A new species of Hyloscirtus, belonging to the H. bogotensis species Group, is described from the Venezuelan and Colombian slopes of the Sierra de Perijá. The new species can be readily distinguished from its congeners by the combination of the following characters: mental gland present, disc-shaped and small; ulnar, outer, and inner tarsal folds present; calcar tubercle absent; whitish stripes on external border of upper eyelids and supratympanic folds, longitudinally on the mid-dorsum, on supracloacal fold, outer ulnar folds, inner and outer tarsal folds, and also on dorsal internal surface of shanks. We estimate phylogenetic relationships based on mtDNA (spanning fragments of 12S rRNA, tRNA-Val and 16S rRNA), of all Hyloscirtus species available in Genbank, as well as the new species described herein, H. callipeza, H. jahni, and H. platydactylus, all of which have not been previously sequenced. Our molecular data support the hypothesis of the new species as sister species of H. callipeza and indicates that H. jahni does not belong to the H. bogotensis species Group, but rather is sister species of all other Hyloscirtus (sensu Faivovich et al. 2005). Based on this last result we propose a new species group for H. jahni and the synonymy of Colomascirtus in Hyloscirtus. We also provide the first description of the advertisement call of H. callipeza. With the new species described herein, the number of Hyloscirtus species increases to 37.
A new species of diurnal frog of the genus Aromobates is described from the Sierra de Perijá in the Andes of western Venezuela. The new species is the first dendrobatid reported from this mountain range, though many other congeners are known from the Cordillera de Mérida, also in the Venezuelan Andes. It can be readily distinguished from all congeners by the unique combination of the following characters: dorsal skin granulate, paired and protuberant dorsal digital scutes, finger I shorter than finger II, fringes absent on fingers I and IV, present and conspicuous on all toes, toe webbing basal, dorsolateral stripe present, oblique lateral stripe diffuse, ventrolateral stripe absent. With this new species the number of Aromobates species from Venezuela increases to 13.
The glassfrog Centrolene daidaleum is considered endemic to the Cordillera Oriental of the Colombian Andes, and is known only from eight localities between 1,600 and 2,060 m, on the western slope of this mountain system. Herein we report the first record of this species from Venezuela based on specimens coming from the Sierra de Perijá, Zulia state. The species’ altitudinal range is extended, and some ecological information is provided.
Pristimantis lassoalcalai Barrio-Amorós, Rojas-Runjaic & Barros, 2010 is a poorly known terrarana, endemic to the eastern slope of Sierra de Perijá in Venezuela. Although a close relationship of this species with Tachiramantis has been suspected based on its overall morphological similarity, this relationship had not been tested so far. On the basis of molecular data (two fragments of the 12S and 16S mtDNA genes) obtained from the type series, we reconstruct its evolutionary relationships and establish its phylogenetic position as a member of Tachiramantis. Based on this phylogenetic hypothesis, we transfer Pristimantis lassoalcalai to Tachiramantis as Tachiramantis lassoalcalai comb. nov. In addition, we describe its advertisement call. This is the fourth known species of the genus and the second to which its vocalization is described.
Anablepsoides hartii is a non-annual fish of the family Cynolebiidae. Historically, this species has presented some inconsistencies for proper identification, due to a variation in the color pattern. The aim of this study was to describe and illustrate the different types of color patterns found in this species. For this purpose, we examined a total of 336 preserved specimens (19 lots) deposited in the ichthyological collections of the Museo de Biologia de la Universidad Central de Venezuela and the Museo de Ciencias Naturales in Guanare, Venezuela. The specimens were sorted by distinctive characteristics of size, sex and locality. Besides, we took photographs of each individual, vectorized them with detail, separating light and dark colorations and delimited color patterns of the same tone with the program Corel Draw version x7 (Spanish). My analysis showed that A. hartii presented four colors patterns. The color morphs were classified as: 1 male, 2 female, 3 intermediate and 4 montane. The first two color morphs were separated by sexual characters (sexual dimorphism); in turn, the intermediate color morph presented characters of both males and females in the same individual. Finally, the montane color morph differed from the previous ones by presenting a series of incomplete lateral rows, followed by a half-body reticulation to the tail. This analysis allowed the identification of the differences in this morphologically variable species.
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