A New Species of Eleutherodactylus from the Andes of Northern Peru (Anura: Leptodactylidae)

Abstract

-A new species of bromeliad-dwelling frog from the Cordillera Central in northern Peru is most similar to E. bromeliaceus from the Cordillera Oriental in southern Ecuador and E. mendax from the Cordillera Oriental in southern Peru. The cool, moist, montane forests, the so-called cloud forests, on the slopes of the Andes are the haunts of many species of frogs. Species of the leptodactylid genus Eleutherodactylus are especially numerous in the cloud forests of Ecuador (Lynch, 1979; Lynch and Duellman, 1980). As many as 11 species occur sympatrically at the Rio Azuela at an elevation of 1740 m on the Amazonian slopes of the Andes in Ecuador (Lynch and Duellman, 1980), and 11 species are known from La Planada at an elevation of 1780 m on the Pacific slopes of the Andes in southern Colombia (Lynch and Burrowes, 1990). Compared with the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador, these forests in Peru have been thought to harbor a relatively depauperate Eleutherodactylus fauna. That the number of species of Eleutherodactylus thought to inhabit Peruvian cloud forests is an artifact of fieldwork is attested by the discovery of five new species in the Cosfiipata Valley in southern Peru (Duellman, 1978), eight species in the Cordillera de Huancabamba in northern Peru in 1979, and nine species in the Cordillera Central in the Departamento de Amazonas in northern Peru in 1989. Most of the species of Eleutherodactylus collected in northern Peru remain unnamed. Prior to my own fieldwork in the Departamento de Amazonas in 1989, Rainer Schulte of Tarapoto, Peru, collected some species of Eleutherodactylus there and sent specimens to the University of Kansas. In recognition of his herpetological efforts, I associate his name with one of the new species. Eleutherodactylus schultei sp. nov. Fig. 1 Holotype.-University of Kansas Museum of Natural History (KU) 212222, an adult male, one of a series from 5 km N Levanto (06?17'S, 77?51'W, elevation 2850 m), Provincia de Chachapoyas, Departamento de Amazonas, Peru, collected on 25 January 1989 by Fernando M. Cuadros, William E. Duellman, Michael E. Morrison, and John J. Wiens. Paratypes.-KU 212220-21, 212223-24, and Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad San Marcos (MHNJP) 6172-73, collected with the holotype; KU 209496-47 from the type locality collected on 21 July 1981 by Rainer Schulte and Segundo Sanchez Barrantes; and KU 209498504 from 5 km (by road) NW of Mendoza, ca. 2400 m, Provincia Rodriguez de Mendoza, Departamento de Amazonas, Peru, collected on 23 July 1981 by Rainer Schulte and Segundo Sanchez Barrantes. Diagnosis.-A species in the Eleutherodactylus unistrigatus group as defined by Lynch (1976) with the following characters (format of Lynch, 1979): (1) Skin of dorsum shagreened with low tubercles on forelimbs, eyelids, and in tympanic region; dorsolateral folds absent; skin on belly granular; (2) tympanum distinct; (3) snout acuminate in dorsal view, concave dorsally to tip and inclined posteroventrally in profile; (4) upper eyelid lacking prominent tubercles, 62.977.4% (x = 69.9 ? 3.79, N = 14) interorbital distance; cranial crests absent; (5) vomerine odontophores, if present, widely separated, oblique; (6) males with vocal slits but no nuptial pads; (7) first finger shorter than second; all fingers bearing discs, those on fingers as large as tympanum; (8) fingers bearing lateral keels; (9) antebrachial tubercle absent; row of low ulnar tubercles present; (10) heel and outer edge of tarsus bearing numerous low tubercles; (11) two metatarsal tubercles, inner ovoid, twice size of subconical outer tubercle; numerous supernumerary plantar tubercles; (12) toes bearing lateral keels; webbing absent; toepads equal in size to those on fingers; (13) dorsum tan, reddish brown, or green, bordered or not by narrow dark brown line from snout to point above vent; venter white; posterior surfaces of thighs uniform tan; (14) males 23.5-26.6 mm, females 28.4-34.0 mm SVL. Eleutherodactylus schultei differs in habitus and coloration from all other congeners in Ecuador and Peru, except four species, all of which are like E. schultei in having acuminate snouts in This content downloaded from 157.55.39.124 on Sat, 23 Jul 2016 05:24:27 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms NEW PERUVIAN ELEUTHERODACTYLUS