirely saxicolous; it lives on wet ledges of rock at all phases of its life history. (B. Lutz 1948). The other two fifths of the frogs from F. D. are montane forest forms. Their environment offers numerous and varied biotopes and is near optimum for adults. There is,however, hardly any standing water available for larvae. These frogs are ecologically diversified. They also show a general trend towards spawning in the adult biotipe, which leads to delayed hatching, semi-aquatic and terrestrial larvae and direct development. (B Lutz, 1948). The author interprets the morphological specialization of the casque-headed Hylids and the biological specialization of the montane forest forms as adaptive. Casque-headedness and phragmosis increase protection against blood-suckers and predators. The humidity of the rain forest permits eggs, embryos and larvae to develop, unharmed, outside their usual, aquatic, environment.

Contribuição para o conhecimento das doenças do grupo tifo exantemático no Brasil

In this work, the author considers that in Brazil, there exist three forms of the disease of the Exanthematic Typhus group, that have been well studied: Neotropic Exanthematic Typhus, Murine Typhus and "Q" fever. The first of these forms has existed in this country, perhaps, for over five hundred years. He says that modern antibiotic, Aureomycin, Chloromycetin and, principally, Terramcin have resolved the problem of the therapeutic treatment of the disease. The modern insecticides, D. D. T., Gammexane and Toxafeno have resolved the prophylactic problem. The author studies minutely the question of denomination, showing, by means of drawing and history, the origin of the diseases, both Norte American and Brazilian. The name Neotropic Exanthematic Typhus (in BRazil, Colombia, United States or India) should substitute the erroneous anme "Spotted Fever"; the disease is exanthematic, a very different thing. He formulates two hypotheses about these diseases: first - it passed from the neotropic to the neartic region, where it acquired individual properties; second - they developed independently in a more rmeote epoch, acquiring each its own characteristics. The disease is today rather of the neotropic than of the neartic region. As it also exists in India it cannot be named American exanthematic Typhus. The author finds it unnecessary to change the name to "Rikettsioses"; we do not call bacillar dysentery "Schigeloses"or malignant edema "Chlostridiose". The name exanthematic typhus is classic, precise, scientific, expressive and the denomination "neotropical" completes the localisation. The author thinks that all the diseases of the exanthematic typhus group, in the world had a simple primitive common origin. At first, the rickettsias or the virus had a free life, perhaps in the waters of the marshes or grass-lands. Later, in the struggle for life, came the parasitism of the plants. They became fitoparatifs. The mode of life...

Formas de cultura de Trypanosoma rotatorium Mayer, 1843: isolado da rã Leptodactylus ocellatus do Brasil

Os autores estudaram o comportamento "in vitro" do Trypanosoma encontrado nas rãs brasileiras, visando critérios adicionais na caracterização específica deste grupo. Utilizaram diferentes meios de cultura (NNN, Novy e Mac Neal, SNB 9 de Diamond 1954, Boné & Steinert, 1956 Boné & Parent 1963 e Halevy & Gisry 1964) no isolamento do Trypanosoma rotatorium encontrado com certa freqüência na rã Leptodactylus com larga distribuição na região Neotropical. Observamso que o comportamento do T. rotatorium das rãs desta região em meios de cultura mostra características bem diferentes daquelas observadas com tripanosomas de outras regiões, quer seja pela dificuldade de manutenção em subcultura, quer pelas formas de divisão desenvolvidas. Empregamos os mesmos meios de cultura utilizados nos isolamentos dos tripanosomas de rã da Europa e como pode ser visto no Quadro I os resultados obtidos com material da região Neotropical são concordantes, surgerindo, pelo menos uma variação dentro da espécie.

A new Culicoides of the stigmalis group (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

Notes are presented on the three known Neotropical species of the Culicoides stigmalis group of boodsucking midges: alvarezi Ortiz, fluviatilis (Lutz), stigmalis Wirth, and on deanei n.sp., which is described from the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A diagnosis is given for the group, as well as a key for identification and comparative phtographs of the female wings.

