Acta Herpetologica 12(2): 157-165, 2017 ISSN 1827-9635 (print) © Firenze University Press ISSN 1827-9643 (online) www.fupress.com/ah DOI: 10.13128/Acta_Herpetol-18179 Species composition and richness of anurans in Cerrado urban forests from central Brazil Cláudia Márcia Marily Ferreira1,*, Augusto Cesar de Aquino Ribas2, Franco Leandro de Souza3 1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia e Conservação, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Cidade Universitária, Caixa Postal 549, CEP 79070-900, Campo Grande, MS, Brazil. *Corresponding author. E-mail: clau- diamarily@hotmail.com 2 Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Faculdade de Computação, Caixa Postal 549, CEP 79070-900, Campo Grande, MS, Brazil 3 Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Centro de Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde, Cidade Universitária, Caixa Postal 549, CEP 79070-900, Campo Grande, MS, Brazil Submitted on: 2016, 21st April; revised on: 2017, 15th April; accepted on: 2017, 25th May Editor: Gentile Francesco Ficetola Abstract. Brazil harbors the greatest diversity of amphibians on the planet although there are few studies dealing with urban fauna. The objective of this study is to describe the species composition and richness of anurans in urban Cer- rado fragments from Campo Grande municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul state, central Brazil. The specimens were sam- pled in three stages through pitfall traps and visual/acoustic surveys. Seventeen species were recorded (17.7% of anu- ran species registered in Mato Grosso do Sul), with Leptodactylidae and Hylidae being the most represented families. The existence of a high number of green areas and water bodies in the urban area likely favors anuran species in the region. The anuran communities in urban areas of Campo Grande were dominated by species which use a broad range of habitats. In this study there was the record of a new species of anuran, Proceratophrys dibernardoi, for the state of Mato Grosso do Sul. The forest fragments that had the highest similarity for species composition were those with similar environmental conditions. The knowledge of the fauna that occurs in urban areas is important because natural habitats suffer severe fragmentation and degradation and species present in these areas may disappear in a shorter period of time. Keywords. Anuran, city, urbanization, Cerrado, habitat fragmentation. INTRODUCTION There are approximately 7,600 amphibian species in the world (Frost, 2017), most of them occurring in tropi- cal regions where natural landscapes have been altered by human activities (Ellis and Ramankutty, 2008). Bra- zil has 1,080 amphibian species (Segalla et al., 2016) and at least 209 are recorded for the Cerrado and adjoining biomes (Valdujo et al., 2012). The Cerrado is a biodiver- sity hotspot being currently affected by landscape changes (Soares-Filho et al., 2014) and so conservation strate- gies must be viewed as a priority (Overbeck et al., 2015). Threats to the Cerrado domain and associated biodiver- sity include land conversion for agriculture and pasture as well as urban expansion (Klink and Machado, 2005), which in turn can result in the isolation and reduction of the population size of several species and cause local extinctions. Amphibians are amongst the most endangered ver- tebrate groups in the world (Stuart et al., 2004; Hamer and McDonnell, 2008; Verdade et al., 2010). Some factors that affect amphibian populations are habitat destruction, introduced species, climate change, UV-B radiation, pollu- tion and disease (Young et al., 2001; Verdade et al., 2010). 158 Cláudia Márcia Marily Ferreira et alii Urbanization causes habitat fragmentation, loss, iso- lation and degradation (Hamer and McDonnell, 2008) and associated biotic and abiotic habitat changes (Aron- son et al., 2014), being a process that promotes profound changes in the environment. Many amphibian species are threatened by the expansion of urban areas (Hamer and McDonnell, 2008). In urban habitats the major factors impacting amphibians are changes in natural vegetation and hydrological courses (Hamer and McDonnell, 2008), aquatic and terrestrial pollution (Paul and Meyer, 2001; Croteau et al., 2008), predation by domestic animals (Woods et al., 2003), roadkills (Andrews et al., 2008), and diseases (Croteau et al., 2008). Urban development may change the species composi- tion and decrease the richness and diversity of amphib- ians (Rubbo and Kiesecker, 2005; Hamer and McDonnell, 2008; McKinney, 2008; Hamer and McDonnell, 2010). Many species recorded in the urban environment use multiple types of habitat, being habitat generalists (Ham- er and McDonnell, 