Corresponding author: Germán Chávez (
Academic editor: Alexander Haas
We describe a new species of microhylid frog of the genus
Owing to their fossorial habits, frogs of the microhylid genus
Three localities in
Map showing the type locality of
Measuring approximately 1600 km, the Putumayo River is located in a biodiversity hotspot (
We measured 12 morphological variables on preserved specimens, following Kok and Kalamandeen (2008) and
Phenotypic characters of the current species of
Body shape | Dorsal region of the head from a lateral view | Dorsal coloration | Canthal stripe | Advertisement call structure | Advertisement call note length range (seconds) | Advertisement call dominant frequency range (Khz) | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
17.6–17.9 | Slender | Flat | Dark Brown withouth spots | Present in juveniles | single tonal note | 0.05–0.06 | 1.73–1.81 |
|
29.3–33.2 | Robust | Convex | Brown with orange spots | Present | single tonal note, 12–17 pulses | 0.28–0.36 | 1.01–1.12 |
|
22.9–26.0 | Slender | Convex | Dark/pale brown with beige speckles | Present | single tonal note | 0.16–0.17 | 1.06–1.13 |
|
26.2–30.8 | Robust | Convex | Brown with orange spots | Present | single tonal note, 5–8 pulses | 0.13–0.19 | 1.10–1.47 |
|
16.2–16.6 | Slender | Flat | Dark Brown with light spots | Present | single tonal note | 0.03 | – |
|
23.7–26.4 | Robust | Flat | Brown with orange/gray spots | Present (uncontinuous) | single tonal note | 0.07–0.09 | 1.31–1.57 |
|
37.0–40.6 | Robust | Convex | Brown with numerous orange spots | Absent | single tonal note | 0.14–0.16 | 1.06–1.19 |
To support our morphological diagnosis, we performed two Principal Component Analyses in PAST version 3.26 (
Measurement variation (mm) in the type series of
CORBIDI 21050 | CORBIDI 21051 | CORBIDI 21013 | |
---|---|---|---|
|
Male | Male | Juvenile |
|
18.0 | 17.6 | 7.5 |
|
4.4 | 4.2 | 2.5 |
|
5.6 | 5.6 | 2.6 |
|
1.5 | 1.5 | 0.8 |
|
1.1 | 1.1 | 0.5 |
|
1.0 | 1.1 | 0.8 |
|
2.3 | 2.4 | 1.3 |
|
2.8 | 2.9 | 1.3 |
|
2.8 | 2.5 | 1.5 |
|
5.1 | 5.0 | 3.0 |
|
7.5 | 7.7 | 3.8 |
|
6.9 | 7.3 | 2.9 |
|
0.2 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
|
0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
|
1.3 | 1.3 | 1.0 |
|
0.7 | 0.7 | 1.0 |
|
1.5 | 1.5 | 1.3 |
|
0.3 | 0.3 | 0.4 |
|
0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 |
|
0.4 | 0.4 | 0.5 |
|
0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
|
0.3 | 0.4 | 0.3 |
We recorded calls from two individuals of the new species (CORBIDI 21050, 21051) calling from underground galleries at night (20:15 hrs). We used a Marantz PMD661MK2 digital recorder and a Sennheiser ME64 uni-directional microphone. All recordings were performed at night between 24–26 °C, and 0.5 m distance from the call emitter (temperatures unknown inside the galleries). We followed the call-centered approach used by Fouquet et al. (2021b) and measured four variables (as defined by Kohler et al. 2017): Note Length (
Acoustic variables: Note length (
Species | Sample size | Pulses | Def (Hz) | Internote | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
n=2 | 0.059 (0.054–0.063) | 1.763 (1.734–1.809) | 1 (1–1) | 59 (0–94) | 4.083 (3.777–4.552) | |
|
n=5 | 0.322 (0.282–0.366) | 1.064 (1.013–1.121) | 14 (12–16) | 57 (11–87) | 6.91 (5.20–9.04) |
|
n=2 | 0.167 (0.160–0.173) | 1.093 (1.058–1.127) | 1 (1–1) | 28 (15–40) | 10.30 (9.66–10.93) |
|
n=9 | 0.167 (0.130–0.194) | 1.251 (1.100–1.471) | 7 (5–8) | 148 (22–256) | 6.57 (4.10–11.56) |
|
n=1 | 0.039 | 1.642 | 1 | 169 | 11.20 |
|
n=6 | 0.079 (0.071–0.090) | 1.411 (1.312–1.574) | 1 (1–1) | 49 (14–91) | 5.31 (2.36–9.16) |
|
n=4 | 0.154 (0.147–0.167) | 1.107 (1.059–1.190) | 1 (1–1) | 142 (104–194) | 8.48 (6.90–9.90) |
We used molecular phylogenetic analyses to confirm the generic placement of the new species within
Phylogenetic analysis based on a fragment of 16S, showing the relationship among
We used Geneious, version 11.1.5 (Biomatters,
We also estimated genetic distances for the 16S rRNA mitochondrial fragment to provide further support of species delimitation.
