Turkish Journal of Zoology Turk J Zool (2018) 42: 732-738 http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/zoology/ © TÜBİTAK Short Communication doi:10.3906/zoo-1803-26 Modeling the potential geographic distribution of the poorly known Neotropical lizard Anotosaura vanzolinia Dixon, 1974 (Squamata, Gymnophthalmidae) in Northeast Brazil 1, 2 1 Leonardo Barros RIBEIRO *, Samuel Campos GOMIDES , Jéssica Viviane Amorim FERREIRA , 3 Arnaldo José Correia MAGALHÃES JÚNIOR 1 Center for Conservation and Management of Caatinga Fauna (CEMAFAUNA-CAATINGA), Federal University of San Francisco Valley (UNIVASF), Petrolina, Pernambuco, Brazil 2 Herpetology Laboratory, Federal University of Western Pará (UFOPA), Campus Oriximiná, Oriximiná, Pará, Brazil 3 Collegiate of Nature Sciences, Federal University of San Francisco Valley (UNIVASF), São Raimundo Nonato, Piauí, Brazil Received: 14.03.2018 Accepted/Published Online: 11.10.2018 Final Version: 12.11.2018 Abstract: During faunal rescue activities for the construction of a wind farm in the Northeast Region of Brazil, a single specimen of the gymnophthalmid lizard Anotosaura vanzolinia was captured, which represents the first record of the species for the state of Piauí. We used this record, along with records found in the literature, to model the potential distribution of the species according to environmental suitability using the maximum entropy algorithm MaxEnt. The occurrence records of A. vanzolinia, as well as the model of its potential geographical distribution, revealed that it is more broadly distributed than previously considered. Anotosaura vanzolinia has a disjoint and relictual geographic distribution pattern due to its association with remnant forest environments within the Caatinga Domain. The variables that contributed the most to the model of its ecological niche were annual precipitation (48.9%), soil type (17.5%), and mean diurnal range (10.5%). The species remains endemic to the forest enclaves within the Caatinga Domain. Key words: Caatinga, ecological niche modeling, Ecpleopodini, gymnophthalmid, maximum entropy algorithm, suitable environmental areas, tropical dry forest The gymnophthalmid genus Anotosaura currently The use of techniques for modeling suitable areas for comprises two named species: Anotosaura collaris the occurrence of species is especially valuable for species Amaral, 1933 and Anotosaura vanzolinia Dixon, 1974. with scarce data about their distribution, which are poorly Anotosaura vanzolinia (Figure 1) was described as A. sampled and/or have cryptic habits (Pearson et al., 2007). collaris vanzolinia by Dixon (1974) based on specimens The lack of geographic distribution information hampers from the municipality of Agrestina, in the Agreste region efforts to understand the biogeography of species. Although of the state of Pernambuco, Brazil. Two years later, new data focusing on the richness and composition of Vanzolini (1976a) elevated A. c. vanzolinia to specific rank. the squamate fauna of the semiarid region of Brazil are It is an insectivorous species that feeds mainly on ants constantly being added to the literature (e.g., Guedes et and termites, as well as other arthropods of the edaphic al., 2014), there remains a lack of information about the microfauna (Oliveira and Pessanha, 2013). It has a cryptic distribution of some rare species. Herein we expand the and semifossorial habit, and it inhabits microhabitats known geographic distribution of A. vanzolinia to include with warmer temperatures, abundant leaf litter, and no the state of Piauí and attempt to clarify its distribution incidence of direct sunlight (Delfim and Freire, 2007; pattern using this new occurrence record and ecological Freire et al., 2009). The species has a disjunct and relictual niche modeling of its potential distribution. distribution within the Caatinga Domain, where it is On 28 October 2016, a single specimen of A. vanzolinia found only in mesic areas (Rodrigues, 1986, 2003). The was obtained during faunal rescue for the installation of a geographical distribution of the species has been based wind farm in the municipality of Curral Novo do Piauí in on 12 different locations reported in the literature for the the semiarid region of the state of Piauí, Brazil. Although states of Bahia, Alagoas, Pernambuco, Paraíba, and Rio none of the authors participated of the fieldwork, the Grande do Norte (Delfim and Freire, 2007; Freire et al., specimen was collected (MFCH 4399, Figure 1) and is 2009; Gonçalves et al., 2012; Garda et al., 2013). housed in the Herpetological Collection of the Museu de * Correspondence: [email protected] 732 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. RIBEIRO et al. / Turk J Zool Figure 1. Specimens of Anotosaura vanzolinia. Total