The frog Anomaloglossus roraima was originally described as Colostethus roraima by E. La Marca in 1998 on the basis of a single immature female collected at 2700 m elevation on the upper slopes of Mount Roraima, a tepui (table mountain) located in southeastern Venezuela. We herein provide a redescription of the species on the basis of new material from Wei-Assipu-tepui and Maringma-tepui in Guyana. The redescription includes the first descriptions of the tadpole and vocalization. Anomaloglossus roraima is a small-sized species mainly distinguished from its known congeners in having Finger I < II; fingers with narrow pre- and postaxial unfolded fringes; toes unwebbed (although rudimentary webbing is sometimes present between Toe III and IV) with narrow pre- and postaxial unfolded fringes; symmetrical cloacal tubercles present; dorsolateral stripe usually present, often inconspicuous; ventrolateral stripe absent; oblique lateral stripe absent; no obvious sexual dichromatism in throat, chest and ventral color patterns. The tadpole is large, black, exotrophic, arboreal, LTRF 2(2)/3. The advertisement call consists of a single note repeated at a rate of 8.5–17 notes/min with a dominant frequency ranging from 4107 to 4362 Hz. The species is restricted to a small area in the Eastern Tepui Chain in southeastern Venezuela and western Guyana and mainly inhabits large bromeliads in tepui scrub and high-tepui meadows at elevations between 1860–2700 m above sea level. The discovery on different tepui summits and upper slopes of a species previously reported as having a highly restricted range is important for the understanding of the biogeography of the Pantepui region.
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1 April 2013
A New Diagnosis and Description of Anomaloglossus roraima (La Marca, 1998) (Anura: Aromobatidae: Anomaloglossinae), with Description of Its Tadpole and Call
Philippe J.R. Kok,
Bert Willaert,
D. Bruce Means
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Guiana Shield
Guyana
Pantepui
redescription
taxonomy
Venezuela
vocalization