Abstract
We describe a new species of Telmatobius from the Pacific slopes of the Andes in central Peru. Specimens were collected at 3900 m elevation near Huaytará, Huancavelica, in the upper drainage of the Pisco river. The new species has a snout–vent length of 52.5 ± 1.1 mm (49.3–55.7 mm, n = 6) in adult females, and 48.5 mm in the single adult male. The new species has bright yellow and orange coloration ventrally and is readily distinguished from all other central Peruvian Andean species of Telmatobius but Telmatobius intermedius by having vomerine teeth but lacking premaxillary and maxillary teeth, and by its slender body shape and long legs. The new species differs from Telmatobius intermedius by its larger size, flatter head, and the absence of cutaneous keratinized spicules (present even in immature females of Telmatobius intermedius), and in males by the presence of minute, densely packed nuptial spines on dorsal and medial surfaces of thumbs (large, sparsely packed nuptial spines in Telmatobius intermedius). The hyper-arid coastal valleys of Peru generally support low species richness, particularly for groups such as aquatic breeding amphibians. The discovery of a new species in this environment, and along a major highway crossing the Andes, shows that much remains to be done to document amphibian diversity in Peru.
Highlights
The Tropical Andes are characterized by a large diversification of the aquatic frogs of the genus Telmatobius Wiegmann, 1834
Sixty-two species are currently recognized in this genus (AmphibiaWeb 2014; Aguilar and Valencia 2009; Frost 2014; including species previously assigned to Batrachophrynus Peters, 1873)
Twenty-eight species of Telmatobius are distributed in Peru (Lehr 2005; AmphibiaWeb 2014), but of these only five [T. arequipensis Vellard, 1955; T. intermedius Vellard, 1955; T. jelskii (Peters, 1873); T. peruvianus Wiegmann, 1834; T. rimac Schmidt, 1954] are known to occur in the hyper-arid coastal valleys that drain directly into the Pacific Ocean
Summary
The Tropical Andes are characterized by a large diversification of the aquatic frogs of the genus Telmatobius Wiegmann, 1834. During October 2012 we made several surveys for the Biodiversity and Monitoring Assessment Program of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation Education and Sustainability (Catenazzi et al 2013a; Catenazzi et al 2013b) During one of these surveys, we found a population of Telmatobius in the upper drainage of the Huaytará river (Region of Huancavelica), a tributary of the Pisco river in the Pacific slopes of the central Peruvian Andes. Individuals of this population possess traits that do not correspond to the morphological characteristics of other species found in the arid coastal valleys of central Peru (Fig. 1), namely T. rimac to the north and T. intermedius to the south (Vellard 1951; Schmidt 1954; Lehr 2005).
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