Lizards and bromeliads in the Neotropics: literature review and relevance of this association to conservation

• Published in: Symbiosis (Philadelphia, Pa.) Vol. 84; no. 2; pp. 119 - 130
• Main Authors: Jorge, Jaqueiuto da Silva, Sales, Raul Fernandes Dantas, Silva, Vinicius Thawaan Cerqueira, Freire, Eliza Maria Xavier
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Conservation; Developmental Biology; Ecology; Evolutionary Biology; Geographical distribution; Life Sciences; Literature reviews; Microbiology; Morphology; Plant Sciences; Threatened species; Vertebrates; Animal-plant interactions; Biodiversity amplifiers; Scansorial habits; Associated fauna
• ISSN: 0334-5114; 1878-7665
• DOI: 10.1007/s13199-021-00779-z

Bromeliads are widely recognized for their role as biodiversity amplifiers in the Neotropical region. Some animal taxa are well known for their relationships with bromeliads, such as aquatic insects and amphibians, but others, such as lizards, are still neglected when it comes to association with these plants. In this study, we present a bibliographic review about the association of lizards with bromeliads, aiming to determine the diversity of lizard taxa and the geographical distribution of the available records. We found a total of 72 bibliographic sources that reported at least one lizard species in association with bromeliads. These records are distributed in 11 families, 26 genera and 69 lizard species. The geographic distribution of records covers 16 countries and oceanic islands in the Americas, with most records in Brazil. Twenty lizard species are officially threatened to extinction according to IUCN criteria, which corresponds to 29% of all recorded species. Based on these results, we propose actions for the conservation of bromeliads, with consequent conservation of associated lizard species, as has been proposed for amphibians.