2008). However several species with specific habitat requirements, still poorly known to sci- ence or endangered are also recorded in this type of envi- ronment (Grandinetti and Jacobi, 2005; Knispel and Bar- ros, 2009; Ferreira et al., 2010; Silva et al., 2011; Pereira et al., 2013). At least 84% of the population within Brazil resides within urban areas (IBGE, 2015) and the state of Mato Grosso do Sul (central Brazil) has one of the highest urbanization rates in the country (Almeida, 2009). In Mato Grosso do Sul the predominant Cerrado vegetation with its distinct physiognomies such as palm swamps (veredas), gallery forests, wet campos, and closed wood- lands harbors 97 amphibian species (Souza et al., in press). Despite this considerable richness, there are few studies on urban species in this region (Ávila and Fer- reira, 2004). The objectives of this study were to describe Fig. 1. Localization of the 11 urban Cerrado fragments in Campo Grande municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul state, central Brazil. 1. Itanhangá Square (IS); 2. Sóter Ecological Park (SEP); 3. Coqueiral Farm (CF); 4. Anhanduí Ecological Park (AEP); 5. Imbirussu Environmental Educa- tion Center (IEEC); 6. Mato Grosso do Sul Federal University Fish Center (UFMSF); 7. Dom Bosco University (DBU); 8. Mato Grosso do Sul Federal University Cerrado (UFMSC); 9. Military College (MC); 10. Prosa State Park (PSP); 11. Matas do Segredo State Park (MSSP). 159Urban forest anurans in central Brazil the species composition and richness of anurans in urban Cerrado fragments from Campo Grande municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul state, central Brazil. MATERIAL AND METHODS Study site Campo Grande municipality has 840,000 habitants liv- ing in an area of 8,100 km2. The altitude is 532 m a.s.l. and climate is characterized by a dry (April to September) and wet period (October to March). Mean annual rainfall is 1,530 mm and mean annual temperature ranges between 18 and 28.8 oC. Around 21% of the area exhibits native Cerrado vegetation while the remainder is covered by pastures, agricultural fields and developed areas (PLANURB, 2015). The urban perimeter of Campo Grande has an area of 154.4 km2 and a population density of 104 inhabitants/km2. The city has 28 headsprings and 18 green areas (parks and protected areas) covering about 864 hectares (PLANURB, 2015). Eleven urban forest fragments with size ranging from 1.8 to 170.2 ha were selected for this study (Fig. 1): Itanhangá Square (IS; 1.8 ha), Sóter Ecological Park (SEP; 3.4 ha), Coquei- ral Farm (CF; 10 ha), Anhanduí Ecological Park (AEP; 10.8 ha), Imbirussu Environmental Education Center (IEEC; 13.2 ha), Mato Grosso do Sul Federal University Fish Center (UFMSF; 15.4 ha), Dom Bosco University (DBU; 28.8 ha), Mato Grosso do Sul Federal University Cerrado (UFMSC; 35.2 ha), Military College (MC; 48.6 ha), Prosa State Park (PSP; 128 ha), and Matas do Segredo State Park (MSSP; 170.2 ha). There are bodies of water in all forest fragments, except: DBU, UFMSC and MC. Data collection Anurans were sampled in three stages - from Novem- ber 2012 to March 2013, November 2013 to April 2014, and November 2014. Sampling methodology included pitfall traps and visual/acoustic surveys (Heyer et al., 1994). Active sampling was made independent of the pitfall trap sampling. The pitfall traps were used in all periods of the study, while visual/ acous- tic surveys were used during the second and third stage. Each pitfall trap line consisted of four 30 l plastic buckets connected by 50 cm height drift-fences. The number of lines varied from one to two according to fragment size (areas larger than 20 ha had two lines). Pitfall traps were kept opened during four con- secutive days by month in the first stage of the study and seven consecutive days by month from the second and third stage (to increase the sampling effort), and checked every 48 hours. Visual/acoustic surveys were realized at night in one 30 x 30 m quadrat in each fragment. In forest fragments with water bodies, the active sampling was conducted in the wet areas or in their vicinity. In each forest fragment five nights of sampling were conducted, once a month (totaling five months of sam- pling), except in UFMSC and DBU where we made three and four nights of sampling, once a month, respectively. Visual/ acoustic surveys had an average duration of two hours, starting at dusk (18:30 h). Voucher specimens were deposited at the Coleção Zoológi- ca de Referência of the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul (ZUFMS, Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul state). Nomenclature followed Frost (2017). Data analysis To evaluate the sampling effort, we used a species accu- mulation curve based on the samples, often known as Mao Tau estimate (Chiarucci et al., 2008; Colwell et al., 2012). These data were analysed with a presence-absence matrix, with taxa in rows and samples in columns; Mao Tau estimate is suitable when a number of samples are available (Hammer et al., 2001). Each forest fragment was considered a sampling unit and the sufficiency in sampling was considered when the slope of the curve approached zero. To estimate the similarity in anuran species composi- tion among forest fragments sampled we used a cluster analy- sis (UPGMA) based on a similarity matrix constructed with the Sørensen index for the community. For this analysis, only presence and absence data of species on each site were used to be able to concatenate presence of species from the different methods used. It was also used the k-means algorithm to cre- ate several partitions forming a cascade from 2 to 6 groups. Cal- inski criteria (Calinski-Harabasz, 1974) was used to determine the optimum number of groups for the k-means. The groups assigned to each local were then used to determine the indica- tor value (Dufrene and Legendre, 1997) of each species to eval- uate its importance in determining the local group. All analyses were performed with R (R Core Team, 2016), using vegan (Oksanen et al., 2016) and indicspecies (De Caceres and Legendre, 2009) packages. RESULTS Seventeen anuran species from four families were recorded (Table 1). Leptodactylidae was the richest family (11 species), followed by Hylidae (four species) and Bufo- nidae and Odontophrynidae (one species each). Dendrop- sophus nanus, Hypsiboas punctatus, Hypsiboas raniceps and Leptodactylus syphax were sampled exclusively by visual/acoustic search while Leptodactylus cf. elenae and Physalaemus nattereri were sampled only by pitfall traps. Richness among sites ranged from one to 10 (Table 1). Cumulative species curve reached the asymptote with eleven samples (Fig. 2), with an expected total richness of 17. Based on the Calinski criteria two major groups for the sampled locals (Fig. 3) were observed, with the group IS and SEP more similar (75%), followed by PSP and MSSP (67%) and AEP, CF, UFMSF, palm swamps areas, with 57% or more of similarity (Table 2). Hypsiboas punc- tatus and Leptodactylus podicipinus had the higher indi- 160 Cláudia Márcia Marily Ferreira et alii Table 1. Anuran species recorded at 11 Cerrado urban fragments in Campo Grande municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul state, central Brazil. See text for site abbreviation. Species/Family Sites IS SEP CF AEP IEEC UFMSF DBU UFMSC MC PSP MSSP Bufonidae Rhinella schneideri (Werner, 1894) x x x x x x x x Hylidae Dendropsophus nanus (Bounlenger, 1889) x x x x Hypsiboas punctatus (Schneider, 1799) x x x x x Hypsiboas raniceps Cope, 1862 x x Scinax fuscovarius (Lutz, 1925) x x x Leptodactylidae Adenomera diptyx (Boettger, 1885) x x x x x x x x Leptodactylus cf. elenae Heyer, 1978 x Leptodactylus fuscus (Schneider, 1799) x x Leptodactylus labyrinthicus (Spix, 1824) x x x Leptodactylus mystacinus (Burmeister, 1861) x x x x Leptodactylus podicipinus (Cope, 1862) x x x x Leptodactylus syphax Bokermann, 1969 x x x Physalaemus albonotatus (Steindachner, 1864) x x x x Physalaemus centralis Bokermann, 1962 x x Physalaemus cuvieri Fitzinger, 1826 x x x Physalaemus nattereri (Steindachner, 1863) x x x Odontophrynidae Proceratophrys dibernardoi Brandão, Caramaschi, Vaz-Silva and Campos, 2013 x x x Richness 4 4 4 10 7 8 3 1 3 10 8 Fig. 2. Cumulative species curve (solid line) for 11 Cerrado urban fragments in Campo Grande municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul state, central Brazil. Gray space represents 95% confidence intervals. Fig. 3. Similarity cluster analysis (UPGMA) with the Sørensen index for 11 Cerrado urban fragments in Campo Grande munici- pality, Mato Grosso do Sul state, central Brazil. See text for abbre- viations. 161Urban forest anurans in central Brazil cator values for group 1, while no species were distinc- tiveness for group 2 (Table 3). DISCUSSION Seventeen species of anurans were recorded in the urban area of Campo Grande, representing 17.7% of the species reported for Mato Grosso do Sul state. The exist- ence of a high number of green areas and water bodies in the urban environment can favor anuran species in the region. Most species detected in Campo Grande are able to tolerate environments altered by anthropogenic factors. Some of the species observed are endemic to the Cerrado and a new species (P. dibernardoi) was recorded in the state. Forest fragments with similar environmental conditions have similar anuran composition. The predominance of Leptodactylidae and