south AMericAn JournAL of herPetoLogy – sAJh Volume 3
Number 1
April 2008
Contents A new reproductive mode in the genus Melanophryniscus Gallardo, 1961 (Anura: Bufonidae) with description of a new species from the state of Paraná, Brazil Jose A. LAngone, MAgno V. segALLA, MArcos Bornschein, And rAfAeL o. de sá ................................................1
Volume 3
Reproductive behaviour of Melanophryniscus sp. from Sierra de la Ventana (Buenos Aires, Argentina) sAMAntA L. cAiro, sergio M. ZALBA, And cArMen A. ÚBedA ...............................................................................10 Reproductive ecology of Leptodactylus aff hylaedactylus (Anura, Leptodactylidae) from an open area in northern Brazil MArceLo n. de c. KoKuBuM And Moisés BArBosA de sousA ................................................................................15 A new species of Dendrophryniscus, Jiménez de la Espada, 1871 (Amphibia, Anura, Bufonidae) from the atlantic rain forest of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil cArLos ALBerto gonçALVes cruZ And LuciAnA Ardenghi fusinAtto ...................................................................22 A new species of Hypsiboas (Anura: Hylidae) from the atlantic forest of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil, with comments on its conservation status PAuLo c. A. gArciA, o. L. Peixoto, And céLio f. B. hAddAd ...............................................................................27 Rediscovery of Melanophryniscus pachyrhynus (Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920) (Amphibia: Anura: Bufonidae) in southern Brazil, with addenda to species redescription WiLiAn VAZ-siLVA, rAfAeL Lucchesi BALestrin, And MArcos di-BernArdo.........................................................36 Ontogenetic changes in the venom of Bothrops insularis (Serpentes: Viperidae)and its biological implication André ZeLAnis, siLViA reginA trAVAgLiA-cArdoso, And MAriA de fátiMA doMingues furtAdo .........................43 Calling activity and agonistic behavior of Pseudis minuta Günther, 1858 (Anura, Hylidae, Hylinae) in the Reserva Biológica do Lami, Porto Alegre, Brazil cAroLine ZAnK, MArcos di-BernArdo, rodrigo LingnAu, PAtricK coLoMBo, LuciAnA A. fusinAtto, And Luis f. M. dA fonte ........................................................................................................................................51 How to be arboreal and diurnal and still stay alive: microhabitat use, time of activity, and defense in neotropical forest snakes MArcio MArtins, otAVio A. V. MArques, And iVAn sAZiMA...................................................................................58 Temporal variation in the abundance and number of species of frogs in 10,000 ha of a forest in central amazonia, Brazil MArceLo Menin, fABiAno WALdeZ, And ALBertinA P. LiMA ..................................................................................68 Predation by lizards as a mortality source for juvenile lizards in Brazil cArLA dA costA siqueirA And cArLos frederico duArte rochA .........................................................................82
ISSN 1808-9798
Number 1
April 2008
South AmericAn JournAl of herpetology – SAJh
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1
Key words: Defense; Habitat; Amazonia; Atlantic Forest; Brazil.
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South American Journal of Herpetology, 3(1), 2008, 1-9 © 2008 Brazilian Society of Herpetology
A new reproductive mode in the genus Melanophryniscus Gallardo, 1961 (Anura: Bufonidae) with description of a new species from the state of Paraná, Brazil Jose A. Langone1,5, Magno V. Segalla2, Marcos Bornschein3, and Rafael O. de Sá4 Departamento de Herpetología. Museo Nacional de Historia Natural y Antropología. Casilla de Correo 399. 11.000. Montevideo. Uruguay. E‑mail:
[email protected] 2 Laboratório de Herpetologia. Museu de História Natural Capão da Imbuia. 82810‑080, Curitiba, PR, Brasil. E‑mail:
[email protected] 3 Liga Ambiental, Rua Olga de Araujo Spindola, 1380, Bl. N, Ap. 31. 81050‑280, Curitiba, PR, Brasil. E‑mail:
[email protected] 4 Department of Biology, University of Richmond. Richmond, Virginia, 23171, USA. E‑mail:
[email protected] 5 Corresponding Author. 1
Abstract. A new species of bufonid toad of the genus Melanophryniscus is described from a mountaintop that is part of the Serra do Mar in the northeastern State of Paraná, Brazil. Melanophryniscus alipioi sp. nov. is distinguished from other known species by its uniformly dark brown dorsal color and a unique breeding site. The new species reproduces in bromeliads, a reproductive mode previously unknown for this genus. This species might be susceptible to current habitat lost. Keywords. Anura, Bufonidae, Melanophryniscus alipioi, new species, bromeligenous species.
