A large new species of Rhinella (Anura: Bufonidae) from Cerrado of Brazil

Abstract

A new toad, Rhinella cerradensis, is described, including its tadpole and the advertisement call. The new species occupies Cerrado habitats in the Brazilian states of Piauí, Bahia, Goiás, Minas Gerais, and Distrito Federal. The species is characterized by its large size; absence of tibial glands; well developed cranial crests; short hands; sexually dimorphic coloration; and by the absence of a spiracle tube of the tadpole. The new species is included in the Rhinella marina group by the presence of a jagged suture formed by the articulation between the pterygoid medial ramus and the parasphenoid alae, as well as other shared morphological features. Morphological characters and statistical analyses inferred by morphometric feature suggest the existence of two subgroups of species within R. marina group. However, taxonomic rearrangements are not made here and await phylogenetic analysis.

Taxonomic revision of Rhinella granulosa species group (Amphibia, Anura, Bufonidae), with a description of a new species

“…However, recent investigations are showing that, at least for some of these species complexes, these results might be due to insufficient taxonomic work, and species considered to have wider distributions were not, in fact, single taxonomic units as new species have been described (Heyer, 2005;Heyer et al, 2005;Nascimento et al, 2005;Caramaschi, 2006;Camargo et al, 2006;Cruz et al, 2007). In the genus Rhinella, R. jimi was described for the Caatingas (Stevaux, 2002), and two new species, R. veredas (Brandão et al, 2007) and R. cerradensis (Maciel et al, 2007) were recently described as endemic to the Brazilian Cerrado biome. We think that future taxonomic work with frogs from the Cerrado, Caatinga, and Chaco will broken the apparent general pattern of frogs widely distributed along the three main blocks of open formations and will result in the discovery of more species yet to be described, with specific habitat requirements.…”

The advertisement call of Rhinella granulosa (Anura, Bufonidae)

“…Air and water temperatures were measured after each recording. The terminology used to describe calls follows Martin (1972) and Maciel et al (2007). The advertisement call of R. granulosa consists of a long trill with variable duration (4.034 ± 0.616 s, range 2.43 -6.78 s) emitted in irregular time intervals and with an average repetition rate of 5.6 calls per minute.…”

<strong>Internal oral morphology in larvae of the genus <em>Rhinella</em> Fitzinger, 1826 (Amphibia, Anura, Bufonidae) </strong>

“…Of the 86 valid species of Rhinella, 25 have the tadpole known (Cei 1980;Heyer et al 1990;Caldwell 1991;Carvalho-e-Silva 1988;Eterovick & Sazima 1999;Carvalho-e-Silva et al 1994;Aguilar & Gamarra 2004;Borteiro et al 2006;Menin et al 2006;Lima et al 2007;Maciel et al 2007;Mercês et al 2009;Lourenço et al 2010;Tolledo & Toledo 2010;Fehlberg et al 2012;Ruas et al 2012) and only five have the internal oral morphology evidenced, as R. arenarum, R. icterica, R. ornata, R. quechua, R. schneideri and R. spinulosa (Fabrezi & Vera 1997;Prado 2006;Candioti 2007;Dias 2008;Aguayo et al 2009). Broad comparisons and generalizations about larval morphology exist for few taxa of anurans, which complicate the use of these characters in taxonomic and systematic studies.…”