Disentangling the effects of key innovations on the diversification of Bromelioideae (bromeliaceae).

The evolution of key innovations, novel traits that promote diversification, is often seen as major driver for the unequal distribution of species richness within the tree of life. In this study, we aim to determine the factors underlying the extraordinary radiation of the subfamily Bromelioideae, one of the most diverse clades among the neotropical plant family Bromeliaceae. Based on an extended molecular phylogenetic data set, we examine the effect of two putative key innovations, that is, the Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) and the water-impounding tank, on speciation and extinction rates. To this aim, we develop a novel Bayesian implementation of the phylogenetic comparative method, binary state speciation and extinction, which enables hypotheses testing by Bayes factors and accommodates the uncertainty on model selection by Bayesian model averaging. Both CAM and tank habit were found to correlate with increased net diversification, thus fulfilling the criteria for key innovations. Our analyses further revealed that CAM photosynthesis is correlated with a twofold increase in speciation rate, whereas the evolution of the tank had primarily an effect on extinction rates that were found five times lower in tank-forming lineages compared to tank-less clades. These differences are discussed in the light of biogeography, ecology, and past climate change.

A new species of Dasybasis Macquart from NW of Argentina (Tabanidae, Diptera, Insecta)

Female and male of Dasybasis diaguita n. sp. from high area of NW of Argentina is described and illustrated.

Predação e foresia (ocasional?) entre imaturos de Simuliidae (Diptera: Culicomorpha) e Asolene (Pomella) Megastoma (Sowerby, 1825) (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Ampullaridae)

The predation and phoretic association (occasional?) among simulids and mollusks are being registered here for the first time on the Neotropical region. These inter-relations observations were obtained among Asolene (Pomella) megastoma (Sowerby, 1825) and the simulids: Simulium (Thyrsopelma) Orbitale Lutz, 1910; Simulium (Psaroniocompsa) spp. The material studied is proceeding from the Uruguai river Hidrological Basin. Based on the mollusks natural habitat, it is here suggested his use as a possible integrated management element for simulids species which immature stages live on mighty river with rocks.

Estudos sobre os Scionini neotropicais do gênero Fidena - o subgênero Leptofidena - (Diptera, Tabanidae, Pangoniinae)

The author redescribes the males of Fidena (Leptofidena) morio (Wulp, 1881) based on details of external morphology and of the dissected genitalia hitherto not studied.

Two new species of Crawfordia Pierce from South America, (Strepsiptera: Stylopidae)

Several stylopized specimens were found among the Hymenoptera collection of the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). A paper by Kogan & Oliveira (1966) described the parasites of Polybia represented among those specimens. I describe herein the first neotropical species of the genus Crawfordia parasitizing species of Psaenithia (Andrenidae, Panurgini). The presence of vestigial thoracic segmentation of the female cephalothorax is a peculiar trait of this genus of Strepsiptera. Triungulinids are described in detail for the first time in this genus.

Seasonal distribution of a relatively rare and a relatively common species of Thecomyia at Belém, Pará, Brazil (Diptera: Sciomyzidae)

O gênero neotropical Thecomyia (Sciomyzidae) consiste de quatro espécies descritas e onze ainda não descritas (Steyskal & Knutson em preparação), sendo a maioria não muito comum. As espécies são muito próximas e grande número delas somente pode ser separado com base na genitália do macho. Somente é conhecida a biologia e uma espécie, T. limbata (Wiedermann), que, preferentemente, preda moluscos aquáticos (Abercrombie & Berg, 1975). A análise de registros de coletas de espécies relativamente raras e relativamente comuns de Thecomyia (172 especimens do Museu Goeldi coletados em Mocambo, Belém, Pará, Brasil) proporcionam informações sobre a distribuição sazonal de espécies tropicais e sua relativa abundância. Deste material 160 especimens pertencem à T. longicornis Perty e 12 à Thecomyia sp. n. A primeira foi registrada durante todos os meses do ano, mas a espécie nova somente durante junho e dezembro, sugerindo esta última uma população de adultos anual bimodal.

