The tadpole of the Madagascar Bullfrog, Laliostoma labrosum

Abstract

The anuran genus Laliostoma Glaw, Vences & Böhme forms, together with Aglyptodactylus Boulenger, the subfamily Laliostominae in the endemic Malagasy-Comoran family Mantellidae. Laliostoma labrosum (Cope) is the sole representative of the genus. This stout, terrestrial frog is widely distributed in open areas of western and central Madagascar and breeds in lentic waters. It is the only mantellid without intercalary elements between terminal and subterminal phalanges of fingers and toes (Glaw & Vences 2006) and has an important potential to understand the evolution of mantellid frogs (Glaw et al. 2006). The tadpoles of L. labrosum have briefly been described by Cope (1868) and Glaw & Vences (1994), with additional detailed measurements and data on natural history published by Glos & Linsenmair (2004). As a contribution to provide reliable and detailed larval descriptions of all Malagasy frog species we here update the previous descriptions based on newly collected Laliostoma tadpoles identified by DNA barcoding (Thomas et al. 2005).