Migração de melanophryniscus cambaraensis (Anura, Bufonidae) no município de São Francisco de Paula, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil

• Ano de defesa: 2010
• Autor(a) principal: Santos, Raquel Rocha
• Orientador(a): Grant, Taran
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; Porto Alegre
• Palavras-chave em Português: ZOOLOGIA; HERPETOLOGIA; ANFÍBIOS - SÃO FRANCISCO DE PAULA (RS); ANUROS; MIGRAÇÃO
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/10923/5333

Some general patterns of migration were studied in the Brazilian red bellied toad Melanophryniscus cambaraensis, a species that forms explosive breeding aggregations at irregular intervals throughout the entire year. Migrating toads were captured by two methods: sets of drift fences with pitfall traps in the forest, and drift fences completely enclosing the breeding site with inward and outward-facing funnel traps. The directional orientation was non-random for both pre- and post-reproductive migration, regardless of gender or treatment of pseudoreplicate captures, indicating that this is a population-level characteristic. The directional orientation of pre-reproductive migration was significantly different from post-reproductive migration when pseudoreplicate captures were included in analyses. However, none of the differences were significantly when pseudoreplicate captures were excluded, illustrating the importance of considering their potential influence when designing studies of migration orientation. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that migratory activity is strongly diurnal in M. Cambaraensis, and that this does not owe to environmental variables. We suggest that this is best explained by phylogeny, not contemporary pressures. Diurnality is primitive for M. cambaraensis and evolved in the common ancestor of Agastorophrynia, prior to the chemical defences found in toads (Bufonidae) and poison frogs (Dendrobatidae). This suggests that chemical defences in these groups may have evolved as a result of the diurnal activity that brought them into contact with visually oriented diurnal predators, and not the other way around. On the temporal patterns, five high and three smaller peaks of migratory activity were identified. Males and females showed no difference. The periodogram identified two main migratory cycles: one lasting 23 days and another with a length of 13. 8 days. We suggest that the duration cycle that best applies to M. cambaraensis is 13. 8 days. The highest correlation values as predictors of migration activity was mean relative air humidity and accumulated rainfall of 72 h, both at lag zero. The accumulated rainfall of the previous 72 h was the only predictor of number of captures, accounting for 73% of their variation.