view (A) and close-up of the head (B) of the specimen (43 mm SVL, CHBEZ 2925) collected in Tenente Laurentino Cruz, state of Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. (C) Specimen (ca. 52 mm SVL, MFCH 4399) from the new geographic record in Piauí State, Brazil. Photos A) and B) by Marcelo Kokubum; C) by Leonardo Ribeiro. Fauna da Caatinga, located at the Centro de Conservação by ecological niche modeling using the maximum e Manejo de Fauna da Caatinga (CEMAFAUNA), entropy algorithm MaxEnt (Phillips et al., 2006; Costa et Universidade Federal do Vale do São Francisco - UNIVASF al., 2010; Giovanelli et al., 2010). The MaxEnt algorithm (Federal University of San Francisco Valley), municipality has demonstrated good predictive performance with of Petrolina, state of Pernambuco, Brazil. few occurrence records or presence-only datasets (Elith The collection site is influenced by Chapada do et al., 2010). Nineteen bioclimatic variables obtained Araripe and is located within APA Araripe-Apodi from the WorldClim database (BIO1–BIO19) (Worldclim. (Araripe-Apodi Environmental Protection Area), which org; Fick and Hijmans, 2017), plus six other variables includes the Araripe basin. The area possesses a mosaic [1 - percentage of tree cover (Hansen et al., 2003); 2 - of phytophysiognomies including “carrasco” (closed, tall- vegetation type (Veloso et al., 1991); 3 - drainage network shrubby, xerophilous vegetation on quartz sand soils), density (https://hydrosheds.cr.usgs.gov/webappcontent/ savannah enclaves, and typical Caatinga vegetation, with HydroSHEDS_TechDoc_v10.pdf); 4 - elevation (http:// extensive and secondary forests (Ribeiro et al., 2009). srtm.csi.cgiar.org); 5 - slope (http://srtm.csi.cgiar.org); and The region ranges in altitude from 800 to 900 m a.s.l. 6 - soil type (EMBRAPA, 1999)] were used to design the and is located in the northwest portion of the Depressão ecological niche model. We chose the six most explanatory Sertaneja Meridional, in the southeast portion of state of variables after removing those with high correlations (r > Piauí. 0.8) to minimize multicollinearity among layers (Sales et We estimated the potential distribution of A. vanzolinia al., 2015). The analysis was performed using Past statistical based on areas with suitable environments for the species software. The variables chosen were: 1 - BIO1 annual 733 RIBEIRO et al. / Turk J Zool mean temperature; 2 - BIO2 mean diurnal range [mean 3505 ha) and Estação Ecológica Raso da Catarina (Bahia of monthly (max temp–min temp)]; 3 - BIO12 annual State, 99,772 ha). precipitation; 4 - BIO16 precipitation of wettest quarter; 5 The potential distribution revealed areas with suitable - BIO18 precipitation of warmest quarter; and 6 - soil type. environmental conditions for the occurrence of A. All variables were used as generic grids with a resolution vanzolinia in the states of Bahia, Sergipe, Pernambuco, of 30 arc-seconds (~1 km) and limited to Northeast Brazil. Ceará, and Piauí, although specimens have yet to be The following settings were chosen for MaxEnt (version collected in Sergipe and Ceará. The ecological niche model 3.3.3k): maximum number of background points = 10,000; showed to be reliable in its predictions (AUC = 0.981 ± maximum number of iterations = 500; regularization 0.018) with a low rate of omission errors (5%). The potential multiplier = 1; and no threshold (Phillips et al., 2006). The distribution (i.e. areas with suitable environments for calibration area was restricted to the Brazilian territory occurrence) of A. vanzolinia (Figure 2) was estimated to be with 25% of the points being used as random background 22,500 km2. The variables that contributed the most to the sampling to create replicas of the models in which, for each ecological niche model were annual precipitation (48.9%), replicate, the occurrence dataset was randomly divided soil type (17.5%), and mean diurnal range (10.5%). The with 75% of the replicates used to fit the models and ecological niche model corroborates the previously 25% used for evaluation (Elith et al., 2011). We evaluated recognized disjoint and relictual geographic distribution the ecological niche model with pattern discrimination pattern for A. vanzolinia. statistics [area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating Vanzolini and Ramos (1977) proposed that microteiid characteristic (ROC) curve and omission error (OE)]. The lizards that are associated with sites with more mesic AUC provides a single measurement of the performance conditions, such as A. vanzolinia and Acratosaura of the model, regardless of the choice of any prior decision mentalis (Amaral, 1933), have their distributions limit (Phillips et al., 2006; Pearson et al., 2007). The closer limited by the arid environmental