História natural de onze rãs neotropicais (anura, leptodactylidae): aspectos etários e ciclo gametogênico

Abstract

One of the main objectives of the study of organisms´ life history is to explain the patterns of life cycle, growth, development, and reproductive investment of species. In this context, knowing the reproductive cycle and, mainly, the longevity of the species is of paramount importance, since in addition to being closely related, such information can help us understand the current state and future trends of a population. Leptodactylids are a very diverse group of anurans with a wide distribution in Central and South America, but there is still a lack of information about basic aspects of their life history. Thus, the objective of this Thesis was i) to survey works on longevity for South American anuran species, as well as ii) to bring new information on longevity and gametogenic cycle of eleven species of Neotropical leptodactylids. For this, we carried out a systematic review of studies that addressed the longevity of South American frog species, based on the skeletochronology technique (currently the most used method for determining age in frogs). Furthermore, we used this technique to determine the longevity of eleven species of leptodactylids belonging to the sub-families Leiuperinae and Leptodactylinae. Our results indicate that leptodactylids are the group of South American anurans for which we have more information on longevity of the species, probably due to the relative ease of finding specimens of this family in nature, as well as the medium to large body size of their representatives. Furthermore, we observed that the leptodactylids studied showed intersexual, intra and interspecific variation in terms of longevity. We suggest, therefore, that new works need to be carried out, trying to determine the longevity of other leptodactylids, mainly from the Paratelmatobiinae subfamily, as well as small-size or hard-to-find species.