Hylidae species is an expected result because of the large number of species of these families in the Neotropics (Duellman, 1988), also configuring the most specious families in Bra- zil (Segalla et al., 2016). On the other hand, the few spe- cies recorded for Bufonidae and Odontophrynidae in the present study can reflect the low diversity of these taxa in Cerrado areas (Valdujo et al., 2012). Although none of the species recorded in this study Table 2. Similarity values of Sørensen index between 11 Cerrado urban fragments in Campo Grande municipality, Mato Grosso do Sul state, central Brazil. UFMSC CF MC IEEC IS AEP UFMSF PSP MSSP SEP CF 0.40 MC 0.00 0.00 IEEC 0.00 0.36 0.20 IS 0.40 0.50 0.00 0.18 AEP 0.18 0.57 0.00 0.59 0.57 UFMSF 0.22 0.67 0.00 0.67 0.33 0.67 PSP 0.18 0.43 0.46 0.47 0.29 0.50 0.67 MSSP 0.22 0.50 0.36 0.40 0.33 0.56 0.62 0.67 SEP 0.00 0.25 0.00 0.36 0.75 0.57 0.17 0.14 0.17 DBU 0.00 0.00 0.33 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.31 0.18 0.00 Table 3. Group to which each species was classified, followed by the indicator value for the group 1 (CF, IEEC, AEP, UFMSF, PSP and MSSP) and group 2 (UFMSC, MC, IS, SEP and DBU) and the respective significance for use as an indicator species.   Group IV for group 1 IV for group 2 P Adenomera diptyx 1 0.563 0.130 0.224 Dendropsophus nanus 1 0.667 0.000 0.055 Eupemphix nattereri 1 0.208 0.075 1.000 Hypsiboas punctatus 1 0.833 0.000 0.016 Hypsiboas raniceps    1 0.333 0.000 0.452 Leptodactylus cf. elenae 2 0.000 0.200 0.467 Leptodactylus fuscus    1 0.333 0.000 0.460 Leptodactylus labyrinthicus 2 0.049 0.282 0.562 Leptodactylus mystacinus  2 0.152 0.218 1.000 Leptodactylus podicipinus 1 0.833 0.000 0.015 Leptodactylus syphax  2 0.049 0.282 0.529 Physalaemus albonotatus  1 0.667 0.000 0.054 Physalaemus centralis 2 0.076 0.109 1.000 Physalaemus cuvieri  1 0.208 0.075 1.000 Proceratophrys dibernardoi 1 0.208 0.075 1.000 Rhinella schneideri  1 0.714 0.114 0.047 Scinax fuscovarius 1 0.500 0.000 0.175 162 Cláudia Márcia Marily Ferreira et alii was assigned to any threat status category (ICMbio, 2014), some points must be considered. The recently described Proceratophrys dibernardoi (Brandão et al., 2013) represents a new species record for Mato Gros- so do Sul state and was found at least in three sam- pled urban areas. Furthermore, Physalaemus centralis, P. nattereri e P. dibernardoi are typical Cerrado species (Valdujo et al., 2012; Brandão et al., 2013). As a biodiver- sity hotspot (Myers et al., 2000), the Cerrado is suffering from intensive landscape changes resulting from land use (Ratter et al., 1997) which requires ongoing research on management, conservation and urban planning (Soares- Filho et al., 2014; Overbeck et al., 2015). Most (70.6%) of the anuran urban species found in Campo Grande municipality utilize a broad range of habi- tats and are found in anthropogenic environments, such as Dendropsophus nanus (Reichle et al., 2004). Anurans from urban areas are mainly represented by habitat generalist species (Hamer and McDonnell, 2008; Ferreira et al., 2010; Zocca et al., 2014) such as Scinax fuscovarius (Aquino et al., 2010), common species in the urban environment (Ávi- la and Ferreira, 2004; Grandinetti and Jacobi, 2005; Rod- rigues et al., 2008; Torres, 2012; Pereira et al., 2013). Spe- cies that live in urban areas also have high fertility (Hamer and McDonnell, 2010), and reproduce in degraded aquatic environments (Lane and Burgin, 2008). Rhinella schnei- deri, for example, a species present in urban areas of Bra- zil (Ávila and Ferreira, 2004; Shibatta et al., 2009; Corrêa et al., 2014), uses a broad variety of habitats (Aquino et al., 2004), females produce more than 5.000 eggs (Uetanabaro et al., 2008) and individuals of this species were found in forest fragments in Campo Grande whose water bodies are contaminated by sewage and garbage. Despite the predominance of habitat generalists in urban systems, species habitat specialists are also record- ed (Ferreira et al., 2010) and species still little known to science (Santana et al., 2008). New anuran species are being discovered in the urban environment (Santana et al., 2012; Feinberg et al., 2014). This means that cities can harbor a considerable biological community that provides interesting appeal for management and environmental education programs (Feinberg et al., 2014). The species Physalaemus centralis and P. nattereri are more sensi- tive to anthropogenic habitat disturbances (Aquino et al., 2004; Colli et al., 2004) than others species recorded in this study; maybe for this reason there were low numbers recorded in the urban area (Melo et al., 2007; present study). Proceratophrys dibernardoi is a species with few biological data