The taxonomic status of two Telmatobius frog species (Anura: Telmatobiidae) from the western Andean slopes of northernmost Chile

Abstract

On the basis of molecular and morphological evidence, we evaluated the taxonomic identity of two species of Andean frogs of the genus Telmatobius: Telmatobius pefauri and T. zapahuirensis, present in the western Andean slopes at the northern extreme of Chile. We also investigated the taxonomic assignment of five populations of Telmatobius recently discovered around the type localities of these two species. The results indicate that T. pefauri inhabits, not only Murmuntani its type locality, but also the montane localities of Belén, Copaquilla, Lupica, Saxamar and Socoroma. Our study also shows that T. pefauri and T. zapahuirensis are the same taxon. Therefore, Telmatobius zapahuirensis Veloso, Sallaberry, Navarro, Iturra, Valencia, Penna & Díaz, 1982 would be a subjective junior synonym of Telmatobius pefauri Veloso & Trueb, 1976.

Third time’s the charm: The definitive rediscovery of Telmatobius halli Noble, 1938 (Anura, Telmatobiidae) at its historic type locality

“…Cuevas et al (2020) that include specimens of a population of Telmatobius sp. of the Carcote Salt Flat (Sáez et al 2014;Fibla et al 2017Fibla et al , 2018, but none of them specify the coordinates or a precise site within the salt flat. Only in , the presence of a population of Telmatobius sp.…”

“…philippii by Lobos et al (2018). According to the molecular phylogenetic analysis of Sáez et al (2014), the only one where all of these populations were included, they are nested in different cladesthe T. pefauri (former T. zapahuirensis, see Fibla et al 2017) and T. hintoni species groups (not recovered in the most recent analysis by Barrionuevo 2017)respectively, so they clearly do not correspond to the same taxon. Nevertheless, the opposing hypotheses of and Cuevas et al (2020) were refuted by Correa (2021), who demonstrated, also using bibliographic sources, that the frog was first found near a warm swimming pool in Miño, a location at the source of Loa River, at the western foot of Miño Volcano (Fig.…”

“…Despite these taxonomic uncertainties, the number of known populations of the genus in Chile has increased substantially over the last decade (e.g. Sáez et al 2014;Victoriano et al 2015;Fibla et al 2017;Rojas 2020see Correa 2019).…”

“…Trueb 1979;Wiens 1993;De la Riva et al 2005;Barrionuevo 2017), especially in characters that have been used for diagnosis in the description of some species (De la Riva et al 2005). Thus, molecular studies have played an important role in the systematics of this taxonomic group in Chile during the past few years (Sáez et al 2014;Victoriano et al 2015;Fibla et al 2017, 2018reviewed by Sáez and Méndez 2020. Nonetheless, a clear species delimitation has not been accomplished yet, and surely a more integrative approach (e.g.…”

Variation in the growth and development of the hind limbs in frogs of the genus Telmatobius (Anura: Telmatobiidae)

“…Hind‐limb relative length varies considerably in Telmatobius (Trueb, 1979; Vellard, 1951). Therefore, this character has been widely used in taxonomic studies (Barbour & Noble, 1920; Boulenger, 1882; Catenazzi, García, & Lehr, 2015; Cei, 1977; Cuevas & Formas, 2002; Fibla et al, 2017; Formas et al, 1999; Formas, Benavides, & Cuevas, 2003; Formas, Cuevas, & Nuñez, 2006; Noble, 1938; Parker, 1940; Trueb, 1979; Veloso & Trueb, 1976). In some cases, differences in the relative lengths of the hind limbs have been correlated with ecological factors.…”