Ednei De Almeida Mercês

A New Species of the Scinax ruber Clade (Anura, Hylidae) from the Espinhaço Range, Northeastern Brazil

Abstract:  A new species belonging to the Scinax ruber clade, morphologically similar to S. cabralensis and S. rupestris, is described from the Municipality of Miguel Calmon, State of Bahia, northeastern Brazil. This locality belongs to the northern portion of the Espinhaço Range known as Chapada Diamantina, a semiarid region in central Bahia State. The new species can be distinguished from all congeners of the S. ruber clade by a combination of adult (size, morphology, color pattern, and advertisement call) as well as larval (external morphology, and oral cavity) characteristics. The description of this frog adds another species, and the first of the S. ruber clade, to those that are endemic to Chapada Diamantina.

External morphology and oral cavity of the tadpole of Trachycephalus atlas Bokermann, 1966 (Amphibia, Anura, Hylidae).

The Neotropical genus Trachycephalus Tschudi currently comprises 14 species distributed in lowlands of Mexico, Central and South America east of the Andes, south until northern Argentina (Frost 2014) and throughout Brazil (IUCN 2014). Seven species of the genus have tadpoles formerly described: T. coriaceus (Peters) (Schiesari & Moreira 1996; Lescure et al. 1996), T. cunauaru Gordo, Toledo, Suárez, Kawashita-Ribeiro, Ávila, Morais & Nunes (Grillitsch 1992 as Phrynohyas resinifictrix according to Gordo et al. 2013), T. jordani (Stejneger & Test) (McDiarmid & Altig 1989-1990), T. mesophaeus (Hensel) (Lutz 1973; Carvalho-e-Silva et al. 2002; Prado et al. 2003), T. nigromaculatus Tschudi (Wogel et al. 2000), T. resinifictrix (Goeldi) (Hero 1990; Schiesari et al. 1996), and T. typhonius (Linnaeus) (Pyburn 1967; Duellman 1970; Schiesari et al. 1996). The oral cavity is described only for T. cunauaru (Grillitsch 1992), T. resinifictrix (Schiesari et al. 1996), and T. typhonius (Schiesari et al. 1996; Fabrezi & Vera 1997).

Tadpole of Leptodactylus oreomantis Carvalho, Leite & Pezzuti 2013 (Anura, Leptodactylidae).

Leptodactylus oreomantis , a member of Leptodactylus fuscus species group ( sensu Heyer 1978), is a leptodactylid frog endemic to the montane rocky fields of Chapada Diamantina (the northern portion of the Espinhaco mountain range), Bahia State, Brazil (Carvalho et al. 2013). Although tadpole morphology provides relevant information for anuran taxonomy and systematics (see Langone & de Sa 2005; Miranda et al . 2014), only calls and adult morphology were evaluated in the description of this species. Herein, we describe and illustrate the external morphology and internal oral anatomy of L. oreomantis tadpoles and compare it with tadpoles of related species.

The Tadpole of Bokermannohyla flavopicta Leite, Pezzuti and Garcia, 2012 and Oral Cavity Anatomy of the Tadpole of B. oxente Lugli and Haddad, 2006 (Anura: Hylidae)

Abstract. We describe and illustrate the external morphology, oral disc, and oral cavity anatomy (OCA) of the larvae of Bokermannohyla flavopicta and the OCA of the tadpole of B. oxente. We collected tadpoles of B. flavopicta at Serra do Barbado, Abaíra municipality, Chapada Diamantina, Bahia state. At Gosner stage 36, the tadpole of B. flavopicta has a depressed body with low tail fins and a broad, ventral oral disc bordered by a single row of marginal papillae, with a narrow gap on the anterior labium; submarginal papillae present in small amounts mostly on the commissure and on the anterior labium of the oral disc. The most common labial tooth row formula is 2(2)/7(1). The overall OCA of both species is similar, but can be distinguished mainly by the number of buccal roof papillae per side, shape of pre-narial arena ridge, and infralabial and lingual papillae morphology. The internal and external morphology of these larvae are compared with available descriptions for larvae of other species placed in the B. pseudopseudis group, and we comment on characters that best distinguish species within this group. Finally, the anteroposterior row of papillae in the prenarial arena (proposed as putative synapomorphy for the B. pseudopseudis species group) was also observed in B. flavopicta and B. oxente tadpoles, reinforcing the importance of larval external and internal characters in anuran comparative morphology research.

The tadpole of Bokermannohyla lucianae (Napoli & Pimenta 2003) (Amphibia, Anura, Hylidae).

Bokermannohyla lucianae (Napoli & Pimenta 2003) belongs to the Bokermannohyla circumdata species group (Faivovich et al . 2005) that currently contains 19 species: B. ahenea (Napoli & Caramaschi 2004), B. astartea (Bokermann 1967), B. capra Napoli & Pimenta 2009, B. caramaschii (Napoli 2005), B. carvalhoi (Peixoto 1981), B. circumdata (Cope 1871), B. feioi (Napoli & Caramaschi 2004), B. gouveai (Peixoto & Cruz 1992), B. hylax (Heyer 1985), B. ibitipoca (Caramaschi & Feio 1990), B. izecksohni (Jim & Caramaschi 1979), B. lucianae (Napoli & Pimenta 2003), B. luctuosa (Pombal & Haddad 1993), B. nanuzae (Bokermann & Sazima 1973), B. napoli Carvalho, Giaretta & Magrini 2012, B. ravida (Caramaschi, Napoli & Bernades 2001), B. sagarana Leite, Pezzuti & Drummond 2011, B. sazimai (Cardoso & Andrade 1982), B. vulcaniae (Vasconcelos & Giaretta 2005). Although species of this group are usually related to altitudinal riparian environments within the Atlantic Forest biome (Napoli & Pimenta 2009), some species occur near to the sea level (e.g. B. capra and B. lucianae ) (Camurugi et al . 2010, Dias et al . 2011). Until now, tadpoles of 11 species of the B. circumdata species group have been formally described (Gaiga et al. 2013, Mongin & Carvalho-e-Silva 2013). Herein we describe the previously unknown tadpole of B. lucianae and compare it with tadpoles of other species of the group.