Figure 1. Male individual of Phyllodytes luteolus (Wied-Neuwied, 1821) on the leaves of the bromeliad Aechmea blanchetiana. Vila do Acuípe, municipality of Ilhéus, state of Bahia, Brazil. Photo: João Victor A. Lacerda.
Field activities were carried out during the month of October 2021 at five sampling sites in the municipality of Ilhéus, Bahia, Brazil. All areas have bromeliads used as reproductive sites by Phyllodytes luteolus . Three sites with the presence of vehicle traffic noise were located next to the BA-001 highway (between 3 and 10 meters away from the highway), in the stretches between Olivença and Acuípe villages, in the municipality of Ilhéus. The BA-001 highway runs along the coast of the state of Bahia and its southern end begins in the city of Mucuri while the northern end is located on Itaparica Island, in the Todos-os-Santos Bay of the capital Salvador. The stretch of road on which it was selected based on the presence of individuals of P. luteolus , at night periods the frequency of vehicles decreased markedly when compared to daytime periods, but there was the presence of vehicles in passages. There is no data available from government agencies regarding the flow of vehicles on this stretch of the highway, but during our field activities we found that the greatest traffic occurs between 5 and 7 pm. Two other sampling sites without the presence of vehicle traffic noise were defined at a minimum distance of two kilometers from the BA-001 highway (Carr & Fahrig, 2001) (Figure 2), where in these environments, as a form of control, there was no other source of anthropic noise, eventually few noises from other species that actively communicate acoustically.