available because it was recently discov- ered (Brandão et al., 2013). The forest fragments with high similarity among species were those that presented similar environmen- tal conditions, such as types of vegetation and levels of anthropogenic impact. Itanhangá Square and SEP have the highest similarity between species. They are smaller fragments and are much modified by human activities. The two green areas are surrounded by built-up areas and suffer great pressure of the surroundings. Matas do Segredo State Park and PSP are the largest fragments present in the urban area of Campo Grande and also the best preserved ones. The MSSP and PSP harbor head- springs and have similar Cerrado physiognomies (Imasul, 2009, 2011). The PSP is surrounded by roads and other human constructions, whereas the MSSP has part of its area facing rural area. The palm swamps of AEP, CF and UFMSF have a small area and suffer great anthropogen- ic surrounding pressures. Anhanduí Ecological Park is a palm swamp in regeneration and the entire fragment is surrounded by roadways and is affected by sporadic fires. Coqueiral Farm is a small privately owned area and harbor Bandeira’s headspring. The site is completely sur- rounded by roads and is impacted with urban develop- ment in its vicinity. Mato Grosso do Sul Federal Universi- ty Fish Center has a lot of garbage and the Cabaça stream is polluted by sewage (SEMADUR, 2015). The fragment is completely surrounded by human constructions. The knowledge of urban biodiversity is important since forest fragments in cities suffer high ecological impacts mainly associated to border effect with direct consequence for forest and litter dwelling species. Long- term and multidisciplinary studies are required to under- stand the dynamic connections between environmental and socioeconomic processes in the cities (Tanner et al., 2014), resulting in important tools for conservation and management programs for urban ecosystems. Preserving green areas inside an urban matrix is important for biodiversity protection (Cornelis and Hermy, 2004). For anurans, urban forest fragments are extremely important sites since they represent areas for shelter, feeding, dispersion and reproduction (Becker et al., 2008; Hamer and MacDonnell, 2008; Sabbag and Zina, 2011). In this way, some actions for conserving anurans in urban areas should include green areas resto- ration and management, including connecting corridors to facilitate the possibility of species dispersal. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank Instituto de Meio Ambiente de Mato Grosso do Sul for authorization to carry out this study in state conservation units; Secretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Urbano for author- izing this study in parks and other green areas of the 163Urban forest anurans in central Brazil city. We thank commanders of the Military College (colonels Gil de Melo Rolim and Ricardo Guilherme Ribeiro de Almeida), Hemerson Pistori and the owner of the Coqueiral Farm by authorizations for the collec- tion respectively at the MC, the DBU and CF. We thank the Diego Santana, Jose Luiz Massao, Liliane Piatti and Vanda Lucia Ferreira for helping us with species iden- tification; Jeffrey Himmelstein for reviewing the Eng- lish. We thank CNPq for project financing, CAPES for the scholarship granted to author Cláudia Márcia Marily Ferreira and ICMBio/ SISBIO by the authoriza- tion (Nº. 10379) to collect and transport the animals. Franco Leandro de Souza receives grant from CNPq (303006/2014-5). REFERENCES Almeida RA. (2009): Aliança terra-capital em Mato Gros- so do Sul., http://www.uff.br/vsinga/trabalhos/CC/ Rosemeire%20A.%20de%20Almeida%20-%20CC.pdf. Andrews, K.M., Gibbons, J.W., Jochimsen, D.M. (2008): Ecological effects of roads on amphibians and rep- tiles: A literature review. In: Urban Herpetology, pp. 121-143. Mitchell, J.C., Brown, R.E.J., Bartholomew, B., Eds, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Rep- tiles, Utah. Aquino, L., Reichle, S., Silvano, D., Scott, N. (2004): Physalaemus nattereri. The IUCN Red List of Threat- ened Species 2004: e.T57267A11597340. Aquino, L., Reichle, S., Colli, G., Scott, N., Lavilla, E., Langone, J. (2004): Rhinella schneideri. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: e.T54755A11200129. Aquino, L., Bastos, R., Reichle, S., Silvano, D., Baldo, D., Langone, J. (2010): Scinax fuscovarius. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2010: e.T55958A11384903. Aronson, M.F.J., La Sorte, F.A., Nilton, C.H., Katti, M., Godardd, M.A., Lepczyc, C.A., Warren, P.S., Williams, N.C.G., Cillies, S., Clarkson, B., Dobbs, C., Dolan, R., Hedblon, M., Klotz, S., Kooijmans, J.L., Kühn, I., Mcgragor-Fors, I., McDonnell, M., Mörtberg, U., Pysek, P., Siebert, S., Sushinsky, J., Werner, P., Winter, M. (2014): A global analysis of the impacts of urbani- zation on bird and plant diversity reveals key anthro- pogenic drivers. Proc. R. Soc. B 281: 1-8. Ávila, R.W., Ferreira, V.L. (2004): Riqueza e densidade de vocalizações de anuros (Amphibia) em uma área urbana de Corumbá, Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil. Rev. Bras. Zool. 21: 887-892. Becker, C.G., Fonseca, C.R., Haddad, C.F.B., Batista, R.F., Prado, P.I. (2008): Habitat split and the global decline of Amphibians. Science 318: 1775-1777. Brandão, R.A., Caramaschi, U., Vaz-Silva, W., Campos, L.A. (2013): Three new species of Proceratophrys Miranda-Ribeiro 1920 from Brazilian Cerrado (Anu- ra, Odontophrynidae). Zootaxa 3750: 321-347. Calinski, T., Harabasz, J. (1974): A dendrite method for cluster analysis. Commun. Stat. 3: 1-27. Chiarucci, A., Bacaro, G., Rocchini, D., Fattorini, L. (2008): Discovering and rediscovering the sample- based rarefaction formula in the ecological literature. Commun. Ecol. 9: 121-123. Colli, G., Reichle, S., Aquino, L., Scott, N., Débora Silva- no, D. (2004): Physalaemus centralis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2004: e.T57245A11608198. Colwell, R.K., Chao, A., Gotelli, N.J., Lin, S.Y., Mao, C.X., Chazdon, R.L., Longino, J.T. (2012): Models and esti- mators linking individual-based and sample-based rarefaction, extrapolation and comparison of assem- blages. J. Plant Ecol. 5: 3-21 Cornelis, J., Hermy, M. (2004): Biodiversity relationships in urban and suburban parks in Flanders. Landscape Urban Plan. 69: 385-401. Corrêa, L.L.C., Silva, D.E., Pazinato, D.M.M., Fraga, V.S., Oliveira, S.V. (2014): Levantamento preliminar herpeto- faunístico no Parque Ambiental Galeno Santos Mota, São Sepé, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Reget 18: 92-98. Croteau, M.C., Hogan, N., Gibson, J.C., Lean, D., Trudeau, V.L. (2008): Toxicological threats to amphib- ians and reptiles in urban environments. In: Urban Herpetology, pp. 197-209. Mitchell, J.C., Brown, R.E.J., Bartholomew, B., Eds, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Utah. De Cáceres, M., Legendre, P. (2009): Associations between species and groups of sites: indices and sta- tistical inference. Ecology 90: 3566-3574. Duellman, W.E. (1988): Patterns of species diversity in Anuran Amphibian in the American tropics. Ann. Mo. Bot. Gard. 75: 79-104. Dufrene, M., Legendre, P. (1997): Species assemblages and indicator species: the need for a flexible asym- metrical approach. Ecol. Monogr. 67: 345-366. Ellis, E.C., Ramankutty, N. (2008): Putting people in the map: anthropogenic biomes of the world. Front. Ecol. Environ. 6: 439-447. Feinberg, J.A., Newman, C.E., Watkins-Colwell, G.J., Schlesinger, M.D., Zarete, B., Curry, B.R., Shaffer, H.B., Burger, J. (2014): Cryptic diversity in metropo- lis: confirmation of a new Leopard Frog species (Anu- ra: Ranidae) from New York City and surrounding Atlantic Coast regions. Plos One 9: 1-15. Ferreira, R.B., Silva-Soares, T., Rödder, D. (2010): Amphibians of Vitória, an urban area in south-eastern Brazil: first approximation. Salamandra 46: 187-196. 164 Cláudia Márcia Marily Ferreira et alii Frost, D.R. (2017): Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. Electronic Database. http://research.amnh.org/vz/herpetology/amphibia/ index.php. Grandinetti, L., Jacobi, C.M. (2005): Distribuição esta- cional e espacial de uma taxocenose de anuros (Amphibia) em uma área antropizada em Rio Acima – MG. Lundiana 6: 21-28. Hammer, Ø., Harper, D.A.T., RYAN, P.D. (2001). PAST: Paleontological Statistics Software Package for Edu- cation and Data Analysis. Palaeontol. Electron., 4. http://palaeo-electronica.org/2001_1/past/issue1_01. htm. Hamer, A.J., McDonnell, M.J. (2008): Amphibian ecology and conservation in the urbanising world: a review. Biol. Conserv. 141: 2432-2449. Hamer, A.J., Mcdonnell, M.J. (2010): The response of herpetofauna to urbanization: Inferring patterns of persistence from wildlife databases. Austral Ecol. 35: 568-580. Heyer, W.R., Donnelly, M.A., Mcdiarmid, R.W., Hayek, L.A.C., Foster, M.S. (1994): Measuring and moni- toring biological diversity: Standard Methods for Amphibians. Smithsonian lnstitution Press, Washing- ton and London. IBGE - Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. (2015): Taxa de urbanização Brasil: período 1940- 2010. http://seriesestatisticas.ibge.gov.br/series.aspx?n o=1&op=1&vcodigo=POP122&t=taxa-urbanizacao. ICMbio - Instituto Chico Mendes de Conservação da Biodiversidade. (2014): Espécies ameaçadas. Lista 2014. http://www.icmbio.gov.br/portal/biodiversidade/ fauna-brasileira/lista-de-especies.html Imasul - Instituto de