Title
A needle in a haystack: Integrative taxonomy reveals the existence of a new small species of fossorial frog (Anura, Microhylidae, Synapturanus) from the vast lower Putumayo basin, Peru
Date Issued
01 January 2022
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Instituto Peruano de Herpetología
Instituto Peruano de Herpetología
Instituto Peruano de Herpetología
Publisher(s)
Pensoft Publishers
Abstract
We describe a new species of microhylid frog of the genus Synapturanus from the lower Putumayo basin in Loreto, Perú. Specimens inhabited the soils of stunted pole forests growing on peat. The new species is distinguished from other species of Synapturanus through morphology, genetics, and acoustic characteristics. This species differs from most nominal congeners by having a head flat in lateral view (vs convex in the rest of species), a characteristic only shared by S. rabus and S. salseri. The new species can be distinguished from S. rabus and S. salseri by a combination of morphological characters and by having an advertisement call with a note length of 0.05–0.06 seconds (vs 0.03 seconds in S. rabus) and a dominant frequency ranging from 1.73 to 1.81 kHz (vs 1.10–1.47 kHz in S. salseri). Principal component analyses of 12 morphological characters and three acoustic variables further support differences between the new species and its described and undescribed congeners.
Start page
9
End page
20
Volume
6
Issue
1
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Zoología, Ornitología, Entomología, ciencias biológicas del comportamiento Ciencia veterinaria
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85126141053
Source
Evolutionary Systematics
ISSN of the container
25350730
DOI of the container
10.3897/evolsyst.6.8028
Source funding
Field Museum
Bobolink Foundation
Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas SINCHI
Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología
Lindy Keiser, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
Sponsor(s)
We thank Antoine Fouquet for his value feedback which helped us to improve this article. This research would not have been possible without the valuable help of the local people from the Comunidad Nativa Tres Esquinas who kindly and patiently guided us deep into the forest to find the new species. The fieldwork was funded by the generous support of an anonymous donor and additionally by Bobolink Foundation, Connie and Dennis Keller, Mike and Lindy Keiser, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Field Museum. We thank Corine Vriesendorp and Alvaro del Campo for trusting our work. We also appreciate the help of Marcos Rios and Luis Montenegro with the identification of the plants in the type locality of the new species. GC is deeply grateful with The Cornell Ornithology Lab by providing the acoustic equipment that made possible the call recordings for this research. DAS was supported by Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas SINCHI in Colombia, and a post-doctoral fellowships funded by Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología “Francisco José de Caldas” -Colciencias.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus