Six New Species of (Anura: Strabomantidae) from Llanganates National Park and Sangay National Park in Amazonian Cloud Forests of Ecuador

Overview

Journal PeerJ

Specialties Biology
Environmental Health
General Medicine

Date 2022 Oct 24

PMID 36275471

Authors

Jhael A Ortega

Jorge Brito

Santiago R Ron

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

We describe six new species of rainfrogs of the genus (Strabomantidae) from Amazonian cloud forests in Ecuador. We also present a phylogeny showing the relationships of the new species. The phylogeny is based on mitochondrial genes 16S rRNA (16S), 12 rRNA (12S), NADH-ubiquinone oxidoreductase chain 1 (ND1) and the nuclear gene recombination-activating 1 (RAG1). We also describe the osteology of two of the new species using high-resolution x-ray computed tomography. The new species belong to two clades. The first clade is sister to the subgenus and includes sp. nov., , and . sp. nov. is morphologically similar to , and , but differs from them by lacking vocal slits and tympanic membrane and by having light greenish blue iris. Based in our results we expand the subgenus to include the species group. The second clade is remarkable by being highly divergent and consisting exclusively of new species: sp. nov., sp. nov., sp. nov., sp. nov., and sp. nov. The new species resemble , , , , , and but can be distinguished from them by lacking vocal slits and tympanic membrane and by having large dark round areas with thin clear borders in the sacral region. All six new species occur in the eastern slopes of the Ecuadorian Andes and are known from a single locality in Llanganates or Sangay National Park. We recommend assigning all of them to the Data Deficient (DD) Red List category. Based in our high-resolution x-ray tomographies, we report the presence of structures that appear to be intercalary elements. This would be the first report of such structures in Terrarana.

Citing Articles

A new species of (Anura: Strabomantidae) from white-sand forests of central Amazonia, Brazil.

Monico A, Ferrao M, Moravec J, Fouquet A, Lima A PeerJ. 2023; 11:e15399.

PMID: 37304878 PMC: 10252896. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.15399.

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