Frogs of the Eleutherodactylus biporcatus group (Leptodactylidae) of Central America and northern South America, including rediscovered, resurrected, and new taxa. American Museum novitates ; no. 3357
Supplemental Materials
Date
2002
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New York, NY : American Museum of Natural History
DOI
DOI
Abstract
A revision of the broad-headed frogs of the biporcatus species group of Eleutherodactylus s.l. has a wholly unexpected nomenclatural consequence. Eleutherodactylus biporcatus (W. Peters, 1863) is not from "Veragua" (western Panama) as originally thought, but is the proper name for the Venezuelan frog heretofore known as E. maussi (Boettger, 1893). Three names are resurrected from synonymy for Central American species currently masquerading under the misapplied name biporcatus, and a fourth species is described as new: (1) The rediscovery of Eleutherodactylus gulosus (Cope, 1875) shows it to be a large montane frog occupying an apparently small range in the borderland of Costa Rica and Panama. (2) Eleutherodactylus rugosus (W. Peters, 1863) is a smaller species occurring on the Pacific versant of southwestern Costa Rica and western Panama; Lithodytes pelviculus Cope and L. florulentus Cope are synonyms of E. rugosus. (3) Eleutherodactylus megacephalus (Cope, 1875), an intermediate-sized frog ranging from Honduras to central Panama, is the more common species to which the name biporcatus has usually been applied. Available material from the western half of the Isthmus of Panama was too sparse to decide if another (unnamed) species is being included under the name megacephalus. (4) The name biporcatus also has been used for Eleutherodactylus opimus, new species, which occurs from central Panama to western Colombia. Based on the condition of the m. adductor mandibulae, the Venezuelan Eleutherodactylus biporcatus s.s. (E. maussi, auctorum) belongs to the Middle American clade of Eleutherodactylus (subgenus Craugaster). However, preliminary data on karyotypes, as well as morphological differences, cast doubt on the closeness of E. biporcatus to the other species studied. The monophyly of the "biporcatus group" therefore remains to be tested.
Description
48 p. : ill., maps ; 26 cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-48).
Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-48).
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