Cuba: Camagüey, Sierra de Cubitas - The Field Museum

Highlights of results
(continued)
Flora: During the inventory we registered 250 taxa of vascular plants in the
Sierra and the savanna immediately to its south (Fig. 3 and Appendix 2).
Of these 250 taxa, 86 were not previously registered in the Sierra. Including
the species newly observed in this inventory, 751 species, subspecies, and
varieties of plants are registered from the Sierra and the adjacent savanna.
(Appendices 1 and 2). Of these, 656 are seed plants (Spermatophyta),
60 are mosses and liverworts (Bryophyta), and 35 are ferns and fern relatives
(Pteridophyta, Lycopodiophyta, and Psilophyta). Approximately 80–85 of the
species are endemic to Cuba and 8 are considered globally threatened.
Mollusks: The Sierra de Cubitas stands out as one of the regions in Cuba with
many species of terrestrial mollusks. We observed 16 species and registered
2 species (Liguus fasciatus and Steatocoptis bioscai ) for the first time in the
Sierra. With these, 50 terrestrial and fluvial mollusks have been registered
for the Sierra and surrounding areas (Fig. 4A and Appendix 3).
Insects: Our inventory of cockroaches was the first in the region. We registered
12 species, of which 5 are Cuban endemics, 5 are native but not endemic,
and 2 are introduced (Fig. 4C and Appendix 4). One species, Nesomylacris
fratercula, is known only from Camagüey Province, and before the inventory was
not documented from any specific locality. The introduced species can be
used as bioindicators of human disturbance in the area.
We registered 44 species de butterflies in the Sierra (23) and the adjacent
savanna (32), including 3 relatively rare species that are forest specialists and
1 endemic species that is a savanna specialist (Figs. 4B, 4D, and Appendix 5).
We also observed 22 species of ants, including 4 species endemic to
Cuba (Appendix 6). In general, the ant fauna was depauperate, perhaps
due to the great abundance of a very aggressive species, the little fire ant
(Wassmannia auropunctata).
Amphibians and Reptiles: We registered 13 species of amphibians and 27 of
reptiles (Figs. 5A, 5B, and Appendix 7), of which 6 are new records for the
localities visited and 32 (80%) of which are endemic to Cuban. Species with
distributions limited to certain habitat types (e.g., Eleutherodactylus thomasi,
a frog in caves or rocky habitats), and species endemic to the Sierra de Cubitas
(Sphaerodactylus nigropunctatus lissodesmus, a gekko), are notable here. The
rare, endemic Cuban false chameleon (Chamaeleolis chamaeleonides; Fig. 5A)
was frequently observed during the inventory, which is unusual.
CUBA: CUBITAS ABRIL/APRIL 2006 65