Mount Itoupé, a summit of more than 800m high and located southeast of Saül, received a team from the Parc Amazonien de Guyane (PAG), and scientists from the Entomological Society of Antilles – Guyane (SEAG) and Labex CEBA. The expedition, which took place in January 2016, was aimed at completing the inventories carried out in November 2014.
The top of this mountain, the second highest of French Guiana, is covered by a cloud forest. The site is very difficult to access and has been little explored. The first expedition, which dates back to 2010, consisted of 40 scientists and revealed new species for French Guiana and other species not yet fully described. This was also the case for the second expedition in November 2014.
This third mission completes in the rainy season that carried out in November 2014 during the dry season. For the herpetologists, the objective was to make, as exhaustive as possible, an inventory of the species present. Another objective of this expedition was also to complete the DIADEMA project. This strategic project of the CEBA concerns the characterisation of numerous communities including amphibians in different habitats and on various sites in French Guiana (this protocol has already been applied in Saül and Mitaraka).
Despite an inclement weather for the detection of certain species, the scientists were able to make some discoveries including a species that belongs to a genre that was not known to French Guiana. In all, 59 species of amphibians were contacted with 51 collected. As for the squamates (lizards, snakes), 50 species have been contacted and about 40 of them were collected. In spite of the weather detrimental to the better understanding of the herpetofauna of Mount Itoupé, this expedition revealed that the site bears a very high diversity for French Guiana. It is most likely that many species have remained undetected.
