New distribution records from the Brazilian Cerrado and species distribution modelling of Boana crepitans, Lithobates palmipes, Pipa pipa, and Micrurus h. hemprichii

Abstract

Even though the herpetofauna richness in the Cerrado–a vast tropical savanna ecoregion of Brazil–is one of the highest of all Brazilian biomes, it still needs to be thoroughly investigated. This study reports the first records of the emerald-eyed tree frog (Boana crepitans), amazon waterfrog (Lithobates palmipes), star-fingered frog (Pipa pipa), and hemprich’s coral snake (Micrurus hemprichii hemprichii) within the states of Maranhão in the northeastern region and Tocantins in the northern region of Brazil. The first state records of Boana crepitans, Pipa pipa and Micrurus h. hemprichii in Tocantins, and Lithobates palmipes in Maranhão, appear in highly climatically suitable areas within the Species Extent of Occurrences (EOO), as predicted in Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM). Our new records of Pipa pipa and Micrurus h. hemprichii, compared to the ENM predictions, represent their southeastern distributional range limits. Our results also suggest that the current gaps on the distributional species ranges probably result from the lack of herpetological surveys in those regions.