INTERESANTE REGISTRO, CON IMPLICACIONES CONSERVACIONISTAS, LLENA UN VACÍO EN EL RANGO DE DISTRIBUCIÓN GEOGRÁFICA PARA Hyloscirtus platydactylus (HYLIDAE)

Abstract

Hyloscirtus platydactylus is reported for the first time from the Rangel municipality of Merida state, in the Venezuelan Andes. It also constitutes the first record of this taxon for the Montane dry forest Life Zone and the highest elevation record for the species. Twenty-eight post-metamorphic specimens and a dozen tadpoles were located during the local rainy season through visual searches in small springs surrounded by vegetation in intermediate stages of ecological succession. The new record is important because it fills a gap in the species' distribution and presents evidence of its presence in an area with different ecological characteristics than the other areas where it was already known. This discovery of H. platydactylus is of singular importance for the conservation of the natural vegetation patches that remain in this Venezuelan Andean region, which are important in terms of the representation of its characteristic fauna and flora. Hyloscirtus platydactylus largely lacks ecological and biological information and is classified as Vulnerable (VU) in the IUCN red list of species.