Abstract
Substantial molecular and morphological character differences lead us to the description of a new species of the genus Pristimantis from the cloud forest of Cerro Chucantí, Maje Mountains, Darien Province, as well as from several other mountain ranges in eastern and central Panama. Pristimantisgretathunbergaesp. nov. is a sister species to the allopatric P.erythropleura-penelopus group from northern Colombia with a mtDNA sequence divergence of > 4.4% at 16S and > 14.6% at COI. Its closest congener in sympatry is P.cruentus that differs by a large sequence divergence of > 9.6% in 16S mtDNA and 19.0% at COI, and from which it differs also by ventral and groin coloration, unusually prominent black eyes, a contrasting light upper lip, commonly a single conical to spine-like tubercle on the upper eyelid, and a larger head. While the habitat continuity at most sites in eastern Panama is moderate, habitats in central Panama are severely fragmented. Cerro Chucantí and the surrounding Maje Mountains are highly threatened by rapid deforestation and replaced by plantations and cattle pastures. Thus, investigations on the ecology of the new species and its population status, especially at the type locality, are highly recommended. As a flagship species, this new frog can help to preserve the Chucantí cloud forest including several recently described species known only from this isolated area in eastern Panama.
Highlights
Tropical regions are extraordinarily rich in biodiversity which is caused by the combination of historical, climatic, and geographic characteristics that favor high speciation rates, as for example in anurans (Myers et al 2000)
All other samples were grouped with high bootstrap support in their corresponding known species, with the lowest, yet still good support of 89.% for Group 3 (P. erythropleura) and 86.8% for Group 2 that consisted of single specimens originally labeled as P. cruentus (SMF 97539), P. paisa (AJC 1344) and P. viejas (EMM 247), see Reyes-Puig et al (2020)
The cruentus clade contains the specimen CH 6456 from Cana, Darien Province, Panama, originally labeled as P. aff. latidiscus (Crawford et al 2012). This specimen was relabeled as P. cruentus, P. latidiscus is removed from the list of Panamanian Pristimantis species, because all other originally labeled P. latidiscus
Summary
Tropical regions are extraordinarily rich in biodiversity which is caused by the combination of historical, climatic, and geographic characteristics that favor high speciation rates, as for example in anurans (Myers et al 2000). A relatively recent divergence and similar morphological character variations among species indicate a remarkable cryptic diversity within Pristimantis (Ortega-Andrade et al 2015). This genus is the result of a mega-radiation event (Mendoza et al 2015; Heinicke et al 2018; Waddell et al 2018) and contains approximately 6.7% of all known amphibian and 7.4% of all anuran species (AmphibiaWeb 2021; Frost 2021). Rainfrogs can fill niches unoccupied by other amphibians (Teran-Valdez and Guayasamin 2010)
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