Content uploaded by Fernando JM Rojas-Runjaic
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Fernando JM Rojas-Runjaic on Feb 26, 2018
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
A new species of nurse-frog (Aromobatidae, Allobates) from the Juami River basin, northwestern Brazilian Amazonia
Abstract and Figures
We describe a new species of nurse-frog (Aromobatidae, Allobates) from northwestern Brazilian Amazon. Allobates juami sp. nov. is distinguished from similar congeneric species by the combination of the following characters: body-size range (snout-to-vent length 17.5–18.5 mm), lack of dark pigments on ventral surfaces of male specimens, dorsal color pattern (predominantly solid dark brown, but conspicuously light brown over snout and urostyle regions), presence of conspicuous pale dorsolateral and ventrolateral stripes, and presence of a diffuse pale paracloacal mark. The advertisement call of the new species lasts 2.5–5.1 s, contains 60–73 short notes (trills), and is emitted at an average rate of 13 notes per second within trills. Duration of silent intervals between notes ranges between 0.020–0.050 s, and the peak frequency of notes ranges from 4.59 to 5.47 kHz. The new species is currently known only from the type locality at Estação Ecológica Juami-Japurá (1.96455° S, 67.93579° W; ~ 87 m a.s.l.).
Figures - uploaded by Fernando JM Rojas-Runjaic
Author content
All figure content in this area was uploaded by Fernando JM Rojas-Runjaic
Content may be subject to copyright.
... The number of species of Allobates Zimmermann & Zimmermann, 1988 has continuously increased during the last two decades (e.g. Simões et al., 2018;Moraes, Pavan & Lima, 2019;Simões, Rojas & Lima, 2019;Souza et al., 2020;Jaramillo et al., 2021), but several phenotypically and molecularly lineages remain unnamed (see Simões, Lima & Farias, 2010;Grant et al., 2017;Fouquet, Vidal & Dewynter, 2019;Lima, Ferrão & Silva, 2020;Réjaud et al., 2020). Currently, the genus includes 58 species allocated into four groups: the Atlantic Forest group [one species, A. olfersioides (Lutz, 1925)], the trans-Andean group [two species, A. niputidea Grant, Acosta & Rada, 2007 and A. talamancae (Cope, 1875)], the colorful A. femoralis group [four species, A. femoralis (Boulenger, 1884), A. hodli Simões, Lima & Farias, 2010, A. myersi (Pyburn, 1981), and A. zaparo (Silverstone, 1976)], and the most diverse group that includes 51 valid species [e.g. A. brunneus (Cope, 1887), A. carajas Simões, Rojas & Lima, 2019, A. crombiei (Morales, 2002), A. grillisimilis Simões et al., 2013a, and A. tapajos Lima, Simões & Kaefer, 2015(Grant et al., 2017]. ...
... Recent studies have highlighted the conservative morphology of Allobates species (e.g. Carvalho, Martins & Giaretta, 2016;Moraes & Lima, 2021), and taxonomic decisions considering an integrated systematic approach are therefore crucial to fully describing the diversity within the genus (Carvalho, Martins & Giaretta, 2016;Grant et al., 2017;Simões et al., 2018;Moraes, Pavan & Lima, 2019;Simões, Rojas & Lima, 2019). This effort is especially important for diagnosing sympatric lineages, which is the case for several Amazonian Allobates species descriptions (Simões, Lima & Farias, 2010;Lima, Ferrão & Silva, 2020;Moraes & Lima, 2021). ...
... Two species presented longer trills with more notes: A. bacurau has trills of 7-11 s with 60-81 notes (Simões, 2016); and A. juami has trills of 2.5-5.09 s (4.51 ± 0.37) with 60-73 notes (65 ± 4) (Simões et al., 2018). ...
Background
Currently, 58 species are assigned to the genus Allobates , with 70% of its diversity described just in the last two decades, with many additional species likely unnamed. The continuous description of these new species represents a fundamental step for resolving the taxonomy and ensuring the future conservation of the genus.
Methods
Using molecular, acoustic, and morphological evidences, we describe a new species of Allobates from Teles Pires River region, southern Amazonia, and provide accounts on the population of A. tapajos found sympatrically with the new species.
