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28 December 2007 SYSTEMATICS OF THE ELEUTHERODACTYLUS FRAUDATOR SPECIES GROUP (ANURA: BRACHYCEPHALIDAE)
José M. Padial, Santiago Castroviejo-Fisher, Jörn Köhler, Enrique Domic, Ignacio De la Riva
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Abstract

Members of the Eleutherodactylus fraudator species group occur in Bolivia and Peru. This group has not been reviewed since its proposal and description. Its putative monophyly has not been tested and its phylogenetic relationships are still unresolved. It was included in the Central American genus Craugastor based on a putative morphological synapomorphy, but this hypothesis of relationship is doubtful. Its alpha-diversity is unknown and some putative members have still not been studied in detail. To assess the taxonomic status and phylogenetic relationships of this species group, we applied a taxonomic integrative approach based on comparisons of morphological characters (external and internal), bioacoustics (based on advertisement calls) and phylogenetic analyses of partial 16S mitochondrial gene (560 bp). We redescribe Eleutherodactylus bisignatus (Werner, 1899) and include it together with E. mercedesae in the group. Molecular, bioacoustical and morphological characters support the taxonomic status of all the species. Maximum parsimony, Bayesian and neighbor-joining phylogenetic analyses of the partial mitochondrial gene as well as the presence of a new condition of the mandibular ramus of the trigeminal nerve and two bioacoustical characters, support the monophyly of this group. Moreover, our data suggest the nonmonophyly of the subgenus Eleutherodactylus and the monophyly of the genus Craugastor when the C. bufoniformis species group is excluded. We redescribe the crown clade formed by members of the E. fraudator group and name it as the subgenus Yunganastes, which contains Eleutherodactylus ashkapara Köhler, 2000, E. bisignatus (Werner, 1899), E. fraudator Lynch and McDiarmid, 1987, E. mercedesae Lynch and McDiarmid, 1987 and E. pluvicanorus De la Riva and Lynch, 1997. We describe the advertisement call of E. bisignatus for the first time and compare it with available calls of E. ashkapara and E. pluvicanorus. We suggest the common structure of the advertisement calls and the aggressive calls of the species belonging to Yunganastes (single melodic whistles with frequency modulation and no pulses) as synapomorphic for the new subgenus. We exclude members of Yunganastes from the Middle American genus Craugastor, to which it was previously tied by the presence of the putative synapomorphic “E” condition of the trigeminal nerve of the mandibular ramus of the abductor muscle. We describe a new condition of the trigeminal nerve and consider it synapomorphic for Yunganastes. Members of this subgenus are endemic to the cloud forests and humid montane forests of the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes in Bolivia and southern Peru.

José M. Padial, Santiago Castroviejo-Fisher, Jörn Köhler, Enrique Domic, and Ignacio De la Riva "SYSTEMATICS OF THE ELEUTHERODACTYLUS FRAUDATOR SPECIES GROUP (ANURA: BRACHYCEPHALIDAE)," Herpetological Monographs 21(1), 213-240, (28 December 2007). https://doi.org/10.1655/06-007.1
Published: 28 December 2007
KEYWORDS
Andes
Anura
Bolivia
Eleutherodactylus fraudator species group
mtDNA
Peru
phylogenetics
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