The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.
Tropical and subtropical moist forest (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a tropical and subtropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature. The habitat type is sometimes known as jungle.
Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena is a biodiversity hotspot, which includes the tropical moist forests and tropical dry forests of the Pacific coast of South America and the Galapagos Islands. The region extends from easternmost Panama to the lower Magdalena Valley of Colombia, and along the Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador to the northwestern corner of Peru. Formerly called the Chocó-Darién-Western Ecuador Hotspot, it has been expanded to include several new areas, notably the Magdalena Valley in northern Colombia. It is bounded on the east by the Andes Mountains. The Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Hotspot is 1,500 km long and encircles 274,597 km². Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena is near the Pacific Ocean. The factors that threaten Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena are farming encroachment, deforestation, illegal crops, and population growth. Whereas the Panamanian and Colombian portion of the hotspot are relatively intact, approximately 98% of native forest in coastal Ecuador has been cleared, rendering it the most threatened tropical forest in the world. The hotspot includes a wide variety of habitats, ranging from mangroves, beaches, rocky shorelines, and coastal wilderness to some of the world's wettest rain forests in the Colombian Chocó. The hotspot includes a number of ecoregions:
Guadua is a Neotropical genus of thorny, clumping bamboo in the grass family, ranging from moderate to very large species.
Archaeoprepona demophon, the one-spotted prepona, banded king shoemaker, or demophon shoemaker is a butterfly belonging to the family Nymphalidae.
The wattled guan is a species of bird in the family Cracidae. It is a fairly large black cracid with blue-based, black-tipped beak and a long, red-and-yellow wattle.
Hyloxalus chocoensis, sometimes known as the Choco rocket frog, is a species of frog in the family Dendrobatidae. It is found in western Colombia to east-central Panama. In Colombia it is known from Chocó, Valle del Cauca, and Antioquia. Anomaloglossus confusus from northwestern Ecuador were formerly confused with this species, but the identity of many other populations remains uncertain. Taxonomic uncertainty hampers knowledge about the species.
The ochre-breasted tanager is a species of bird in the family Cardinalidae. It is found in Colombia and Ecuador where its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. As a fairly common species with a stable population, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated this bird as being of "least concern".
The chestnut-crowned gnateater is a species of bird in the family Conopophagidae. It is found in Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.
The violaceous jay is a species of bird in the family Corvidae, the crows and their allies.
The pale-footed swallow is a species of bird in the family Hirundinidae. It is found in the northern Andes, from Venezuela to Bolivia. It is monotypic.
The orange-backed troupial is a species of bird in the family Icteridae. It is found in Guyana, Brazil, Paraguay, and eastern Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru. It is closely related to the Venezuelan troupial and Campo troupial, and at one time, all three were considered to be the same species.
Philaethria is a genus of New World butterflies of the subfamily Heliconiinae in the family Nymphalidae.
Heliconius doris, the Doris longwing or Doris is a species of butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It is known for being a polymorphic species which participates in various Müllerian mimicry rings throughout Central America and the Amazon rainforest. It is a species of special interest in biological science for the genetic basis and role of polymorphism (biology) in ecology and evolution.
The Jama-Coaque Ecological Reserve is a 1,600-acre protected area of Pacific Equatorial Forest in coastal Ecuador. It is one of the last significant remnants of tropical moist evergreen forest and premontane cloud forest in the region between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean in Ecuador. It is estimated that only 2% of the native forest still remains in coastal Ecuador. The Jama-Coaque Ecological Reserve is owned and managed by Third Millennium Alliance and partner Grupo Ecologico Jama-Coaque, both non-profit conservation foundations in their respective countries. It is part of the Tumbes-Chocó-Magdalena biodiversity hotspot as designated by Conservation International.
Pieriballia is a genus of butterflies in the family Pieridae erected by Alexander Barrett Klots in 1933. Its only species, Pieriballia viardi, the painted white or viardi white, was first described by Jean Baptiste Boisduval in 1836. It is found from Mexico to Bolivia and Paraguay. Strays can be found in southern Texas in the United States. The habitat consists of rainforests and transitional cloud forests.
Eueides isabella, the Isabella's longwing or Isabella's heliconian, is a species of nymphalid butterfly, belonging to the Heliconiinae subfamily.
Cyanophrys herodotus, the tropical green hairstreak or tropical greenstreak, is a butterfly of the family Lycaenidae. It was described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1793. It is found in Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina. Rare strays can be found as far north as southern Texas. The habitat consists of open disturbed areas in tropical and subtropical rainforests and cloudforests at altitudes ranging from 600 to about 2,000 meters.
The Northwestern Andean montane forests (NT0145) is an ecoregion on the Andes mountains in the west of Colombia and Ecuador. Both flora and fauna are highly diverse due to effect of ice ages when the warmer climate zones were separated and the cooler ones combined, and interglacial periods when the reverse occurred. Because the environment is hospitable to humans, the habitat has been drastically modified by farming and grazing since the Pre-Columbian era.
The Western Ecuador moist forests (NT0178) is an ecoregion in the plains and western foothills of the Andes of southern Colombia and Ecuador. At one time this region contained dense forests with highly diverse flora and fauna, and many endemic species. Most of the original habitat has now been destroyed, and the ecoregion is one of the most threatened in the world.