Results
The new species is distinguished from its congeners by the coloration of thighs, venter, dorsum, and dark lateral stripe. It has four types of calls, with advertisement calls formed by relatively long trills with a mean duration of 2.29 s ± 0.65, mean of 39.93 notes ± 11.18 emitted at a mean rate of 17.49 ± 0.68 notes per second, and mean dominant frequency of 5,717 Hz ± 220.81. The genetic distance between the new species and its congeners in a fragment of the 16S mitochondrial fragment ranged between 13.2% ( A. carajas ) to 21.3% ( A. niputidea ). The sympatric Allobates population fits its morphology and acoustic with the nominal A. tapajos , but presents a relatively high genetic distance of nearly 6.5%, raising questions on the current taxonomy of this species.
... Such increase can be directly attributed to filling of knowledge gaps through the increased integration of multiple and more robust statistical analyses, and data from distinct evolutionary sources, especially molecular evidence (Padial et al. 2010;Simões et al. 2013a). This knowledge advance is also the result of the continuous exploration of new areas and increased sampling effort, reaching historically difficult-toaccess localities within the vast geographic range of Amazonia (Moraes et al. 2017Simões et al. 2018), as well as long-term inventories (Ferrão et al. 2016;Moraes et al. 2016Moraes et al. , 2019. Regarding frogs, new hypotheses and decision-making on the systematics and taxonomy of the aromobatid genus Allobates has benefited greatly from this growth in knowledge (Melo-Sampaio et al. 2018;Lima et al. 2020). ...
... Our description of A. grillicantus increases to 31 the number of nominal Allobates known to inhabit Brazilian Amazonia, although there is good evidence that this diversity is still greatly underestimating true values (Simões et al. 2018;Réjaud et al. 2020). With six nominal Allobates occurring on the riverbanks of the Middle Tapajós River (Frost 2019;present study), this region contains one of the highest alpha-diversities for this genus in Amazonia, even considering the entire Neotropical region (see Réjaud et al. 2020). ...
Integrative analyses, long-term studies, and access to remote areas in Amazonia have led to new hypotheses and increased resolution of the systematics and taxonomy of the small nurse frog genus Allobates (family Aromobatidae). During anuran sampling in the Middle Tapajós River region, state of Pará, Brazil, we collected data on a new cryptically colored species of Allobates with a cricket-like advertisement call. Here, we name and describe this new species, following an integration of phenotypic, ecological, and molecular analyses. The results of a phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial and nuclear DNA placed the new species as the sister taxon of Allobates grillisimilis. Genetic pdistances between the two sister taxa at the 16S region of the mitochondrial DNA ranged from 7% to 9%. A sister-species relationship between the new species and A. grillisimilis is also supported by phenotypic evidence. Adults of the new species are small (snout–vent length 15.2–16.8 mm in males and 16.5–17.7 mm in females), with a dorsum uniformly tan to reddish brown, a dark brown lateral stripe and a white ventrolateral stripe, arms pale tan brown and legs greyish-brown, and venter yellowish colored, with variable extension and shades of yellow, paler on the throat. The advertisement call is a trill with a mean peak frequency of 5830.2 Hz, arranged in series of short, closely spaced, pulses (mean of 24.3 pulses/s), and followed by silent intervals of variable duration. We discuss the putative drivers generating and maintaining the distinctiveness between the new species and the allopatrically distributed sister taxon, and on threats to the persistence of the new species. With this species description, the Middle Tapajós River region is consolidated as having one of the highest alpha diversities for the genus Allobates in Amazonia.
... Therefore, these three cases may actually represent true negatives. The three remaining cases of nominal species pairs merged into a single OTU might represent false negatives as differences have been found in morphology and/or acoustics: (i) A. femoralis and A. hodli exhibit divergences in morphology and advertisement calls (Simões et al., 2010), but they are known to hybridize in a specific contact zone (Simões et al., 2012); leading to potential bias in DNA based delimitation analyses; (ii) A. insperatus and A. juami have similar but distinct advertisement calls and can be distinguished by external morphological characters (Simões et al., 2018); and (iii) the description paper of A. pittieri distinguish A. pittieri and A. humilis on the base of external morphological characters (La Marca et al., 2004), to our knowledge there has been no acoustic comparative study between these taxa. ...
