A New Striped Treefrog from Central Colombia

Abstract

Hyla wandae is described from the western edge of the Colombian Ilanos. It seems most closely related to Hyla staufferi, H. parkeri, and H. squalirostris, from which it differs in structural features and color pattern. The mating call of H. wandae is a distinctive series of loud, harsh, regularly repeated notes. Mr. Jerry Glidewell and the senior author collected ten specimens of an apparently unnamed hylid frog in June, July, and August 1969, in Central Colombia. The collecting locality, near Villavicencio, lies at the base of the eastern Andes in what once may have been piedmont forest (Bates, 1948), but is now cleared pasture-land. The frogs were calling from grass clumps and low shrubs around temporary pasture pools. Specimens are deposited in the U. S. National Museum (USNM), The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA), Arizona State University (ASU), University of Kansas Museum of Natural History (KU), and American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Hyla wandae, sp. nov. (Fig. 1) Holotype. USNM 192305; 12 km NNE of Villavicencio, Meta, Colombia; elevation about 580 m; 30 July 1969; Jerry R. Glidewell and William F. Pyburn, collectors. Paratypes. USNM 192306-192310 (5 specimens), same data as holotype; UTA 2819, ASU 13129, 13 August 1969, same locality; UTA 2821, 21 June 1969, same locality; KU 131717, 18 km NNE of Villavicencio, 620 m. Diagnosis. Small hylids (males to 26.9 mm snout-vent) of the rubra complex, with 4 dark, dorsolateral stripes; indistinct transverse bars on shanks. Snout pointed; head about as long as wide or slightly longer; tympanum about half of eye diameter; no ulnar or tarsal folds. Digital discs subtruncate, those of finger 3 and 4 and toe 4 about as wide as tympanum; finger webbing virtually lacking; toes about two-thirds webbed, reduced to vestige between toes 1 and 2. Mating call a sequence of short, harsh, regularly repeated buzzes; note duration somewhat greater than interval between notes. Description of Holotype. Adult male, snout-vent length 23.4mm. Head flat, about as wide (7.5mm) as long (7.7mm); dorsal aspect of snout pointed, lateral aspect of snout acutely rounded and projecting beyond lower jaw; snout rather elongate (3.5mm, anterior corner of eye to tip of snout); canthus rounded; loreal region nearly flat (barely concave); nostrils somewhat protuberant, the internarial distance (1.6mm) less than width of upper eyelid (1.9mm); eyes somewhat protuberant, length (2.5mm) almost equal to interorbital distance (2.6mm) and greater than eye (anterior corner) to nostril (posterior edge) (2.2mm); tympanum distinct, small (1.3mm), its diameter about half of eye length; a weak supratympanic fold covers the dorsal edge of the