Nota preliminar sobre la fisonomía faunística y biogeográfica de la Sierra Pie de Palo, provincia de San Juan, Argentina

Abstract

Four altitudinarian zones were recognized from 700 m to elevations of about 3.200 m on the summit of the sierra. A first lower zones is provided by the surrounding subdesertic Monte formations. A second zone occurs at elevations of 800 to 1.700 m along the deep broken valleys of the western slopes of the sierra. Along dry streams, dominant elements are Prosopis, Bulnesia, Larrea, Schinus, Echinopsis; dense bro- meliad formations ascend the sun-exposed rocky slopes of the mountain. The third transition zone extends at about 1.700 to 2.700 m. It is a very steep, inaccessible landscape, and only few, scattered faunal elements are there represented. The term of "pastizal de Stipa" applies at last to the fourth zone, above 2.800 m. Bushes of Andean-Patagonian spiny sclerophylls (Nassauvia, Adesmia, Tetraglochin) are mixed with grasses (Stipa, Festuca), and characteristic Andean-Patagonian faunal elements as Liolaemus (new endemic subspecies of a Patagonian group), Bothriurus burmeisteri (scorpions), and Pseudocleobis andinus (Solifuga) occur, being reported and briefly discussed in this paper.