With more than six million square kilometers, Amazonia hosts the largest tract of lowland tropical rainforest in the world and a large portion of the global terrestrial diversity. However, the temporal and spatial origins of this diversity remain poorly understood and need to be better comprehended to identify the processes responsible for this tremendous diversification. Amphibians are a particularly adequate group for investigating patterns of biogeographical history within Amazonia because they extensively diversified within the region and present important disparities in habitat use and dispersal abilities across groups. We first investigated the historical biogeography of the terra-firme genus Allobates and identified western Amazonia as an important source of diversification between 14 and 10 million years ago (Mya). This spatio-temporal pattern was coinciding with the existence of the Pebas system, a mega-wetland system that occupied most of western Amazonia during this period, that was unsuitable for terra-firme species. The Pebas system discharge was likely followed by an extension of terra-firme forests that likely fostered Allobates diversification. Our results also suggested that western Amazonia rivers might have subsequently (after 10 Mya) promoted diversification, by acting as semi-permeable barriers allowing speciation by dispersal and isolation. Secondly, we investigated the biogeographical history of the Pristimantis conspicillatus group which, instead, presented a continuous diversification throughout Neogene. This group displays a striking spatial pattern of diversification with four ancient clades that have diversified concomitantly in distinct areas in Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest, with much fewer dispersal events between areas than in Allobates. These differences suggest that amphibian species display differences in dispersal abilities that can be related to their life history traits. Finally, we compared the biogeographic histories of six frog clades, including the two aforementioned ones, that share comparable crown ages and span the Amazonian frog diversity in terms of life history traits, taxonomy, habitat use and reproduction modes. We identified western Amazonia as the principal source of diversification for Amazonian amphibians, although it acted as such only after 10 Mya for the groups that have adapted to various types of habitats; and only between 10 and 5 Mya for the ecologically conservative groups. This suggest that species with lower habitat availability reach niche filling more rapidly than ecologically adaptive species, resulting in shorter diversification phases. Our results also suggest that riverine barrier effect seems to have affected solely conservative groups particularly when the river course is stable over time. While these results were obtained by considering only a fraction of Amazonian diversity, they provide interesting insights on the influence of niche conservatism upon Amazonian evolutive trajectories, which will hopefully foster further and more ample research in this direction.
... In these species, consecutive trills are separated by distinctively long silent intervals, with no sporadic emission of single notes between them (silent intervals variable and interrupted by sporadic and isolated single notes). The advertisement calls A. bacurau, A. crombiei, A. insperatus, and A. juami (Lima et al. 2012;Simões 2016;Simões et al. 2018) have a larger number of notes, pooled number 25-81, more closely spaced, pooled interval duration between notes 0.010-0.085 s (5-16 notes, 0.20-0.80 ...
We describe a new species of nurse-frog (Aromobatidae, Allobates) from the Amazonian forest of Loreto, Peru using morphological, acoustic and genetic data. Our phylogenetic analysis placed Allobates sieggreenae sp. nov. as the sister species of A. trilineatus, the most similar-looking species and with which it was previously confused. However, the new species has a brown dorsum, solid dark brown lateral dark stripe not fading towards groin, adult males with few and sparse melanophores over a cream background on chin, chest, and belly, dark transverse bars absent on thighs, and an advertisement call formed by a trill of single notes (in A. trilineatus dorsum dark brown, blackish brown lateral dark stripe, paler from mid-body to groin, adult males with a dark background color on chin, chest, and belly due to a dense layer of melanophores, dark transverse bar present on dorsal surface of thighs, and trills of paired notes). Allobates sieggreenae is known from two localities of Amazonian white-sand forest ecosystems east of the Ucayali River.
Taxonomic uncertainty at the species level compromises our knowledge of biodiversity, conservation and systematics. The impact of such uncertainty is heightened in megadiverse regions such as Amazonia due to high levels of cryptic diversity. We used integrative taxonomy based on newly collected topotypical specimens to redescribe the Amazonian nurse frog Allobates gasconi and infer its phylogenetic relationships. This species was described in 2002 based solely on morphology, but several characters crucial for the reliable diagnosis of species in Allobates were not considered. Our results show that A. gasconi sensu stricto is not a member of the A. caeruleodactylus clade as previously claimed, but is a member of the A. trilineatus clade. Allobates gasconi is readily distinguished from congeners by a combination of morphological and bioacoustic characters; a revised diagnosis is provided. The type series of A. gasconi comprises more than one species, and we exclude a paratype from lower Juruá River. The species is restricted geographically to flooded environments in the middle and upper Juruá River in Brazil and in the Ucayali River in Peru. The initial misidentification, subsequent absence of topotypic molecular and acoustic data, and the poor preservation condition of the type series have contributed to taxonomic confusion since A. gasconi was first described. The descriptions of other species of Allobates published more than two decades ago were based mainly on gross morphology and we recommend integrative taxonomic revisions to elucidate their systematics.
