A key part of tropical forest spatial complexity is the vertical stratification of biodiversity, with widely differing communities found in higher rainforest strata compared to terrestrial levels. Despite this, our understanding of how human disturbance may differentially affect biodiversity across vertical strata of tropical forests has been slow to develop. For the first time, how the patterns of current biodiversity vary between three vertical strata within a single forest, subject to three different types of historic anthropogenic disturbance, was directly assessed. In total, 229 species of butterfly were detected, with a total of 5219 individual records. Butterfly species richness, species diversity, abundance and community evenness differed markedly between vertical strata. We show for the first time, for any group of rainforest biodiversity, that different vertical strata within t...

Field observations on the reproductive biology of squamate reptiles are important to understanding the life history, ecology, and evolution of this diverse group (Vitt 1991, Ramírez-Bautista et al. 2000, Vittet al. 2001, Wernecket al. 2009); however, these data remain sparse for many tropical species (Figueroaet al. 2013, Sousaet al. 2014). Seasonality, clutch frequency, clutch size, egg size, and body size are important factors related to the life history of oviparous squamates (King 2000, Nelsonet al.2004, Kratochvíl and Frynta 2006a,b, Wanget al. 2011). Here, we present important information on the reproductive cycles of two, little-known Amazonian reptiles,Kentropyx altamazonica(Cope, 1876) andImantodes lentiferus(Cope, 1894). Neither species has been assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.