Predation on amphibians by spiders (Arachnida, Araneae) in the Neotropical region. Herein, we report observations about spider predation on anurans (adults and juveniles) in Central Amazonia and a literature review of spiders preying on amphibians in the Neotropical zoogeographic realm. We conducted field observations in Reserva Florestal Adolpho Ducke, Manaus, AM, and observed eight predation events on Bufonidae, Dendrobatidae, Hylidae, and Leptodactylidae frogs. The predators belong to the spider families Ctenidae, Pisauridae and Theraphosidae. Besides the families of spiders found in this study, two others-Lycosidae and Sparissidae-were found in literature. Frogs from families Centrolenidae and Microhylidae, and a caecilian (Gymnophiona, Caeciliidae) were found in literature also. There is a significant correlation between the length of the anuran (snout-vent length) and the length of spiders (cephalotorax and abdomen length). The size of the spider is similar or slightly lesser than the anuran prey. In general, the spiders preyed on adult and juvenile frogs in the breeding season. Spiders are opportunistic predators and prey on small frogs. Theraphosidae prey upon sub adults of large anurans and caecilians. As spiders can reach high densities on the forest floor-especially species of the genera Ctenus and Ancylometes-this interaction may be ecologically important for breeding anurans. Our reports and literature data provide evidence that spiders commonly prey on amphibians in Neotropic, but the impact of predation on populations of amphibians is unknown.

Amazonian forests are extraordinarily diverse, but the estimated species richness is very much debated. Here, we apply an ensemble of parametric estimators and a novel technique that includes conspecific spatial aggregation to an extended database of forest plots with up-to-date taxonomy. We show that the species abundance distribution of Amazonia is best approximated by a logseries with aggregated individuals, where aggregation increases with rarity. By averaging several methods to estimate total richness, we confirm that over 15,000 tree species are expected to occur in Amazonia. We also show that using ten times the number of plots would result in an increase to just ~50% of those 15,000 estimated species. To get a more complete sample of all tree species, rigorous field campaigns may be needed but the number of trees in Amazonia will remain an estimate for years to come.

Tropical forests are known for their high diversity. Yet, forest patches do occur in the tropics where a single tree species is dominant. Such “monodominant” forests are known from all of the main tropical regions. For Amazonia, we sampled the occurrence of monodominance in a massive, basin-wide database of forest-inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network (ATDN). Utilizing a simple defining metric of at least half of the trees ≥ 10 cm diameter belonging to one species, we found only a few occurrences of monodominance in Amazonia, and the phenomenon was not significantly linked to previously hypothesized life history traits such wood density, seed mass, ectomycorrhizal associations, or Rhizobium nodulation. In our analysis, coppicing (the formation of sprouts at the base of the tree or on roots) was the only trait significantly linked to monodominance. While at specific locales coppicing or ectomycorrhizal associations may confer a considerable advantage to a tree species and lead to its monodominance, very few species have these traits. Mining of the ATDN dataset suggests that monodominance is quite rare in Amazonia, and may be linked primarily to edaphic factors.

The venom of amphibians is a fascinating source of active substances. In view of their medical importance and aiming to explore the amazing Brazilian biodiversity, we conducted bioprospecting of antiproliferative activity in extracts of Rhinella marina and Rhaebo guttatus toads occurring in the Southern Amazon of Mato Grosso, Brazil. LC-MS and HPLC analysis of the venom extracts of R. marina revealed four bufadienolides (telocinobufagin, marinobufagin, bufalin and resibufogenin. R. guttatus venom extracts contained only marinobufagin. First, R. marina and R. guttatus venom extracts were evaluated for cytotoxicity against tumor cell lines by the MTT assay. All extracts revealed cytotoxicity, where R. marina extracts were comparable to doxorubicin (IC₅₀ values ranging from 0.01 to 0.23 μg/mL). Only extracts of R. guttatus toad venom caused membrane disruption of human erythrocytes. The extracts were investigated for selective activity by determining their effect on stimulated human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) with the Alamar Blue™ assay. The extracts were up to 80-fold more selective against leukemia cells when compared to dividing leukocytes. Aiming to confirm these antiproliferative effects, BrdU incorporation into DNA was measured in HL-60 treated cells with R. marina venom extracts. These extracts decreased BrdU incorporation at both concentrations tested. In summary, nine extracts of R. marina and R. guttatus venom showed pronounced lethal and discriminating effects on tumor lines, especially those from R. marina, highlighting toad parotoid gland secretions as a promising source for novel lead anticancer chemicals.

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