2008 March 03 | Blue-fronted Amazon Project

The Project at the XXVII Brazilian Congress of Zoology

Category: Education | Date: Mar 03 2008 | By: admin

Between February 17th and 21st, the externs Veronica and Thayane, which are biology college students, participate at the XXVII Brazilian Congress of Zoology at Curitiba, PR – Brazil. The subject ‘Zoology in the next 30 years’ promoted a huge and polemic debate about the future ways of this area. The event congregated 4,500 people, including professional zoologists and students from Brazil and abroad.

Veronica presented a poster entitled ‘Associated arthopods at the Blue-fronted Amazon Parrot’s (Amazona aestiva) nest at Pantanal’. This study had the participation of another extern (Lelis) and was oriented by Dr. Gustavo Graciolli, a professor at the Biological Sciences Department, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul.

This study revealed the presence of adult acari and insects at the Blue-fronted Amazon Parrot’s nests. The most frequent group were adult Coleoptera (46,7%), Dermestidae larvae (20%), adult Formicidae (26,7%) and Calliphoridae (Diptera) larvae (26,7%).
Other groups found with less frequency (<20%) were Acari, Blattodea, Stratyomiidae, Muscidae (Diptera), and Mordellidae (Coleoptera). The high prevalence of the order Coleoptera was expected, once this is the biggest order of insect, with more that 250,000 known species.