A new species of Trachycephalus (Anura: Hylidae) from the Atlantic Rain Forest in southern Brazil

Abstract

A new species of Trachycephalus is described from the Araucaria plateau of northern Rio Grande do Sul and western Santa Catarina states, southern Brazil, where it occurs in forests from about 550 to 950 m a.s.l. The new species was previously confused with T. imitatrix and might also occur in adjacent regions of Paraná state and Misiones province, Argentina. It is a large sized hylid (mean SVL 77.6 mm in females, 57.2 mm in males) with greenish to olive or brown dorsal coloration in life, conspicuous dorsal pattern of dark ocelli and spots, and broad, black and white-edged transverse bands on limbs. The yellow iris has a characteristic black reticulated pattern forming a radial symmetric network of four light, petal-like spots. The advertisement call consists of a long series of multi-pulsed notes with duration between 470– 760 ms, note intervals between 0.8–3.0 s and note repetition rates of 24–36 per s. The dominant frequency spectrum ranges between 1100 and 1800 Hz, with a peak at about 1550 Hz.