A new species of Hyloscirtus (Anura, Hylidae) from the Colombian and Venezuelan slopes of Sierra de Perijá, and the phylogenetic position of Hyloscirtus jahni (Rivero, 1961)

Abstract

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 treefrog from Cordillera del Cóndor with comments on the biogeographic affinity between Cordillera del Cóndor and the Guianan Tepuis (Anura, Hylidae, Hyloscirtus)

“…Our phylogeny is consistent with previous phylogenies of Hyloscirtus (e.g., Almendáriz et al 2014; Coloma et al 2012; Faivovich et al 2005; Rojas-Runjaic et al 2018). The sister clade of the H.larinopygion group appears to be the H.armatus group (e.g., Rojas-Runjaic et al 2018, Duellman et al 2016, herein).…”

“…Four species groups within Hyloscirtus ( H.jahni, H.bogotensis, H.armatus , and H.larinopygion group) were recovered with strong support (posterior probability, pp = 1.0 and bootstrap = 100) in both analysis (Figure 1). However, phylogenetic relationships among these groups were weakly supported (pp < 0.71 and bootstrap < 50), as previously reported (Almendáriz et al 2014; Coloma et al 2012; Guayasamin et al 2015; Rojas-Runjaic et al 2018). The only exception was the strong support found for the clade H.armatus group + H.larinopygion group found in the Bayessian analysis (pp = 0.99).…”

“…Sequences were edited and assembled with Geneious 10.2.3 software (Gene Matters Corp, Kearse et al 2012). The obtained sequences were compared with those available in GenBank (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/) for the Hyloscirtuslarinopygion and bogotensis groups (published by Almendáriz et al 2014; Coloma et al 2012; Darst and Cannatella 2004; Elmer and Cannatella 2008; Faivovich et al 2004; Faivovich et al 2005; Guayasamin et al 2015; Rojas-Runjaic et al 2018; Wiens et al 2005; Wiens et al 2006) (Table 1). For the outgroup we added sequences of Aplastodiscusweygoldti , Bokermannohylacircumdata , Boanacrepitans , B.lundii , B.marianitae , B.riojana , Itapotihylalangsdorfii , Myersiohylakanaima , and Pseudacrisnigrita .…”

“…Species of this group were transferred to the genus Colomascirtus by Duellman et al (2016). A recent phylogeny showed that the recognition of Colomascirtus rendered Hyloscirtus paraphyletic (Rojas-Runjaic et al 2018). To maintain taxonomic stability, Colomascirtus was synonymized under Hyloscirtus by Rojas-Runjaic et al (2018).…”

On the Monophyly and Relationships of Several Genera of Hylini (Anura: Hylidae: Hylinae), with Comments on Recent Taxonomic Changes in Hylids

“…We find that difficulty in the manageability of a very large group like Hylidae, also invoked by Duellman et al (2016:5) as justification for their taxonomic changes, is questionable insofar as it means different things to 3 Regarding generic changes introduced by Duellman et al (2016) in Cophomantini Hoffman, 1878, Rojas-Runjaic et al (2018 recentely showed that the recognition of their new genus Colomascirtus (erected despite the cautionary remarks on the taxonomy of Hyloscirtus Peters, 1882by Rivera-Correa et al, 2016 for the former Hyloscirtus armatus and H. larinopygion Groups makes Hyloscirtus as redefined by Duellman et al (2016) paraphyletic, leading them to consider Colomascirtus to be a junior synonym of Hyloscirtus. Faivovich and De la Riva (2006) had explicitly questioned the monophyly of the Hyloscirtus bogotensis Group as defined by Duellman (1972) and Faivovich et al (2005), for which Duellman et al (2016) restricted the genus Hyloscirtus.…”