The Paraguayan Rhinella toad venom: Implications in the traditional medicine and proliferation of breast cancer cells.

Sexual and geographical divergence in head widths of invasive cane toads, Rhinella marina (Anura: Bufonidae), is driven by both rapid evolution and plasticity

In this study, we present some information of the regarding throphic niche from the anuran toad Rhinella icterica living in high altitudes above 2000 m a.s.l. from a habitat of the Atlantic Forest Biome - the Altitude Fields in the Itatiaia National Park. We found 150 prey items in toad stomachs, belonging to five prey types, as well as skin remains and some remains of plant material. The index of relative importance indicated that most important prey types were beetles and ants, these last composing 70% of the diet numerically and the trophic niche breadth (B) was 1.81. The relatively low diversity of prey types we recorded in the diet of R. icterica of Itatiaia and numerically dominated by ants suggests some preference for this item. We do not found significant relationship between the toad measurements with the preys' measurements. We concluded that R. icterica toads at the highlands of Itatiaia feeds on arthropods, mainly ants and coleopterans and that the high consumption of preys with relatively small and similar size as ants in the diet prevents an expected relationship among frog body or mouth size and prey volume and size.

http://www.scielo.br/pdf/bn/v12n4/a27v12n4.pdf

Diet of the toad Rhinella icterica (Anura: Bufonidae) from Atlantic Forest Highlands of southeastern Brazil

This work reports the occurrence of fossil remains of anurans attributed to the taxa Rhinella jimi, R. schneideri e Anura indet., from tank deposits of Joao Cativo Paleontological Site (Late Pleistocene-early Holocene), municipality of Itapipoca, Ceara State. This is the fi rst formal description of fossil remains of bufonids in Brazilian fossiliferous deposits. The presence of R. jimi and R. schneideri at Joao Cativo site suggests an arid paleoenvironment with marked seasonality. During raining periods, the tanks probably were foraging, breeding and dying sites for the paleoanurofauna of the region. The taphonomic analysis of the material, the morphological study of the tanks and actuopaleontological observations suggest that the anurans died inside these depressions, thus being autochthonous, in contrast to the mammals, which are considered parautochthonous, as they died around the tanks and were transported into their fi nal site of accumulation by debris fl ows. Furthermore, the comparison between the taphonomic attributes of anurans and mammals confi rms the occurrence of temporal- and spatial-mixing in the tank deposits of Joao Cativo.

Anuros (amphibia, anura) do pleistoceno final-holoceno inicial de itapipoca, estado do ceará, brasil: taxonomia, paleoecologia e tafonomia

The Southern Atlantic rainforest is continuously suffering from wood extraction activity, which results in the increase of clearings within the forest. Although the direct impacts of deforestation on landscape are already well described, there is an absence of studies focused on the evaluation of its indirect effects, such as the increase of solar UV radiation levels inside forest environment and its consequences for forest specialist anuran species. The results presented in this work clearly show that the threatened tree frog species Hypsiboas curupi presents severe traits of sensitivity to UV wavelengths of sunlight, making it a vulnerable species to this environmental stressor, as well as a biological indicator of the quality of forest canopy coverage. In addition, the measurement of solar UVB and UVA radiation incidence upon H. curupi breeding site and the analyses of a 20-year dataset of satellite images regarding the management of canopy coverage indicate that the photoprotection provided by trees of the Southern Atlantic rainforest is critical for the conservation of this forest specialist anuran species. Therefore, this work demonstrates that the deforestation process enhances the exposure of H. curupi embryos to solar UVB and UVA radiation, negatively affecting their embryonic development, inducing mortality and population decline.

An UV-sensitive anuran species as an indicator of environmental quality of the Southern Atlantic Rainforest.

This study describes the diet of Rhinella schneideri based on the analysis of the stomach contents of 18 specimens from an area within the Cerrado, Central Brazil. We found 842 items belonging to 11 prey categories, including the plant material category. The most important prey categories for R. schneideri were Insect larvae, Coleopteran and Formicidae. Numerical and volumetric niche breadths of R. schneideri were 3.35 and 1.00, respectively. According to its diverse diet and abundance, R. schneideri may be considered a generalist and opportunist species.

Stephane da Cunha

Papers

Diet of Rhinella schneideri (Werner, 1894) (Anura: Bufonidae) in the Cerrado, Central Brazil.