This study presents a preliminary inventory of butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea) in
the Rio Ronuro Ecological Station in Brazil. Butterflies were sampled in eight plots dis�tributed in three sites located between the Municipality of Nova Ubiratã and Paranatin�ga and Santiago do Norte. We sampled 30 species of butterflies, in four families, Nymph�alidae, Pieridae, Papilionidae e Riodinidae. The sampling period was short and lacking temporal repetitions, however considering the low numbers of traps installed (36) and sampling during the rainy season our results indicate a large potential diversity of butter�flies to be explored in the future in the station.
Arthropods are important components of edaphic environments, being responsible for numerous processes related to the decomposition and cycling of matter. Studies on their diversity are important for understanding the ecosystem dynamics. This study aimed to
evaluate the composition of the edaphic community of arthropods, mainly arachnids, in a Cerrado-Amazônia transition area at the Rio Ronuro Ecological Station, in Nova Ubiratã, Mato Grosso. Arthropods were sampled in October/November 2016 and in February/March 2017, using pitfall traps. Opiliones were collected manually. As a result 9,611 arthropods were obtained, distributed among Hexapoda, Arachnida, Diplopoda and Chilopoda and 21 taxonomic orders. Hymenoptera (4,984 ind.; 51.9%), Diptera (2,299 ind.; 23.9%), Collembola (660 ind.; 6.9%), Isoptera (581 ind.; 6%) and Coleoptera (435 ind.; 4.5%) predominated. Among the spiders (220 ind.; 2.3%) were identified 24 families and nine behavioral guilds. Zodariidae (60 ind.; 28%), Lycosidae (51 ind.; 22%) and Theridiidae (32 ind.; 14%) predominated. The Opiliones (15 ind.; 0.2%) were Cosmetidae (10 ind.; 66.6%), Stygnidae (3 ind.; 20%) and Manaosbiidae (2 ind.; 13.4%). The results indicate that Rio Ronuro ESEC presents considerable edaphic biodiversity, corroborating its importance as an area for the conservation of Southern Amazonia.
With a territory of 90,680,600 hectares, the state of Mato Grosso possesses a broad range of natural beauty and rich biodiversity and currently houses 46 state conservation units that encompass 3.2 million hectares. A significant part of this biodiversity, however, remains un�known due to limited knowledge generation and dissemination.
Rio Ronuro Ecological Station is one of five existing state ecological stations in Mato Grossso. It stands out for being located in the central region of the state, specifically comprising
the transition between the Cerrado and Amazonia biomes (area with Savanna/Seasonal Forest/Ombrophilous Forest), bestowing it with the potential to harbor rich biodiversity and thus unique relevance within State System of Conservation Units.
In compliance with the objective for which Rio Ronuro Ecological Station was created –
protection of existing ecosystems, development of scientific research and conservation ed�ucation – State Secretary of Environment of Mato Grosso (SEMA-MT), together with the technical cooperation of Amazon Region Protected Areas Program (ARPA) and researchers of Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT), and support from Biodiversity Research Pro�gram (PPBIO), contributed efforts to survey and catalog the station’s flora and fauna.
Scientific research developed in the conservation unit has broadened knowledge of biodiver�sity, provided training for students and local community agents, encouraged bioprospecting studies of species with potential that occur in the region, and made this publication possi�ble, which brings together all the systematic studies carried out to date.
The knowledge gathered in this work will contribute to the processes of environmental edu�cation and conservation of biodiversity, as well as provide academic information for society in general. This knowledge will support the decision-making process for public policies for Rio Ronuro Ecological Station, enable its valorization and acknowledge the ecological pro�cesses that maintain it.