Revisão das espécies neotropicais de Ophyra Robineau-Desvoidy, 1830 (Diptera, Muscidae, Azelinae)

Data on the genus Ophyra and on its known neotropical species are presented as well as a key to segregate them.

New brazilian predaceous midges of the genus Monohelea Kieffer, and redescription of M. guaimiesi (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae)

Two new Brazilian species of Monohelea Kieffer, M. affinis and M. roraimensis are described and illustrated, and a redescription of M. guiaimiesi Lane & Wirth is given.

Leishmania braziliensis ssp. in the nasal mucosa of guinea pigs inoculated in the tarsi

Two lots of 20 young male guinea pigs were inoculated subcutaneously in the tarsi with 10 (elevated to fourth potency) amastigotes of Leishmania braziliensis or L. b. guyanensis to study the susceptibility of this Neotropical hystricomorph rodent the autochthonous parasites. Almost 50% of the animals showed lesions in the inoculation site and had parazitations that were infective to hamsters, as shown by inoculating homogenates of the dermal lesion, of the spleen, of the liver, and of the nasal mucosa into hamsters at 20, 40, 60 and 120 days after inoculation of the guinea pig. Smears of the above organs showed the presence of amastigotes. Parasites inoculated into the tarsi were detected early in the skin, spleen, and liver of the guinea pig host. Blood cultures made by cardiopuncture on sacrifice of the guinea pigs were uniformly negative. The nasal mucosa of nearly all animals positive in the skin or viscera was invaded early by the parasites, although with grater frequency between 60 and 120 days post-inoculation. The use of this model for the study of mucocutaneous parasitism by L. brasiliensis is discussed, together with the phenomena of parasitism at a distance from the inoculation site, the temperature of the body regions affected, and the possible genetic influence on susceptibility of the guinea pig to L. brasiliensis.

Experimental heteroxenous cycle of Lagochilascaris minor Leiper, 1909 (Nematoda: Ascarididae) in white mice and in cats

Reports of natural infections of sylvatic carnivores by adult worms of species similar to Lagochilascaris minor in the Neotropical region led to attempts to estabilish experimental cycles in laboratory mice and in cats. Also, larval development was seen in the skeletal muscle of an agouti (Dasyprocta leporina) infected per os with incubated eggs of the parasite obtained from a human case. In cats, adult worms develop and fertile eggs are expelled in the feces: in mice, larval stages of the parasite develop, and are encapsulate in the skeletal muscle, and in the adipose and subcutaneous connective tissue. From our observations, we conclude that the larva infective for the mouse is the early 3rd stage, while for the final host the infective form is the later 3rd stage. A single moult was seen in the mouse, giving rise to a small population of 4th stage larvae, long after the initial infection.

Análise faunística dos helmintos de pardais (Passer domesticus L., 1758) capturados em Campo Grande, Rio de Janeiro, RJ

Sparrows captured in Campo Grande, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, were examined through necropsy and the helmints found were identified. The prevalence, intensity of infection and the habitat of each helminth species found are showed. An analysis of the helminth fauna using the importance value of the species collected indicated that in the sparrow the dominant species are: Leucochloridium parcum, Tanaisia inopina, Choanotaenia passerina, Dispharynx nasuta and Tetrameres minima; and the co-dominant species are: Echinostoma revolutum, Eumegacetes mediximus and Mediorhynchus papillosus. According to the host specificity were classified as specialist species: L. parcum, T. inopina, C. passerina and T. minima; and as generalist species: E. revolutum, E. medioximus, D. nasuta and M. papillosus. Echinostoma revolutum was found for the first time in P. domesticus. The species E. medioximus , T. minima and D. nasuta were found for the first time in the sparrow in Brazil. The species C. passerina and M. papillosus were found for the first time in Brazil, expanding their distribution to the Neotropical region.