MAIISG

Assessment Rationale:

This species is endemic to Santa Maria island, Azores, where it is present across the whole island, but it is mostly found on Pico Alto. There is a threat to the populations on Pico Alto from habitat deterioration due to changes in the humidity concentration, but this species has adapted well to secondary forests. Therefore this species has been assessed as Least Concern (LC).

Geographic Range:

This species is endemic to the island of Santa Maria, Azores. Morelet (1860) erroneously stated its presence in São Miguel (Mordan and Martins 2001).

Population:

This species can be found throughout the island of Santa Maria (Mordan and Martins 2001). It is relatively common on Pico Alto.

Habitat and Ecology

This species lives in mountain forested habitats, endemic and secondary, under dead leaves and rotting branches, and among the rhizomes of Hedychium gardneranum.

Major Threat(s):

This species has apparently adapted well to secondary forest, mainly where there is good undergrowth of Hedychium. Favourable habitats have been dwindling on Santa Maria, thus affecting many species with somewhat restricted distribution. Although distributed throughout the island, P. brevispira is most commonly found around Pico Alto and could thus be affected by this general trend of habitat deterioration, probably due to a change in humidity concentration (A. Martins pers. comm. 2010).

Conservation Actions

The Pico Alto complex should be strictly protected in its entirety, down to its very base; its forested area, including the secondary forest, should be left untouched. The climate in Santa Maria (highest point about 550 m) is becoming drier (A. Martins pers. comm. 2010) and some as yet undescribed taxa, more or less circumscribed to Pico Alto, are becoming dangerously rare.