Diversity of harvestmen (Arachnida, Opiliones) in Parque daABSTRACT. The environment most diverse in harvestmen species is the Atlantic Forest of São Paulo. However, there remains a lack of studies regarding their communities in certain regions. Among these regions is one south of the Paranapiacaba mountain range in the state of São Paulo, the Parque da Onça Parda (POP). Through nocturnal collections and pitfall traps, the region's harvestmen community has been studied. The observed richness of this site included 27 species, with dominance of three species: Holcobunus nigripalpis Roewer, 1910, Neosadocus maximus (Giltay, 1928 and Munequita sp., accounting for 68.4% of harvestmen abundance. This makes the diversity of POP more similar to the semideciduous Atlantic Forest communities of the interior than to those of the Coastal Atlantic Forest that contains the park. Its geographic location places it within the Southern São Paulo State (SSP) area of endemism, along with the Parque Turístico do Alto Ribeira (PETAR), with which it shares up to 12% similarity regarding harvestmen fauna. Richness and abundance of harvestmen were positively related to temperature and humidity. The period of animal activity (as measured by abundance and richness) varied throughout the night, being highest in the early hours during both studied seasons (summer and winter). KEYWORDS. Daddy longlegs, Alpha diversity, Atlantic Rain Forest.RESUMO. O ambiente mais diverso em opiliões é a Mata Atlântica paulista, no entanto ainda há carência de estudos sobre suas comunidades em determinadas regiões; uma delas é o sul da Serra do Paranapiacaba no estado de São Paulo, onde está o Parque da Onça Parda (POP). Através de coleta noturna e montagem de armadilhas de queda, estudou-se a comunidade de opiliões da região. A riqueza do parque é de 27 espécies, porém a dominância de três espécies (Holcobunus nigripalpis Roewer, 1910; Neosadocus maximus (Giltay, 1928) e Munequita sp., que perfazem 68,4% da abundância total de opiliões), torna a diversidade do POP mais semelhante com a região de Mata Atlântica Semidecídua do interior do que com as da Mata Atlântica Costeira, onde o parque está inserido. Sua localização geográfica o coloca dentro da área de endemismo do Sul de São Paulo (SSP), juntamente com o Parque Turístico do Alto Ribeira (PETAR) e Intervales, com quem possui uma semelhança na fauna de opiliões de 12%. Os opiliões responderam aos parâmetros ambientais, com abundância e riqueza positivamente relacionadas à umidade e temperatura. Por fim, o período de atividade desses animais (medida pela distribuição da abundância e da riqueza) parece ser bastante distinto ao longo da noite, sendo maiores nas primeiras horas, nas duas épocas do ano (verão e inverno).

The subterranean environment has a set of unique characteristics, including low thermic variation, high relative humidity, areas with total absence of light and high dependence on nutrient input from the epigean environment. Such characteristics promote distinct ecological conditions that support the existence of unique communities. In this work, we studied seven caves in the Presidente Olegário municipality, Minas Gerais state, Southeast Brazil, to determine their richness of predatory species, to understand how they are spatially distributed in the cave and whether their distribution is influenced by competition and/or predation. We carried out five surveys of the caves, with each cave divided into sampling plots. We collected fauna within the plots using a manual search method. The collected animals were fixed in 70% ethanol for later identification. We performed a canonical correspondence analysis to verify the spatial distribution and substrate preference of each species, and selected five species for agonistic interaction testing in the laboratory. We found a great richness of predators in the caves, with 79 species distributed among 22 families of spiders, five families of pseudoscorpions, three families of chilopods, two families of opilionids and one family each of scorpions and heteroptera. Spiders were the most species diverse and abundant of all arthropods we found in the caves. We recorded evidence of competition among some pairs of species but, in general, the spatial distribution of the predatory community in the interior of the caves seems to be unrelated to interspecies competition. The laboratory pairings support our field observations that most species merely share space, rather than exhibiting aggressive or predatory behaviour.

Studies focusing cave fauna on granitic caves are relatively rare when compared to carbonatic ones and no one considered replicas in the sampling to test fauna distribution patterns. We describe the terrestrial fauna of Riacho Subterrâneo cave through four sampling occasions (replicas) in different seasons. We analyzed seasonality and substrate preference of terrestrial invertebrates and discussed the importance of this neglected habitat as a refuge for fauna. Furthermore, we stressed the importance of the replicas in order to detect subterranean biodiversity patterns. The cave represents the greatest richness considering igneous rocks in Brazil (199 taxa) and has an important role as refuge for epigean fauna, besides the maintenance of troglophilic and trogloxene populations.

Abstract:The harvestmen fauna of the Floresta Nacional de Ipanema (FLONA Ipanema) and Parque Estadual Carlos Botelho (PE Carlos Botelho) were inventoried using nocturnal manual collection and sifting of litter. Fourteen species were recorded from the FLONA Ipanema, a richness and diversity higher than those previously reported for other localities in Atlantic Semi-deciduous Forest. The PE Carlos Botelho, with 38 recorded species, is the third richest site for harvestmen in the state of São Paulo. The estimates of species richness place the FLONA Ipanema with a richness of locations near the Coastal Atlantic Rain Forest. A similarity analysis showed that the areas possess only a few species in common, indicated by the very low of similarities indexes, showing the high level of endemism of harvestmen species. The similarities in harvestmen composition were related to the distance between the areas. PE Carlos Botelho showed high similarity with the Parque da Onça Parda (only 5 km away) and with other areas of Coastal Atlantic Rain Forest. The FLONA Ipanema showed low similarity indexes with the other areas analyzed. In a DCA analysis, PE Carlos Botelho forms a group with other areas of Coastal Atlantic Rain Forest and FLONA Ipanema is placed in an intermediate position between the areas of Coastal Atlantic Rain Forest and areas of Atlantic Semi-deciduous Forest and Cerrado.

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