Diversidade de serpentes do Munícipio de Tefé, Amazoans, em coleções

Abstract

Brazil is one of the countries with the greatest diversity of reptiles, with the Amazon being the biome that is home to a large part of this group. Specifically, for snakes, the number of known species is 295 in the Amazon. However, so much diversity is still little known. In this sense, biological collections play an extremely important role in the attempt to expand such knowledge, as they are responsible for storing testimonial materials of specimens that could be part of studies on unique health, distribution, biogeography in addition to the description of new species. Therefore, this study aims to compile a list of snake species that occur in the municipality of Tefé, AM based on local biological collections. The snakes deposited in the Didactic Collection of the Center for Higher Studies of Tefé at the State University of Amazonas (UEA) and the Herpetological Collection of the Institute for Sustainable Development Mamirauá (IDSM) were analyzed, in addition to the Tefé snakes mentioned in a study that reviewed the species present in collections throughout Brazil. 288 specimens of snakes were found in collections, of 56 different species, distributed in seven families, Aniliidae, Boidae, Colubridae, Dipsadidae, Elapidae, Viperidae and Typhlopidae. The species with the highest number of specimens were Anilius scytale (n=20), Dipsas catesbyi and Oxyrhopus m. melanogenys (n=19) and Bothrops atrox (n=18). The diversity of Tefé snakes in collections represents 77.8% of the families and 19.0% of the species that occur in the Brazilian Amazon. Given the results obtained in this research, we conclude that a large part of the Amazon snake species has already been collected and occur in the municipality of Tefé-AM. Of these, around 19% have specimens and can be found in the CEST-UEA and IDSM collections, located in the municipality. The list compiled in this work, based on collections, may contribute to knowledge of the local diversity of snake species, conservation actions and public health planning.