Mauren Lazzaretti
Mato Grosso State Secretary of the Environment
Os macrofungos têm sido pouco estudados nos diferentes biomas brasileiros e estima-se que há muitas espécies ainda a serem descritas. Este capítulo apresenta um levantamento incluindo a descrição de dezesseis espécies de Basidomycota (cogumelos lamelares e fungos clavarioides) coletados na Estação Ecológica do Rio Ronuro, Mato Grosso. Para cada espécie são apresentados dados taxonômicos e de distribuição geográfica no Brasil. Dez espécies são registradas pela primeira vez para o estado do Mato Grosso.
Allobates trilineatus is the second most geographically widespread species in the genus Allobates, its range extending from northern Ecuador to southern Peru along the Andean foothills of Amazonia and to the east, into Acre, Brazil. However, detailed phenotypic and genetic variation from topotypic specimens is lacking, raising doubts about the identification of specimens in the literature. To solve this problem, we collected 16 topotypic specimens-including male and female adults and juveniles-and associated data such as advertisement calls and tissue samples. Based upon this material, we redescribe the phenotypic variation within A. trilineatus and evaluate its phylogenetic position using a fragment of the mitochondrial gene 16S rDNA. Allobates trilineatus is distinguished from its congeners by its small body size (adult snout-to-vent-length = 14.6-16.6 mm), preserved males with dark gray throat, and gray chest and belly, pale dorsolateral stripe straight and conspicuous, and advertisement call formed by the emission of groups of note-pairs with dominant frequency at 5.06-5.81 kHz. Our phylogenetic results indicate that none of the specimens assigned to this species in previous phylogenetic studies cluster within the clade formed by topotypic samples, except for the sample of one tadpole. Furthermore, our comparison of published phenotypic and genetic data assigned to A. trilineatus with our new data led us to conclude that A. trilineatus as previously recognized was actually a complex of cryptic, closely related species. Although with the data at hand we cannot fully resolve the taxonomy of all sampled populations in previous studies, we provide a new definition and delimitation of A. trilineatus sensu stricto, assign other specimens to different evolutionary units corresponding to candidate species, and flag other important taxonomic issues.
We present the latest version of the Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis (MEGA) software, which contains many sophisticated
methods and tools for phylogenomics and phylomedicine. In this major upgrade, MEGA has been optimized for use on 64-bit computing
systems for analyzing bigger datasets. Researchers can now explore and analyze tens of thousands of sequences in MEGA. The
new version also provides an advanced wizard for building timetrees and includes a new functionality to automatically predict
gene duplication events in gene family trees. The 64-bit MEGA is made available in two interfaces: graphical and command line.
The graphical user interface (GUI) is a native Microsoft Windows application that can also be used on Mac OSX. The command
line MEGA is available as native applications for Windows, Linux, and Mac OSX. They are intended for use in high-throughput
and scripted analysis. Both versions are available from www.megasoftware.net free of charge.
Despite the impressive growth of knowledge on the phylogenetic systematics of dart-poison frogs and their relatives (Dendrobatoidea) over the past decade, many problems remain to be addressed. We analyzed up to 189 phenomic characters (morphology, behavior, defensive chemicals) and 15 mitochondrial and nuclear loci scored for 564 dendrobatoid and outgroup terminals, including 76 newly sequenced terminals and > 20 previously unanalyzed species, using tree-alignment and the parsimony optimality criterion in the program POY v.5.1.1 and additional analyses of the implied alignment using TNT v.1.5. Even though data coverage was highly heterogeneous, the strict consensus of 639 optimal trees is highly resolved and we detected only one instance of wildcard behavior involving a small clade of outgroup species. The monophyly of the median lingual process (MLP) possessing genus Anomaloglossus is decisively refuted, with the cis-Andean species being sister to Rheobates within Aromobatidae and the trans-Andean species nested within Hyloxalinae, implying two independent origins of the structure in Dendrobatoidea. Although this result was unexpected, it is not surprising given that the MLP evolved at least five times in Asian and African ranoids, including Arthroleptidae, Dicroglossidae, Mantellidae, and Rhacophoridae and either once in the most recent common ancestor of the massive clade Victoranura followed by independent losses or multiple times within component lineages. We restrict Anomaloglossus to the cis-Andean MLP-possessing species, describe a new