Introduction The genus Melanophryniscus Gallardo, 1961, is considered a basal, monophyletic, bufonid taxon (Graybeal and Cannatella, 1995; Frost et al. 2006) currently consisting of 20 described species distrib‑ uted from southern Brazil, throughout Paraguay and southern Bolivia, to central and northern Argentina, and Uruguay (Frost, 2007; Di-Bernardo et al., 2006). Some species have restricted distributions and/or are considered endangered taxa (IUCN et al., 2004). The species in this genus have been clustered into three species groups: moreirae group, tumifrons group, and stelzneri group (Cruz and Caramaschi, 2003). These groups are loosely defined and lack diagnos‑ tic characteristics, except for the M. tumifrons group for which the presence of a frontal macrogland (sensu Naya et al., 2004, based on a histological analysis of the skin) has been proposed as a synapomorphy for the group. This gland, referred as a frontal swelling, also was considered as a putative synapomorphy by Baldo and Basso (2004). Herein we describe a new species of Mela‑ nophryniscus and report the occurrence of a new re‑ productive mode for the genus. Materials and Methods Type specimens are deposited at Museu de História Natural Capão da Imbuia, Curitiba, Brazil (MHNCI);
Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (MNRJ); and Museu de Zoologia, Universidade de São Paulo, Bra‑ zil (MZUSP). All comparative material are listed and catalogue numbers are provided in Appendix I. Measurements were taken with calipers to the nearest 0.02 mm;, all measurements are provided in Table 1. Geographic coordinates were obtained using a Garmin Vista Global Positioning System (GPS). Developing eggs and amplectic pairs were collect‑ ed from bromeliads in the type locality on October 12, 2004. Amplectic pairs were taken to the labora‑ tory where they laid additional eggs. Melanophryniscus alipioi sp. nov. (Figs. 1 and 2) Holotype – MHNCI 5186. Adult male, collected at Serra do Capivarí (25°07’49.0”S, 48°49’16.9”W; 1491 m altitude), part of the larger Serra do Mar, Campina Grande do Sul, State of Paraná, Brazil, on 12 October 2004. Paratopotypes – MHNCI 5182‑5185, 5187‑5202, MNRJ 49769, MZUSP 132870‑132872, collected with the holotype. Diagnosis – Species of small size, without dorsal mac‑ rogland on snout; dorsal, lateral, and ventral body sur‑ faces scattered with medium to large size glands, dor‑ sal surfaces of limbs scattered with the same glands but these are slightly smaller and conical; dorsal color
A new reproductive mode in Melanophryniscus
Table 1. Measurements (mm) of paratypes of Melanophryniscus alipioi sp. nov. Snout-vent length (SVL), Head lenght (HL), Head width (HW), Eye diameter (ED), Interocular Distance (IOD), Internarial distance (IND), Eye-nostril distance (END), Upper eyelid lenght (UEL), Thigh length (TL), Shank lenght (SL), Foot length (FL), Hand Lenght (HL). Males (n = 20) SVL
HL
HW
ED
IOD
IND
END
UEL
TL
SL
FL
HL
x
21.06
6.19
6.81
2.04
2.92
1.72
1.88
2.87
8.20
7.58
8.02
5.29
S.D.
0.85
0.82
0.45
0.23
0.21
0.21
0.13
0.29
0.74
0.81
0.60
0.25
Max
22.66
7.00
7.50
2.52
3.30
2.11
2.00
3.50
9.00
8.50
8.83
5.70
Min
19.45
4.50
6.00
1.50
2.50
1.50
1.64
2.50
6.50
5.00
7.00
5.00
Females (n = 3) x
SVL
HL
HW
ED
IOD
IND
END
UEL
TL
SL
FL
HL
25.26
6.35
7.22
2.41
3.24
2.16
1.96
3.19
9.37
25.26
6.35
7.22
S.D.
0.59
0.36
0.68
0.36
0.25
0.16
0.10
0.37
0.32
0.59
0.36
0.68
Max
25.64
6.60
8.00
2.68
3.49
2.32
2.03
3.62
9.59
25.64
6.60
8.00
Min
24.58
5.94
6.80
2.00
3.00
2.00
1.85
2.96
9.0
24.58
5.94
6.80
of head, body, and upper surfaces of the hind limbs uniformly dark brown; color of ventral surfaces dark brown, with large, irregular shaped, and uniformly bright red spots on each side of the pectoral area, ex‑ tending slightly onto the ventral surface of the arms. The same uniformly bright red color is also found across the posterior abdominal area and on the ventral
Figure 1. Melanophryniscus alipioi sp. nov., holotype, MHNCI 5186. (A) Lateral view of head. (B) Hand. (C) Foot. Bar = 1 mm.
