mations. In 1984, a group of scientists met at the Fluminense
Federal University to analyze Brazilian restingas in their multiple
aspects and to give a warning cry against their destruction(42).
Currently, there is a group of scientists working on the floristic
and ecological aspects of the southern restinga, among them
Araujo, Scarano, Sá, Kurtz, Zaluar, Montezuma and Oliveira(58).The destruction of ecosystems is the greatest threat to
native wildlife. Norma Crud reported that the mollusksCochlori-
na navicula, Auris bilabiata melanostoma, Streptaxis contusus,
Megalobulimus ovatus and Solaropsis sp. are at serious risks
due to the destruction of their habitats. The first occurs only in
the coastal psamophilic vegetation of São João da Barra and
Marobá beach in Espirito Santo State, not advancing towards
the South. The second and third ones, besides not having abun-
dant populations, are limited to the restinga stretch between
São João da Barra and Macaé. The fourth was observed three
times, at different hours of the day, moving on the humus soil
of Macaé restingas. Finally, the fifth was found only once, in the
arboreal vegetation of the Carapebus restinga that had been
burned. According to her, the Fluminense swallowtail butterfly
(Parides ascanius), an endemic, relict and primitive species, lo-
cated in Cabiúnas, is under pressure of anthropic activities and
it is an endangered species(59).The occurrence of benthic macro invertebrates in the
Imboacica, Cabiúnas and Comprida lagoons was studied by
Callisto, Gonçalves Jr, Leal and Petrucio(60), while penaeid and
palaemonid shrimp in Imboacica, Cabiúnas, Comprida and Car-
apebus lagoons were studied by Albertoni(61). Not to mention a
considerable literature on invertebrates that has been produced
regarding the southern restinga. However, it is not possible to
assume the same about the northern restinga, still very little
known in its multiple aspects.The example of Quissamã seems to make it clear that
the demolition of native marine and terrestrial ecosystems con-
tributes in an excruciating manner to the impoverishment of
wildlife biodiversity. In this municipality, as in the soil of fluvial
plain and the tablelands, it was not used an inclement steam-
roller. Here remained ponds, lagoons and samples of forests
that transformed the southern restinga into a kind of Baixada’s
ecological relic, counterpointing with the forest remnants of the
pinnacle of Serra do Mar. In the native, transformed and even
anthropic ecosystems of restinga in Quissamã, a recent study
reveals an astonishing faunistic diversity, no longer found in
other parts of north-northwestern Fluminense, until proven oth-
erwise. The researchers involved in the study catalogued, in six
days of work, through interviews and field observations, twenty
species of mammals: opossum, gray four-eyed opossum, ar-
madillo, southern naked-tailed armadillo, nine-banded armadil-Lagoa da Praia e Parque Eólico em Gargaú, Restinga de
Paraíba do Sul. Foto: Rafael Barros
Praia Lagoon and Wind Farm in Gargaú, Paraíba do Sul
Restinga. Photo by Rafael Barros