Sunday, September 8, 2019

[Herpetology • 2019] Dendropsophus rozenmani • A New Striped Species of Dendropsophus (Anura: Hylidae) with A Composite Advertisement Call and Comments on the D. rubicundulus group


Dendropsophus rozenmani
Jansen, Santana, Teixeira & Köhler, 2019


 Herein we describe Dendropsophus rozenmani sp. nov. based on morphological, bioacoustic, and molecular data. This new species is distinguished from other species of Dendropsophus by its small size (SVL 18.7–21.1 mm in adult males and 19.6–23.2 mm in females); in life, dorsal ground coloration brown, with two anterior parallel and straight, dark brown stripes and a middorsal sacral stripe; and lateral limits of dorsal coloration above tympanum. In addition, the new species differs from all other species of the D. rubicundulus group (along with D. anataliasiasi) by having a composite advertisement call, i.e., a series of calls consisting of two call types. In a phylogenetic tree based on 494 bp of the 16S mitochondrial gene, four species of Dendropsophus, D. cruzi, D. juliani, and D. sanborni and one candidate species, D. juliani A, are positioned within the rubicundulus species group which poses questions on the monophyly of this group as well as its morphological definition. The occurrence of both single and composite calls in the D. rubicundulus group suggests future studies on the call evolution in that group as well as the whole genus.

Key words: Advertisement call; Amphibia; bioacoustics; Cerrado; Chiquitanía; Dendropsophus tritaeniatus; species delimitation; taxonomy.


Calling paratype Dendropsophus rozenmani sp. nov. (MNKA 9922).
 Photos: M. Jansen.

Dendropsophus rozenmani sp. nov.

Dendropsophus tritaeniatus – Jansen et al. (2011)
Hyla tritaeniata – Reichle & Köhler (1996), Reichle (1997), Reichle & Köhler (1998), De la Riva et al. (2000), Márquez et al. (2002)

Diagnosis. A species of the genus Dendropsophus that is assigned to the D. microcephalus species group based on the results of a molecular analysis of a fragment of the 16S rRNA gene, general morphological appearance, and overall call structure. Further, it is tentatively assigned to the D. rubicundulus group (fde Napoli & Caramaschi, 1998) based on morphological and molecular data awaiting further studies on the monophlyly of this group. Dendropsophus rozenmani is distinguished from other species of Dendropsophus by the following combination of characters: (1) small size, SVL 18.7 –21.1 mm in adult males and 19.6–23.2 mm in females; (2) head longer than wide; (3) snout short, rounded in dorsal view, acute to protruding in lateral view; (4) canthus rostralis rounded, loreal region slightly concave; (5) tympanum indistinct or not visible; (6) skin on dorsal surfaces smooth; (7) in life, dorsal ground coloration brown, with two anterior parallel and straight, dark brown stripes and a middorsal sacral stripe; (8) lateral limits of dorsal coloration above tympanum; (9) composite advertisement call consisting of two types of pulsed calls (type “A” and type “B”) that are emitted usually in series starting with one call type A and followed by 1 to 12 calls type B; call type A is 42 seconds in average long and has 3 – 9 pulses; type B is in average 12 ms long and has 1–3 pulses; dominant frequency of both call types is around 4100 Hz. 
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Etymology. The specific name is a patronym for Jaime Rozenman, one of the owners of Caparú Ranch, Bolivia, in recognition of his long-lasting logistic support of taxonomic research on his property, and in honor of his great effort for conservation of the local fora and fauna.


 Martin Jansen, Diego José Santana, Bernardo Franco da Veiga Teixeira and Gunther Köhler. 2019.  A New Striped Species of Dendropsophus (Anura: Hylidae) with A Composite Advertisement Call and Comments on the D. rubicundulus group. Vertebrate Zoology. 69(3): 227-246. DOI: 10.26049/VZ69-3-2019-01