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The Identity of Eleutherodactylus vertebralis (Boulenger) with the Description of a New Species from Colombia and Ecuador (Amphibia: Leptodactylidae)

1979; The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles; Volume: 13; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1563475

1937-2418

John D. Lynch,

Animal and Plant Science Education

Eleutherodactylus vertebralis is redescribed based on fresh material from the upper montane forests of the Pacific slopes of the Andes in Ecuador. It is most closely related to E. devillei, found in comparable ecologic settings on the Amazonian slopes of the Andes in northern Ecuador. Eleutherodactylus superatis sp. nov. occurs on the Amazonian slopes of the Andes in extreme northern Ecuador. This species is also reported from the Cordillera Central north to the vicinity of Medellin. Eleutherodactylus superatis differs from E devillei and E. vertebralis in lacking dorsolateral folds and in the shape of the snout. Boulenger (1886) named Eleutherodactylus vertebralis on the basis of two adult females from a region (the Cordillera de Intac) on the western face of the Cordillera Occidental in Imbabura Provincia, Ecuador. He noted that the species was similar to E. buckleyi (Boulenger) but differed in having a more slender habitus and larger digital pads. Boulenger's choice of a trivial name reflected the occurrence (in only one of the two syntypes) of a pale vertebral raphe extending from the tip of the snout to the vent. Such a variation is relatively common in Eleutherodactylus and has apparently resulted in the confounding of several species under the name E. vertebralis. The name has appeared in the primary zoological literature only five times (Werner (1901), Peracca (1904), Parker (1938), Cochran and Goin (1970), and Duellman and Simmons (1977)); I think each of these usages is based on misidentifications (with the exception of the redescription of the striped syntype by Cochran and Goin, 1970). Cochran and Goin (1970) reported several species under the name E. vertebralis from all three Andean cordilleras and the isolated Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in Colombia. While identifications cannot yet be made for all of the material reported by Cochran and Goin, the specimens reported from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta are E delicatus Ruthven and E. sanctaemartae Ruthven (taxa endemic to the Nevado). Some of the specimens Cochran and Goin reported from the western cordilleras are examples of the new species described below. So far as I am aware, E. vertebralis occurs only in Ecuador. Between 1970 and 1978 specimens have been collected on the Cordillera de Intac, the Nudo de Mojanda (Provincia Imbabura), and on the western flank of the paramos de Apagua (Provincia Cotopaxi). In view of the confusion surrounding the species, it is redescribed based on fresh material.