Meio Ambiente de Mato Grosso do Sul (2009): Parque Estadual Matas do Segredo, Cam- po Grande, MS. Plano de Manejo. http://www.servi- cos.ms.gov.br/imasuldownloads/PlanosdeManejo/pla- nomanejoPEMS.pdf Imasul - Instituto de Meio Ambiente de Mato Grosso do Sul (2011): Parque Estadual do Prosa, Campo Grande, MS. Plano de Manejo. http://www.servicos.ms.gov.br/ imasuldownloads/PlanosdeManejo/planomanejoPEP. pdf Klink, C.A., Machado, R.B. (2005): A conservação do Cerrado brasileiro. Megadiversidade 1: 147-155. Knispel, S.R., Barros, F.B. (2009): Anfíbios anuros da região urbana de Altamira (Amazônia Oriental), Pará, Brasil. Biotemas 22: 191-194. Lane, A., Burgin, S. (2008): Comparison of frog assem- blages between urban and non-urban habitats in the upper Blue Mountains of Australia. Freshwater Biol. 53: 2484-2493. Mckinney, M.L. (2008): Effects of urbanization on species richness: A review of plants and animals. Urban Eco- syst. 11: 161-176. Melo, G.V., Rossa-Feres, D.C., Jim, J. (2007): Variação temporal no sítio de vocalização em uma comunidade de anuros de Botucatu, Estado de São Paulo, Brasil. Biota Neotrop. 7: 93-102. Myers, N., Mittermeier, R.A., Mittermeier, C.G., Fonseca, G.A.B., Kent, J. (2000): Biodiversity hotspots for con- servation priorities. Nature 403: 853-858. Oksanen, J., Blanchet, F.G., Friendly, M., Kindt, R., Leg- endre, P., McGlinn, D., Minchin, P.R., O’Hara, R.B., Simpson, G.L., Solymos, P., Henry, M., Stevens, H., Szoecs, H., Wagner, H. (2016): vegan: Community Ecology Package. R package version 2.3-5. https:// CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan. Overbeck, G.E., Vélez-Martin, E., Scarano, F.R., Lewin- sohn, T.M., Fonseca, C.R., Meyer, S.T., Müller, S.C., Ceotto, P., Dadalt, L., Durigan, G., Ganade, G., Goss- ner, M.M., Guadagnin, D.L., Lorenzen, K., Jacobi, C.M., Weisser, W.W. Pillar, V.D. (2015): Conserva- tion in Brazil needs to include non-forest ecosystems. Divers. Distrib. 21: 1455-1460. Paul, M.J, Meyer, J.L. (2001): Streams in the urban land- scape. Annu. Rev. Ecol. Syst. 32: 333-365. Pereira, A.P. Jr., Campos, C.E.C., Araújo, A.S. (2013): Composição e diversidade de anfíbios anuros do campus da Universidade Federal do Amapá. Biota Amazônia 3: 13-21. PLANURB - Instituto Municipal de Planejamento Urbano (2015): Perfil Socioeconômico Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. http://www.capital.ms.gov.br/sisgran/#/. Ratter, J.A., Ribeiro, J.F., Bridgewater, S. (1997): The Bra- zilian Cerrado vegetation and threats to its biodiver- sity. Ann. Bot.-London 80: 223-230. R Core Team (2016): R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Com- puting, Vienna, Austria. https://www.R-project.org/. Reichle, S., Aquino, L., Colli, G., Silvano, D., Azevedo- Ramos, C., Bastos, R. (2004): Dendropsophus nanus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2004: e.T55575A11320376. Rodrigues, R.G., Machado, I.F., Christoff, A.U. (2008): Anurofauna em área antropizada no campus Ulbra, Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil. Biodivers. Pam- peana 6: 39-43. Rubbo, M.J., Kiesecker, J.M. (2005): Amphibian breeding distribution in an urbanized landscape. Conserv. Biol. 19: 504-511. Sabbag, A.F., Zina, J. (2011): Anurofauna de uma mata ciliar no município de São Carlos, estado de São Pau- lo, Brasil. Biota Neotrop. 11: 179-188. 165Urban forest anurans in central Brazil Santana, G.G., Vieira, W.L.S., Pereira-Filho, G.A., Delfim, F.R., Lima, Y.C.C., Vieira, K.S. (2008): Herpetofauna em um fragmento de Floresta Atlântica no Estado da Paraíba, Região Nordeste do Brasil. Biotemas 21: 75-84. Santana, D.J., Fonseca, E.M., Neves, M.O., Carvalho, R.M.H. (2012): A new species of Adelophryne (Anura: Eleutherodactylidae) from the Atlantic Forest, south- eastern Brazil. Salamandra 48: 187-192. Segalla, M.V., Caramaschi, U., Cruz, C.A.G., Grant, T., Haddad, C.F.B., Garcia, P.C.A., Berneck, B.V.M., Lan- gone, J.A. (2016): Brazilian Amphibians: List of Spe- cies. Herpetologia Brasileira 5: 34-46. SEMADUR - Secretaria Municipal de Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Urbano. (2015): Bandeira. http://www. pmcg.ms.gov.br/semadur/canaisTexto?id_can=6391. Shibatta, A.O., Galves, W., Carmo, W.P.D., Lima, I.P., Lopes, E.V., Machado, R.A. (2009): A fauna de verte- brados do campus da Universidade Estadual de Lon- drina, região norte do estado do Paraná, Brasil. Semi- na: Ciências Biológicas e da Saúde 30: 3-26. Silva, E.P., Mendes-Pintos, T.J., Claro, L.H. Jr., Sales, M.E.P. (2011): Riqueza de espécies de anfíbios anuros em um fragmento florestal na área urbana de Manaus, Amazonas, Brasil. Biofar 5: 131-144. Soares-Filho, B., Rajão, R., Macedo, M., Carneiro, A., Costa, W., Coe, M., Rodrigues, H., Alencar, A. (2014): Cracking