Leaf litter anuran assemblages include both species that have terrestrial development and species that,
during the breeding season, aggregate around bodies of water where their tadpoles develop. The resources
used by these two groups in the leaf litter are likely to differ, as well as their sampled species
richness, abundance and biomass as resource availability changes. We conducted a 12-month survey of
leaf litter anuran assemblages at three forest areas in the largest Atlantic Forest remnant in the state of
Minas Gerais in southeastern Brazil. Each month we estimated, based on capture rates, anuran species
richness, abundance, and biomass as assemblage descriptors. We also measured variables that could
potentially affect these descriptors in space and time: invertebrate litter fauna (abundance and richness
of taxa), leaf litter biomass, and microclimatic conditions (air humidity, air and soil temperature, soil
water content, and rainfall). We tested for differences in these variables among areas. We used general
linear models to search for the variables that best explained variation in anuran abundance (based on
capture rates) throughout the year. We analyzed species with terrestrial development (TD) and with
aquatic larvae (AL) separately. We recorded 326 anurans of 15 species. Sampled anuran abundance
(correlated to species richness and biomass) was explained by air humidity and/or invertebrate abundance
for species with TD, and by soil water content or air humidity and leaf litter biomass for species
with AL. The variability in the results of studies on leaf litter frogs that try to find variables to explain
changes in community descriptors may be due to spatial variation of resources among areas and also to
the fact that TD and AL species are frequently analyzed together, when in fact they are likely to show
different responses to resources present in the leaf litter habitat, reflected on capture rates.