Revision der Farbmuster-Variabilität in der madagassischen Gattung Mantella (Salientia: Ranidae)

Abstract

The colour morphs of preserved material as well as of live specimens of the Malgasy frog genus Mantella are described. The discussion of their variability shows that two of the names accepted by GUIBE (1964,1978) are synonyms of the oldest name available, a third, synonymized by him (op. cit.) is revalidated. The proposed taxonomic changes are: Mantella cowani (part., sensu GUIBÉ)=M. laevigata ; M. cowani (part.) and M. pulchra (sensu GUIBÉ) = M. madagascariensis. The latter is divided into three subspecies, one of which is described as M. madagascariensis haraldmeierissp. n. An identification key to all taxa of the genus Mantella is presented.

The identity of Mantella cowani Boulenger, 1882 and Mantella haraldmeieri Busse, 1981 (Anura: Mantellinae)

“…nor with any other Mantella. It is morphologically distinct and shows, as far as known, only little variability (Busse 1981, Meier 1986), the range of variation being demonstrated here by the type series as a whole ( fig. 2).…”

“…Blommers-Schlosser and Blanc (1991) recently synonymized M. haraldmeieri Busse, 1981with M. cowani Boulenger, 1882, maintaining, however, M. madagascariensis (Grandidier, 1872 as a valid species. Thus, their nomenclatural action was twofold: (1) they removed cowani from the synonymy of madagascariensis and revived it as a distinct species, and (2) relegated the taxon haraldmeieri to the synonymy of the just resurrected cowani.…”

“…cit.) obviously used Busse's (1981) original description of haraldmeieri for diagnosing their cowani s. str.!…”

“…Mantella haraldmeieri was described by Busse (1981) on the basis of 6 specimens originating from the vicinity of Fort Dauphin (= Taolagnaro) on the south coast of Madagascar. He originally classified this frog as a subspecies of Mantella madagascariensis (Grandidier, 1872), a highly variable species the name of which antedates and therefore had to replace M. cowani Boulenger, 1882 sensu lato, as used by Guibe (1964Guibe ( , 1978; see also Busse (op.…”

Alkaloids in Madagascan Frogs (Mantella): Pumiliotoxins, Indolizidines, Quinolizidines, and Pyrrolizidines

“…Among class A (see Figure 1) are cisor trans-fused 2,5-disubstituted decahydroquinolines (1), 3,5-disubstituted pyrrolizidines (2), 3,5or 5,8-disubstituted indolizidines (3), 1,4-disubstituted quinolizidines (4), 1 -azaspiro{5.5 }undecan-8-ols (histrionicotoxins) (5), and tricyclic alkaloids (6), such as the gephyrotoxins and coccinellines. Among class B (see Figure 1) are the pumiliotoxin-A (PTX-A) class (6-alkylidene-8-methyl-8-hydroxyindolizidines) (7) with two important subclasses of the 7-hydroxy PTX-A alkaloids (the allopumiliotoxins) and the homopumiliotoxin alkaloids which contain a quinolizidine rather than an indolizidine nucleus; cyclopenta [6]quinolizidines (8) (3); the pseudophrynamines (3a-prenyl-pyrrolo [2,[3][4][5][6]indoles) (9) (4); the pyrrolizidine oximes (hexahydro-2,2-dimethylspiro{cyclopentane-l,l'-[lH]pyrrolizine}-7'oximes) (10) (5); and the potent steroidal neurotoxins of the batrachotoxin and samandarine groups (11).…”