Abstract The geographical distribution of sand flies in Brazil has been the subject of some studies, yet there is no information about the phlebotomine fauna in João Pessoa, State of Paraíba, Brazil. The aim of this work is to evaluate the occurrence and distribution of sand flies in the Atlantic forest fragments and to evaluate a possible dispersion in 06 nearby districts. Light traps were used during three consecutive nights, supplemented by an aspirator during the dry period and rainy season. A total of 222 sand flies were found, 143 (130 males and 13 females) in the Atlantic forest, and 79 in urban areas. During the entire dry season, three species of phlebotomine sand flies were recorded in 11 forest fragments, Lutzomyia longipalpis, Lu. migonei and Lu. whitmani. During the rainy season, only Lu. longipalpis was found. This was the only species identified in the studied neighborhoods during both seasons. The differences in diversity of sand flies encountered between natural habitats and urban areas may thus be correlated mostly with adaptations to particular habitats and availability of food. One species (Lu. longipalpis) appears to be rapidly adapting to urban areas because of deforestation. studies Pessoa Paraíba 0 districts nights season 22 found 14 130 (13 1 females 7 Lu whitmani seasons food (Lu deforestation 2 (1 (

Os Cephalobaenidae constituem um dos principais grupos de pentastomídeos que parasitam o trato respiratório de serpentes. Foram coletados seis espécimes de Liophis lineatus pela utilização de coleta ativa e pitfalls instalados às margens da nascente do rio Batateiras, próximo à nascente, ‘APA - Área de Proteção Ambiental’ (um ambiente protegido pelo ‘IBAMA - Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Renováveis’), e em um remanescente de floresta úmida, "FLONA - Floresta Nacional do Araripe". Os dois pontos de coleta estão localizados no município de Crato, Estado do Ceará. Dos seis espécimes de L. lineatus examinados apenas um estava infectado por Cephalobaena tetrapoda em seu pulmão. Isso representa o primeiro registro de C. tetrapoda parasitando uma cobra no Nordeste brasileiro, assim como é o primeiro registro de um colubridae servindo de hospedeiro para C. tetrapoda no Brasil.

Cephalobaenidae constitutes one of the main pentastomid groups infecting the respiratory tract of snakes. Six specimens of Liophis lineatus, a colubrid, were collected by active capture and pitfalls installed on the banks of the Batateiras river, close to its source, in the ‘APA - Área de Proteção Ambiental’ (a protected environmental area of the ‘IBAMA - Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Natural Resources’), and in a remnant of the humid tropical forest ‘FLONA - Floresta Nacional do Araripe’, both in the municipality of Crato, state of Ceará, Northeast Brazil. Out of the six specimens of L. lineatus examined, only one had its lung infected by the pentastomid Cephalobaena tetrapoda. This represents the first record of C. tetrapoda as a parasite of a snake in Northeast Brazil, as well as the first record of a colubrid, L. lineatus, as a new host for the pentastomid in Brazil.

Filogenias baseadas em seqüências totais têm baixo conteúdo informativo. Erros comuns são acreditar que a qualidade dos caracteres pode ser ignorada e que é suficiente confiar nos algoritmos computacionais. Apesar de ampla preferência por métodos a posteriori para a avaliação de caracteres, métodos a priori tornam-se necessários para produzir séries de transformação independentes das topologias das árvores. Propomos um método qualitativo passo a passo para analisar seqüências de proteínas. Codons informativos são selecionados, séries de transformação alternativas de aminoácidos são analisadas e as transformações mais parcimoniosas são hipotetizadas. Conduzimos quatro análises filogenéticas em cobras Phylodrininae. A árvore baseada em todos os nucleotídeos produz a menor resolução. Árvores baseadas na exclusão das terceiras posições, numa matriz de passos assimétrica, e em nosso protocolo de análise produzem resultados similares. Nosso método elimina ruído ao hipotetizar séries de transformação explícitas para cada aminoácido informativo para a codificação de proteínas. Essa abordagem se aproxima de métodos qualitativos para dados morfológicos, nos quais apenas caracteres interpretados com sucesso num contexto filogenético são usados em análises cladísticas. O método permite utilizar informação de caracteres contidos no alinhamento original da seqüência e, portanto, tem maior poder de resolução para inferir árvores filogenéticas que alguns métodos tradicionais (como métodos de distância).

Total sequence phylogenies have low information content. Ordinary misconceptions are that character quality can be ignored and that relying on computer algorithms is enough. Despite widespread preference for a posteriori methods of character evaluation, a priori methods are necessary to produce transformation series that are independent of tree topologies. We propose a stepwise qualitative method for analyzing protein sequences. Informative codons are selected, alternative amino acid transformation series are analyzed, and most parsimonious transformations are hypothesized. We conduct four phylogenetic analyses of philodryanine snakes. The tree based on all nucleotides produces least resolution. Trees based on the exclusion of third positions, on an asymmetric step matrix, and on our protocol, produce similar results. Our method eliminates noise by hypothesizing explicit transformation series for each informative protein-coding amino acid. This approaches qualitative methods for morphological data, in which only characters successfully interpreted in a phylogenetic context are used in cladistic analyses. The method allows utilizing character information contained in the original sequence alignment and, therefore, has higher resolution in inferring a phylogenetic tree than some traditional methods (such as distance methods).

The southern boundaries of Tozeuma serratum A. Milne Edwards, Salmoneus ortmanni (Rankin) and Processa profunda Manning & Chace, previously known only from the northwestern Atlantic, have been extended to São Paulo, Paraná and Uruguay, respectively. Latreutes parvulus (Stimpson), previously not known beyond São Paulo has been found to as far south as the Province of Buenos Aires. A systematic account of these four species is furnished, based mainly on material collected by the R/V "Prof. W. Besnard". The 16 species of Alpheoidea whose southern boundaries occur in warm-temperate shelf waters of eastern South America belong to two distinct faunal assemblages: (1) Tropical species - Alpheus floridanus Kingsley, A. intrinsecus Bate, A. normanni Kingsley, Salmoneus ortmanni (Rankin) Synalpheus longicarpus (Herrick), Ogyrides alphaerostris (Kingsley) (= O. occidentalis(Ortmann)), Exhippolysmata oplophoroides (Holthuis), Latreutes parvalus (Stimpson), Processa bermudensis (Rankin) and P. hemphilli Manning & Chace - which are largely restricted to coastal and inshore shelf waters less than 50 m deep; and (2) Subtropical species - Alpheus pouang Chris toffersen, A. puapeba Christoffersen, Merhippolyte americana Holthuis, Tozeuma serratum A. Milne Edwards, Processa guyanae. Holthuis and P. profunda Manning & Chace - which are largely restricted to the outer portion of the continental shelf within the studied area. Considering the temperature and distributional data available for each species, it is suggested that the poleward boundaries of O. alphaerostris are set by maximum summer temperatures of about 20ºC required for the reproduction of the species, while the poleward boundaries of most of the tropical and subtropical species are set by minimum winter temperatures critical for their survival: about 15ºC for A. floridanus, about 11ºC for E. oplophoroides, about 9ºC for A. pouang, L. parvulus, P. guyanae., P. guyanae and P. hemphilli, and P. profunda and about 8ºC for A. puapeba and M. americana. It is further suggested that the shoreward boundaries of some of the subtropical species are set by maximum summer temperatures critical for their survival: about 20-22ºC for A. puapzba and about 17-18ºC for A. pouang and M. americana.