genus for the trans-Andean MLP-possessing species, and resurrect Paruwrobates for its sister group, which includes Dendrobates andinus (formerly Ameerega), D. erythromos (formerly Hyloxalus and, until recently, Ameerega), and Prostherapis whymperi (formerly Hyloxalus). We also transfer Dendrobates maculatus from Ameerega to Epipedobates, making Ameerega an exclusively cis-Andean group. We describe two new species of the trans-Andean MLP-possessing genus-one from Cerro Tacarcuna, near the Colombo-Panamanian border, and the other from 800-900 m elevation on the western versant of the Colombian Cordillera Occidental (Cauca Department)-bringing the total number of species in the genus to seven. The discrete, round, white to yellowish-brown dots found on the venter of the new species from Cerro Tacarcuna and at least one other trans-Andean MLP-possessing species are formed by large, ellipsoid, densely distributed (up to 80 glands/mm²) granular glands. Although specimens of the new species from Cerro Tacarcuna exuded a noxious milky substance when handled, lipophilic alkaloids were not detected. In addition to the unexpected placement of the trans-Andean MLP-possessing species, major findings include the unexpected placement of Colostethus ruthveni and its undescribed sister species (the "C." ruthveni group) within Dendrobatinae as sister of the newly recognized tribe Dendrobatini (all dendrobatines except Phyllobates and the "C." ruthveni group). We describe a new genus for C. argyrogaster and C. fugax to remedy the paraphyly of Colostethus caused by the placement of those species as sister to Ameerega. Our evidence rejects the sister group relationship of Dendrobates + Oophaga in favor of Dendrobates + Adelphobates, which is consistent with their uniquely low diploid chromosome number of 2n = 18 (2n = 20 in Oophaga). With the exception of Anomaloglossus and Colostethus, all other genera are monophyletic. We recognize several monophyletic species groups-including the Atlantic Forest, trans-Andean, and 22-chromosome groups within Allobates, the An. stepheni, An. megacephalus, and An. beebei groups in Anomaloglossus, the C. latinasus (formed by the C. inguinalis and C. latinasus clades) and C. fraterdanieli groups within Colostethus, and the Am. braccata and Am. rubriventris groups within Ameerega-identify unambiguously optimized phenomic synapomorphies, and summarize patterns in the evolution of the diploid chromosome number, swelling of Finger IV in males, relative length of Fingers II and III, length of Finger V, and testicular and intestinal pigmentation. Finally, we address criticisms of the current taxonomy of Neotropical poison frogs and their relatives, concluding that they are either overstated, misguided, or false, and that the current system of names better communicates knowledge of the diversity of these frogs. Our results highlight the importance of increased taxon sampling, and we conclude by identifying key species to include in future phylogenetic analyses.
The use of acoustic signals is a common characteristic of most anuran species to mediate intraspecific communication. Besides many social purposes, one of the main functions of these signals is species recognition. For this reason, this phenotypic trait is normally applied to taxonomy or to construct evolutionary relationship hypotheses. Here the acoustic repertoire of five populations of the genus Allobates from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest are presented for the first time, on a vulnerable to extinction Neotropical taxon. The description of males’ advertisement and aggressive calls and a female call emitted in a courtship context are presented. In addition, the advertisement calls of individuals from distinct geographical regions were compared. Differences in frequency range and note duration may imply in taxonomic rearrangements of these populations, once considered distinct species, and more recently, proposed as a single species, Allobates olfersioides. Calls of the male from the state of Rio de Janeiro do not overlap spectrally with calls of males from northern populations, while the shorter notes emitted by males from Alagoas also distinguishes this population from the remaining southern populations. Therefore, it is likely that at least two of the junior synonyms should be revalidated. Similarities among male advertisement and female calls are generally reported in other anuran species; these calls may have evolved from a preexisting vocalization common to both sexes. Male aggressive calls were different from both the male advertisement and female calls, since it was composed by a longer and multi-pulsed note. Aggressive and advertisement calls generally have similar dominant frequencies, but they have temporal distinctions. Such patterns were corroborated with the Atlantic Forest Rocket Frogs. These findings may support future research addressing the taxonomy of the group, behavioral evolution, and amphibian conservation.