surfaces of hands and feet, extending over the lateral surface of the digits and on the dorsal surface of the toe tips. On the ventral surface of body, a few scattered white dots are found over the red color. The pupil is surrounded by a golden iris, which is finely spotted or reticulated with dark brown markings. This species reproduces, i.e., calls and deposit eggs, in bromeliads. Melanophryniscus alipioi is most similar to M. moreirae (Miranda-Ribeiro, 1920) in the mac‑ rohabitat that they occupy, i.e., open formation sur‑ rounded by forested areas in coastal mountains of southern and southeastern Brazil at high elevations (above 1200 m for M. alipioi and above 1800 m for M. moreirae). However, the two species can be dis‑ tinguished by the following characteristics (characters of M. moreirae are in parenthesis): dorsum uniformly dark brown (dorsum dark grey to black or brownish with scattered light areas); ventral surface dark brown with bright red areas on pectoral, posterior abdomi‑ nal, and femoral regions; bright red markings on the pectoral zone contained a few, very small, white spots (venter dark grey or black with bright red in the pec‑ toral, abdominal and femoral areas; spots densely dotted with small white spots in throat, gular and pectoral area); calling and oviposition in bromelids (calling and oviposition in pools with running wa‑ ter). The nearest population reported of M. moreirae is found 490 km northeast of the type locality of M. alipioi at Queluz, State of São Paulo (22°25’44”S, 44°50’10”W) (Marques et al., 2006). The dorsal color of M. alipioi in life is similar to M. krauczuki Baldo and Basso, 2004; a species known only from a few localities in the Argentinean Province of Misiones and one locality in the Depart‑
Langone, J. A. et al.
ment of Itapua, Paraguay (Brusquetti et al., 2007). Melanophrynisucs krauczuki occurs in semi-natural environments communities and grasslands at low el‑ evations (125‑165 m, Baldo and Basso, 2004). Fur‑ thermore, the two species can be distinguished by the more extensive webbing in the foot of M. krauczuki; its ventral color consisting of a dark brown back‑ ground with irregular orange spots and an orange-red femoral spot, and the presence of several white spots on the surface of the lower jaw. The new species differs from species in the tumi‑ frons group by the absence of a frontal macrogland. Furthermore, Melanophryniscus alipioi is easily dis‑ tinguished from the other Brazilian members of the genus without frontal macrogland. From the recently
described M. admirabilis Di-Bernardo, Maneyro, and Grillo, 2006, from the State of Rio Grande do Sul, by the larger size of the later species (SVL 30‑40 mm), its overall pale green dorsal color, and the presence of large, yellowish skin glands on dorsal, lateral, and ventral body surfaces. From M. atroluteus (MirandaRibeiro, 1920), distributed from Misiones Province, Argentina, throughout Uruguay reaching southern Paraguay and the northeastern and western regions of Rio Grande do Sul and presumably southern Santa Catarina, Brazil, because this species has a uniformly black dorsum (Kwet et al., 2005). Furthermore, the texture of the dorsal skin of M. atroluteus has more and smaller skin glands than those found on the dor‑ sal surface of M. alipioi. Melanophryniscus dorsalis
Figure 2. (A) Melanophryniscus alipioi sp. nov., holotype, MHNCI in its habitat. (B) Melanophryniscus alipioi sp. nov. in its habitat. (C) Melanophryniscus alipioi sp. nov., MZUSP 132968, specimen at the completion of metamorphosis. (D) Egg of Melanophryniscus alipioi sp. nov.
A new reproductive mode in Melanophryniscus
(Mertens, 1933), found in sandy habitats of the Atlan‑ tic coast of the states of Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, Brazil, exhibits a black dorsal color with a distinct red (brown in preservative) middorsal line, which is rarely absent but often interrupted or present only as a small trace behind the eyes and/or above anus (Kwet et al., 2005); a middorsal line is absent in M. alipioi. Melanophryniscus fulvoguttatus (Mertens, 1937), from northern Argentina, Paraguay, and Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, can be easily differentiated from M. alipioi by its densely granular skin with black dorsal and ventral color dotted with numerous small and irregularly shaped yellow spots and yellow blotches on the suprascapular region (Kwet et al., 2005). Melanophryniscus montevidensis (Philippi, 1902) is an exclusive sandy coastal inhabitant ex‑ tending from the Rio de la Plata and Atlantic coast of Uruguay to the southernmost part of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This species usually has yellow dorsolat‑ eral spots, but sometimes it is uniformly black (Kwet et al., 2005). Also, the skin texture is uniformly less granular than that of M. alipioi. In addition, all these species have allopatric distri‑ butions in relation to M. alipioi and they all breed in temporary ponds with moving or stationary water. Description of holotype – Body stout; head slightly wider than long (HW/HL = 1.08), approximately one third of SVL; snout short, truncate in dorsal view, rounded in lateral profile, slightly protruding; nos‑ trils directed laterally, oval, located at anterior tip of snout; eye large; pupil horizontally elliptical; eye di‑ ameter smaller than interorbital distance and larger than eye-nostril distance; tympanic membrane ab‑ sent; parotoid gland absent; maxillae and premaxil‑ lae edentate; tongue narrow and elongate, posterior margin entire, posteriorly free for about two thirds of its length; vocal sac median, subgular; skin of dorsum rugose, scattered with medium to large, blunt, round‑ ed glandular warts; warts without keratinized spines; these glandular warts extend over the ventral surface of body particularly in abdominal and gular areas; dorsal surface of limbs, hands, and feet scattered with the same warts but these are slightly more conical and smaller; lengths of fingers: I