The electronic version of this article in Portable Document Format (
General appearance, morphological and bioacoustic characteristics, as well as our phylogenetic analyses support the placement of the new species within
The PCA plots (Fig.
Plots of PCA of
Plot of PCA analyses of the three acoustic variables resulted in clustering of species of the Western clade (
Male CORBIDI 21050 (Figs
Lateral (
Juvenile CORBIDI 21013 (Fig.
Type series of
(1) A small-sized
Table
An adult male (CORBIDI 21050), 17.9 mm
Dorsum and flanks chocolate brown without spots. Absence of a stripe along the canthus rostralis and upper eyelid. Snout white, unpigmented. Throat cinnamon brown with scattered pale orange or yellow dots; chest and belly translucent cyan with white small melanophores (Fig.
Dorsum dark brown, nose sulphur yellow. Throat creamy yellow with brown speckles. Chest and belly creamy yellow, with brown speckles toward the flanks, ventral surfaces of limbs yellowish brown. (Fig.
For morphometric variation see Table
Audio spectrograms and oscillograms of the advertisement call of the holotype (CORBIDI 21050) of
The specific epithet is a noun in apposition and refers to the Amazon Tapir (
Panoramic view of the type locality (
Previous research has demonstrated that
Although
Also, the new species lives relatively close to the lineages “Iça 1” and “Iça 2” proposed by
Regarding the phenotype and its relationship to fossoriality, we found that
Currently, there is minimal deforestation affecting the peatlands around the type locality (
We thank Antoine Fouquet for his value feedback which helped us to improve this article. This research would not have been possible without the valuable help of the local people from the Comunidad Nativa Tres Esquinas who kindly and patiently guided us deep into the forest to find the new species. The fieldwork was funded by the generous support of an anonymous donor and additionally by Bobolink Foundation, Connie and Dennis Keller, Mike and Lindy Keiser, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the Field Museum. We thank Corine Vriesendorp and Alvaro del Campo for trusting our work. We also appreciate the help of Marcos Rios and Luis Montenegro with the identification of the plants in the type locality of the new species. GC is deeply grateful with The Cornell Ornithology Lab by providing the acoustic equipment that made possible the call recordings for this research. DAS was supported by Instituto Amazónico de Investigaciones Científicas SINCHI in Colombia, and a post-doctoral fellowships funded by Instituto Colombiano para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y la Tecnología “Francisco José de Caldas” -Colciencias.
Appendix 1
Link:
Text file
GenBank accession numbers for the taxa and genes sampled in this study.
Appendix 2
Link:
Text file
Values of percentage of variance of each PC on the PCA analyses performed in this study.
Supplementary File 1
Link:
COL
PCA plots of size-independent morphometric measurements, made with residuals of regressions of measurements with