Abstract
We present the results of herpetological surveys in two adjacent mountains where the EcoMinga Foundation protects the cloud forest in the Upper Rio Pastaza watershed, in the Llanganates Sangay Ecological Corridor in Ecuador. A rapid assessment of the amphibian communities of the study sites reveals a diverse and heterogeneous composition, dominated by terrestrial frogs from the genus Pristimantis. We also identify a cryptic diversity with a significant number of candidate new species. We describe two new species of terrestrial frogs of the genus Pristimantis. Pristimantismaryanneaesp. nov. is characterised by not having tympanum externally visible and having 2–3 subconical tubercles in the upper eyelid; and Pristimantisburtoniorumsp. nov. is characterised by the presence of red colouration in hidden surfaces of the hind-limbs, tubercles on the upper eyelid, interorbital tubercle and a row of rounded tubercles along the snout to the tip and a pale red venter with dark brown mottled pattern. Our samples from the two Reserves do not share species between them, so the proportion of shared species seems to be relatively low. In addition, we highlight the importance of updating the knowledge of amphibians that are restricted to this important conservation region and comment about the threats and composition of the amphibian communities on the eastern slopes of the Upper Rio Pastaza watershed.
Highlights
IntroductionThe ecological corridor between Llanganates and Sangay National Parks in the Upper Rio Pastaza watershed of Tungurahua and Pastaza Provinces in east-central Ecuador was declared a “Gift to the Earth” by the World Wildlife Fund in 2002, due to the great biodiversity and endemism that it houses in a small geographical area (Freile et al 2005; Reyes-Puig and Yánez-Muñoz 2012; Ríos-Alvear and Reyes Puig 2015)
The Upper Pastaza watershed shows a wide gradient of ecosystems, habitats and microhabitats for amphibian communities, with more diversity of species and reproductive strategies at eastern sites of study, mainly Bufonidae, Centrolenidae, Dendrobatidae, and Hylidae, highly influenced by Amazonian species groups and related to the availability of water resources for its reproductive modes, while western fauna appears to have more local endemism between localities north to south with dominant presence of Strabomantid frogs of the genus Pristimantis in montane and cloud forest localities; further research will complement our appreciation
We found a high proportion of candidate new species, of which two are described in this article
Summary
The ecological corridor between Llanganates and Sangay National Parks in the Upper Rio Pastaza watershed of Tungurahua and Pastaza Provinces in east-central Ecuador was declared a “Gift to the Earth” by the World Wildlife Fund in 2002, due to the great biodiversity and endemism that it houses in a small geographical area (Freile et al 2005; Reyes-Puig and Yánez-Muñoz 2012; Ríos-Alvear and Reyes Puig 2015). Research conducted up to that date in the region was restricted to sites near roads and occasional collections, potentially underestimating the true biological richness of the region (Freile et al 2005) To protect this diversity, the EcoMinga Foundation was established in January 2006 by ministerial agreement. As a result of the material collected during these expeditions, 12 new species of amphibians have been described: Pristimantis loujosti (Yánez-Muñoz et al 2010), P. tungurahua (Reyes-Puig et al 2010), Osornophryne simpsoni (Páez-Moscoso et al 2011), Pristimantis bellae (Reyes-Puig and Yánez-Muñoz 2012), P. ardyae (ReyesPuig et al 2013), P. marcoreyesi (Reyes-Puig et al 2014), P. punzan (Reyes-Puig et al 2014), P. puruscafeum (Reyes-Puig et al 2014), P. pinchaque (Reyes-Puig et al 2014), P. sacharuna (Reyes-Puig et al 2015), Pristimantis malli (Reyes-Puig et al 2019) and Noblella naturetrekii (Reyes-Puig et al 2019)
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