Morphometric analysis to differentiate taxonomically seven species of Eleutherodactylus (Amphibia: Anura: Leptodactylidae) from an Andean cloud forest of Colombia

Abstract

The genus Eleutherodactylus contains a large number of species and species groups that have had a notoriously difficult taxonomy. Morphometric analyses open new approaches and perspectives to evaluate morphological characters in the taxonomic context. Morphometric and statistical analyses were applied to differentiate taxonomically seven Eleutherodactylus species that co-occur in an Andean cloud forest (six of these belonging to the unistrigatus group). Fifty one characters were evaluated to determine those characters that best separate the species and species groups. Using morphometric analyses we were able to discriminate among species and species groups defined a priori. Qualitative characters, particularly the colour patterns, allowed recognising the juveniles of two groups; however, the discriminant analyses could not differentiate them. Quantitative characters allowed easy recognition of those species with a large sample size. Ten of the eleven quantitative variables showed a good discriminatory power: Linear combination of tympanum-eye distance and eyelid width, tympanum-eye distance, tympanum diameter, phalangeal width of finger IV, head length, eyelid width, head width, eye diameter, snout-vent length, and interorbital distance. Distance between eye and nostril was excluded from the discriminant model because of its low discriminatory power. Thus, morphometric and qualitative variables proved be useful in differentiating among Eleutherodactylus species and species groups at adult and juvenile levels.

Systematics of Huicundomantis, a new subgenus of Pristimantis (Anura, Strabomantidae) with extraordinary cryptic diversity and eleven new species

“…We performed separate analyses for males and females. As they have been reported to be variable among Pristimantis species (Arroyo et al 2005), we used SVL, HL, HW, TD, and ED measurements for morphometrics. To assess the degree of morphometric differentiation between candidate species, we performed a Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) including the variables mentioned above without size correction.…”

Integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic Amazonian species ofPristimantis(Anura: Strabomantidae)

“…We do not include values of interorbital distance (IOD) and upper eyelid width (EW). Our experience indicates that these parameters are usually of scarce utility because the preservation condition of the specimen greatly influences the measurements and makes it difficult to have precise and comparable values for large series (but see Arroyo et al. , 2005).…”

Variación morfométrica y geográfica entre poblaciones de <em>Hypsiboas cordobae</em> (Anura: Hylidae) en Argentina

“…Así, estudios en sistemática basados en la morfología de los organismos requieren técnicas de descripción y comparación de la estructura de las formas (Rohlf 1990, Bernaltaxonómicas y filogenéticas entre ellos, por ejemplo, descartando o aceptando diferencias entre grupos de individuos que ocupaban un nivel taxonómico incierto (Barrio 1965, Cei 1980, Heyer et al 1990, Arikan et al 1998, Maneyro & Arrieta 2000, Lobo 2001Lobo & Abdala 2001, Oliver & Lobo 2002, Méndez et al 2004, Arroyo et al 2005, Fabrezi 2006). Debido a la limitada capacidad de dispersión y filopatría en anfibios (Seppä & Laurila 1999;Lampert et al 2003), es frecuente que poblaciones separadas geográficamente presenten diferencias intraespecíficas en sus estructuras morfológicas, particularmente en el tamaño corporal, generadas por una acumulación de diferencias genéticas y morfológicas debido a este aislamiento geográfico , Laugen et al 2002, Schäuble 2004).…”