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| Allobates pacaas
Melo-Sampaio, Prates, Peloso, Recoder, Dal Vechio, et al., 2020.
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ABSTRACT
Few studies have focused on the diverse fauna of southwestern Brazilian Amazonia. This region, spared from large-scale human occupation until the second half of the twentieth century, has been threatened by expanding agriculture, logging, and mining. Here, we describe a new nurse frog (Allobates, Aromobatidae) from the open highland habitats of Serra dos Pacaás Novos, one of the few large remnants of relatively intact native vegetation in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. The new species is diagnosed by its metallic orange dorsal colouration, weakly expanded discs on hands, and presence of two subarticular tubercles on Finger IV. A phylogenetic analysis based on DNA sequence data recovered the new species as more closely related to nurse frogs from the Madeira and Tapajós River basins; this pattern may reflect a history of dispersal uphill from a lowland ancestor. Our results also indicate that the generic assignment of Allobates alessandroi (Grant and Rodriguez, 2001), a high-elevation species from the Andes of Peru, needs to be reassessed; we discuss the phylogenetic affinities of this species based on morphological attributes.
KEYWORDS: Amazon, amphibia, phylogeny, taxonomy, Allobates pacaas sp. nov.
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| Figure 4. Dorsal (a) and ventral (c) views of the female holotype of Allobates pacaas sp. nov. (MZUSP 158934) in life. Dorsal (b) and ventral (d) views of male paratype MZUSP 158938 in life. |
Allobates pacaas sp. nov.
Etymology. Allobates pacaas is named in recognition of an important natural refuge in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. The region has experienced intense deforestation since the 1960s with large-scale loss of biodiversity (Fearnside 1987). The specific epithet is a noun in apposition to the genus.
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| Habitat where Allobates pacaas was found in the Serra dos Pacaás National Park. |
Paulo R. Melo-Sampaio, Ivan Prates, Pedro L. V. Peloso, Renato Recoder, Francisco Dal Vechio, Sergio Marques-Souza and Miguel T. Rodrigues. 2020. A New Nurse frog from Southwestern Amazonian Highlands, with Notes on the Phylogenetic Affinities of Allobates alessandroi (Aromobatidae). Journal of Natural History. [Amphibian Taxonomy: Early 21st Century Case Studies] DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2020.1727972