Brazilian’s forest code. Science 344: 363-364. Souza, F.L., Prado, C.P.A., Sugai, J.L.M.M., Ferreira, V.L., Aoki, C., Landgref-Filho, P., Strüssmann, C., Ávila, R.W., Rodrigues, D.J., Albuquerque, N.R., Terra, J., Uetanabaro, M., Béda, A.F., Piatti, L., Kawashita- Ribeiro, R.A., Delatorre, M., Faggioni, G.P., Stephani, D.B., Demczuk, S.D.B., Duleba, S. (in press): Diversi- dade de Anfíbios do Estado de Mato Grosso do Sul, Brasil Amphibian diversity of Mato Grosso do Sul State, Brazil. Iheringia Ser. Zool. Stuart, S.N., Chanson, J.S., Cox, N.A., Young, B.E., Rodri- gues, A.S.L., Fischman, D.L., Waller, R.W. (2004). Sta- tus and trends of amphibian declines and extinctions worldwide. Science 306: 1783-1786. Tanner, C.J., Adler, F.R., Grimm, N.B., Groffman, P.M., Levin, S.A., Munshi-South, J., Pataki, D.E., Pavao- Zuckerman, M., Wilson, W.G. (2014): Urban ecology: advancing science and society. Front. Ecol. Environ. 12: 574-581. Torres, P.F. (2012): Uso de ambientes por anfíbios anuros em seis parques urbanos de Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Unpublished master thesis. Universidade Fed- eral de Minas Gerais. Uetanabaro, M., Prado, C.P.A., Rodrigues, D.J., Gordo, M., Campos, Z. (2008): Guia de Campo dos Anuros do Pantanal Sul e Planaltos de Entorno. Editora UFMS, Campo Grande, MS; Editora UFMT, Cuiabá, MT. Valdujo, P.H., Silvano, D.L., Colli, G., Matins, M. (2012): Anuran species composition and distribution patterns in Brazilian Cerrado, a Neotropical hotspot. South Am. J. Herpetol. 7: 63-78. Verdade, V.K., Dixo, M., Curcio, F.F. (2010): Os riscos de extinção de sapos, rãs e pererecas em decorrência das alterações ambientais. Estudos Avançados 24: 161- 172. Woods, M., Mcdonald, R.A., Harris, S. (2003): Predation of wildlife by domestic cats Felis catus in Great Brit- ain. Mammal Rev. 33: 174-188. Young, B.E., Lips, K.R., Reaser, J.K., Ibáñez, R., Salas, A.W., Cedeño, J.R., Coloma, L.A., Ron, S., La Marca, E., Meyer, J.R., Muñoz, A., Bolaños, F., Gerardo, C., Romo, D. (2001): Population declines and priorities for amphibian conservation in Latin America. Con- serv. Biol. 15: 1213-1223. Zocca, C., Tonini, J.F.R., Ferreira, R.B. (2014): Uso do espaço por anuros em ambiente urbano de Santa Teresa, Espírito Santo. Bol. Mus. de Biol. Mello Leitão (N. Sér.) 35: 105-117. Acta Herpetologica Vol. 12, n. 2 - December 2017 Firenze University Press Meristic and morphometric characters of Leptopelis natalensis tadpoles (Amphibia: Anura: Arthroleptidae) from Entumeni Forest reveal variation and inconsistencies with previous descriptions Susan Schweiger1, James Harvey2, Theresa S. Otremba1, Janina Weber1, Hendrik Müller1,* Brown anole (Anolis sagrei) adhesive forces remain unaffected by partial claw clipping Austin M. Garner*, Stephanie M. Lopez, Peter H. Niewiarowski Species and sex comparisons of karyotype and genome size in two Kurixalus tree frogs (Anura, Rhacophoridae) Shun-Ping Chang1,2, Gwo-Chin Ma2,3,4, Ming Chen2,5,6,7,8,*, Sheng-Hai Wu1,* Non-native turtles in a peri-urban park in northern Milan (Lombardy, Italy): species diversity and population structure Claudio Foglini1, Roberta Salvi2,* Species composition and richness of anurans in Cerrado urban forests from central Brazil Cláudia Márcia Marily Ferreira1,*, Augusto Cesar de Aquino Ribas2, Franco Leandro de Souza3 The life-history traits in a breeding population of Darevskia valentini from Turkey Muammer Kurnaz, Alı İhsan Eroğlu, Ufuk Bülbül*, Halıme Koç, Bılal Kutrup Influence of desiccation threat on the metamorphic traits of the Asian common toad, Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Anura) Santosh Mogali*, Srinivas Saidapur, Bhagyashri Shanbhag Predation of common wall lizards: experiences from a study using scentless plasticine lizards Jenő J. Purger*, Zsófia Lanszki, Dávid Szép, Renáta Bocz Reproductive timing and fecundity in the Neotropical lizard Enyalius perditus (Squamata: Leiosauridae) Serena Najara Migliore1,2,*, Henrique Bartolomeu Braz2,3, André Felipe Barreto-Lima4, Selma Maria Almeida-Santos1,2 Observations on the intraspecific variation in tadpole morphology in natural ponds Eudald Pujol-Buxó1,2,*, Albert Montori1, Roser Campeny3 and Gustavo A. Llorente1,2 Reliable proxies for glandular secretion production in lacertid lizards Simon Baeckens Diet of juveniles of the venomous frog Aparasphenodon brunoi (Amphibia: Hylidae) in southeastern Brazil Rogério L. Teixeira1, Ricardo Lourenço-de-Moraes2, Débora C. Medeiros3, Charles Duca3, Rogério C. Britto4, Luiz C. P. Bissoli5, Rodrigo B. Ferreira3,* Who are you? The genetic identity of some insular populations of Hierophis viridiflavus s.l. from the Tyrrhenian Sea Ignazio Avella, Riccardo Castiglia, Gabriele Senczuk*