Simões, Pedro Ivo, Lima, Albertina P., Farias, Izeni Pires (2010): The description of a cryptic species related to the pan-Amazonian frog Allobates femoralis (Boulenger 1883) (Anura: Aromobatidae). Zootaxa 2406: 1-28, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.194212
I describe the seventh species of nurse-frog (Allobates) from the Madeira River basin in Brazilian Amazonia. The new species is distinguished from similar congeneric species by its small body size (snout-to-vent length ranging between 14.0-14.7 mm in adult males and between 14.7-14.9 mm in adult females), by the absence of dark brown regular shapes (e.g. hourglass, "X" or polygon-like marks) on the dorsum, by the absence of transverse dark bars on the dorsal surface of the thigh, and by the light gray to white ventral surfaces, light to dark gray only on throat in live male and female specimens. Males have a distinctive advertisement call characterized by the emission of long (7-11 s) trills of short notes (0.04 s in average) with dominant frequency at 5.9-6.3 kHz and emission rate ranging between 6.7-8.7 notes/s. DNA barcode analyses based on a fragment of the 16S rDNA mitochondrial gene provides additional support to the recognition of the new taxon, which is probably distributed on the east riverbank of the Madeira River, in the interfluve between the Aripuanã and Ji-Paraná rivers.
We describe a new species of Colostethus that is unusual in that males have blue digits on the hands and blue toe discs; females have blue discs on the fingers and toes but lack blue digits. The new species occurs in lowland tropical rainforest south of Manaus, Amazonas, Brazil, in the municipality of Castanho, at km 12 on the road to Autazes. Six species of Colostethus occur in the vicinity of Manaus; two, C. stepheni and C. marchesianus, occur north of the Amazon River, and four, including the new species and three undescribed species, occur south of the river. Four of these six species have small body size; i.e., adult male SVLs are ≤18.0 mm. Two of the species, both undescribed, from south of the Amazon have adult male SVLs ≥19.5 mm. Calls of all six species are unique; calls are produced either continuously, as inthe case of the new species, C. marchesianus, and one of the large undescribed species south of the Amazon river, or in bouts of varying lengths. The function of the blue digits in males of the new species is unknown but may be associated with visual communication during reproductive behavior. Blue toes or discs were present only in adults during the breeding season.
The Yutajé-Corocoro massif is a highly eroded sandstone table mountain, with internal drainage mainly to the central valley of the Río Corocoro, a stream in the headwater drainage of the Río Manapiare - some 100 km east of the middle Río Orinoco, at the northern edge of the State of Amazonas in southern Venezuela. The rocky soil supports a mosaic of diverse scrubland and forest, with small tepui meadows at the higher elevations. The herpetofauna is depauperate, as is typical of the Venezuelan tepuis. Eight species of amphibians and reptiles were collected during a 7-day period in the dry season (February). This sample includes two new frogs (Hyalinobatrachium eccentricum, n. sp., Centrolenidae; Colostethus undulatus, n. sp., Dendrobatidae) and a new genus and species of lizards (Adercosaurus vixadnexus, n. gen. & sp., Teiidae), all of which were found in humid montane mossy forest at 1700-1750 m elevation. Another new lizard (Tropidurus panstictus, n. sp., Tropiduridae) was discovered at lower elevations (180-1220 m), especially in dry scrub. The fauna also includes a widespread lowland frog (Pseudopaludicola llanera Lynch), two tepui frogs (Eleutherodactylus cantitans Myers and Donnelly; E. yaviensis Myers and Donnelly), a tepui lizard (Prionodactylus goeleti [Myers and Donnelly], new combination), a snake (Liophis?) that escaped capture, and another snake (Thamnodynastes corocoroensis Gorzula and Ayarzagüena) obtained by S. Gorzula in 1987. The two Eleutherodactylus and the Prionodactylus also occur on neighboring Cerro Yaví (the type locality), although one of the frogs (E. yaviensis) and the lizard show evidence of differentiation. Based on the original description, the snake Thamnodynastes corocoroensis appears to be distinct from a related species on Cerro Yaví. Two of the new species exhibit characters that are novel or not previously noted. The dendrobatid frog Colostethus undulatus, n. sp. has a glandular supracarpal pad atop the wrist, being best developed in males. This species, which also has the parasphenoid bone curiously concealed, seems to be unusual among tepui Colostethus in lacking the recently described median lingual process. The centrolenid frog Hyalinobatrachium eccentricum, n. sp. has a peculiar bicolored iris, with a dark median sector that conceals the pupil and which apparently dilates with the pupil. This character is retained in preservative and differentiates H. eccentricum from H. crurifasciatum Donnelly and Myers. Both species share a previously overlooked bubblelike structure in the web between the third and fourth fingers, herein termed bulla (possibly parasite induced?).