Jennifer B. Pramuk

A NEW SPECIES OF ARBOREAL RHINELLA (ANURA: BUFONIDAE) FROM CLOUD FOREST OF SOUTHEASTERN PERU

A new arboreal species of Rhinella is described from the humid montane forest of Manu National Park in the Cordillera Oriental of southern Peru. The new species can be distinguished from all known Rhinella by a unique combination of external and osteological characters as well as by molecular data. The new toad is compared to R. arborescandens and R. veraguensis with respect to external characters. On the basis of morphological and molecular data, the new taxon is closely related to R. chavin, R. nesiotes, and R. festae. Although DNA data indicate that a member of the R. veraguensis group (R. nesiotes) is its sister taxon, the new species is not closely related to other members of this species group (e.g., R. veraguensis). In addition, DNA data indicate that the R. veraguensis group as it currently is defined is paraphyletic. Until additional studies are completed on the phylogeny of these South American toads, we refrain from assigning the new taxon to a species group. Se describe una nueva especie arborícola del género Rhinella de los bosques montanos húmedos del Parque Nacional del Manu en la Cordillera Oriental del sur del Perú. La nueva especie se distingue del resto de las especies del género Rhinella por una combinación de características externas y osteológicas así como por datos moleculares. Esta nueva especie se compara con R. arborescandens y R. veraguensis respecto a las características morfológicas externas y osteológicas.

DNA EVIDENCE FOR NONHYBRID ORIGINS OF PARTHENOGENESIS IN NATURAL POPULATIONS OF VERTEBRATES

Naturally occurring unisexual reproduction has been documented in less than 0.1% of all vertebrate species. Among vertebrates, true parthenogenesis is known only in squamate reptiles. In all vertebrate cases that have been carefully studied, the clonal or hemiclonal taxa have originated through hybridization between closely related sexual species. In contrast, parthenogenetic reproduction has arisen in invertebrates by a variety of mechanisms, including likely cases of “spontaneous” (nonhybrid) origin, a situation not currently documented in natural populations of vertebrates. Here, we present molecular data from the Neotropical night lizard genus Lepidophyma that provides evidence of independent nonhybrid origins for diploid unisexual populations of two species from Costa Rica and Panama. Our mitochondrial and nuclear phylogenies are congruent with respect to the unisexual taxa. Based on 14 microsatellite loci, heterozygosity (expected from a hybrid origin) is low in Lepidophyma reticulatum and completely absent in unisexual L. flavimaculatum. The unique value of this system will allow direct comparative studies between parthenogenetic and sexual lineages in vertebrates, with an enormous potential for this species to be a model system for understanding the mechanisms of nonhybrid parthenogenesis.

Further Notes on the Nomenclature of Middle American Toads (Bufonidae)

C OPE (1875 ‘‘1876’’:98) erected the genus Cranopsis, by monotypy, for the single Central American species Cranopsis fastidiosus Cope, 1875 ‘‘1876’’. In the same paper (p. 98) he erected the genus Ollotis, by monotypy, for the species Ollotis coerulescens Cope, 1875 ‘‘1876’’ (a subjective synonym of Cranopsis fastidiosus according to Savage (1972:25). Cope (1889:20) recognized that Cranopsis Cope, 1875 ‘‘1876’’ is a junior homonym of Cranopsis Adams, 1860 (Mollusca) and Cranopsis Dall, 1871 (Brachiopoda), and provided the new name Cranophryne. Frost et al. (2006a:364) considered a taxon of Middle American toads to be a genus, for which they, in error, used the name Cranopsis. Subsequently, Frost et al. (2006b:558) noted that Cranopsis was unavailable and applied the generic name Ollotis, for this taxon. Unfortunately, Frost et al. (2006a, 2006b) neglected an available name for this taxon, Incilius Cope, 1863. Incilius had been coined for a collection of American toads (Rana lentiginosa Shaw [5Anaxyrus terrestris], Bufo cognatus Say, 1823 [5Anaxyrus cognatus], Bufo woodhousii [5Anaxyrus woodhousii], Bufo americanus Le Conte, 1831 [5Anaxyrus americanus], Bufo nebulifer Girard, 1854 [5currently Ollotis nebulifer], Bufo veraguensis Schmidt, 1857 [5Rhinella veraguensis], Bufo coniferus Cope, 1862 [5currently Ollotis coniferus], Chilophryne dialopha Cope, 1862 [5Anaxyrus quercicus], and ‘‘probably’’ Bufo biporcatus Gravenhorst, 1829 [5Ingerophrynus biporcatus]), and no type species was designated in that original publication. Frost et al. (2006a:222) designated Bufo cognatus Say, 1823, as the type species of Incilius Cope, 1863, in order to place it as a junior synonym of Anayxurus Tschudi, 1838 (a genus of North American toads). However, Frost et al. (2006a, 2006b) missed that Kellogg (1932:29) had already designated the type species of Incilius as Bufo coniferus Cope, 1862. This act rendered Incilius Cope, 1863, a subjective senior synonym of Ollotis Cope, 1875 ‘‘1876’’. For this reason all species now included in Ollotis should be transferred to Incilius for reason of the priority. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Phylogenetic relationships within the lizard clade Xantusiidae: Using trees and divergence times to address evolutionary questions at multiple levels

Xantusiidae (night lizards) is a clade of small-bodied, cryptic lizards endemic to the New World. The clade is characterized by several features that would benefit from interpretation in a phylogenetic context, including: (1) monophyletic status of extant taxa Cricosaura, Lepidophyma, and Xantusia; (2) a species endemic to Cuba (Cricosaura typica) of disputed age; (3) origins of the parthenogenetic species of Lepidophyma; (4) pronounced micro-habitat differences accompanied by distinct morphologies in both Xantusia and Lepidophyma; and (5) placement of Xantusia riversiana, the only vertebrate species endemic to the California Channel Islands, which is highly divergent from its mainland relatives. This study incorporates extensive new character data from multiple gene regions to investigate the phylogeny of Xantusiidae using the most comprehensive taxonomic sampling available to date. Parsimony and partitioned Bayesian analyses of more than 7 kb of mitochondrial and nuclear sequence data from 11 loci all confirm that Xantusiidae is monophyletic, and comprises three well-supported clades: Cricosaura, Xantusia, and Lepidophyma. The Cuban endemic Cricosaura typica is well supported as the sister to all other xantusiids. Estimates of divergence time indicate that Cricosaura diverged from the (Lepidophyma+Xantusia) clade ≈ 81 million years ago (Ma), a time frame consistent with the separation of the Antilles from North America. Our results also confirm and extend an earlier study suggesting that parthenogenesis has arisen at least twice within Lepidophyma without hybridization, that rock-crevice ecomorphs evolved numerous times (>9) within Xantusia and Lepidophyma, and that the large-bodied Channel Island endemic X. riversiana is a distinct, early lineage that may form the sister group to the small-bodied congeners of the mainland.

Taxonomic status of Atelophryniscus chrysophorus McCranie, Wilson, and Williams, 1989 (Anura: Bufonidae) inferred from phylogeny

Abstract The family Bufonidae is nearly cosmopolitan in distribution and contains 33 genera. The monotypic bufonid genus Atelophryniscus was described relatively recently from Honduras. This taxon was distinguished from Bufo on the basis of its unusual gastromyzophorus tadpole. Stream-dwelling gastromyzophorus tadpoles are atypical within Bufonidae and when Atelophryniscus was described, this type of tadpole was unknown among members of the genus Bufo. To investigate the phylogenetic placement of this taxon, we analyzed 83 previously published morphological characters for a sampling of Old and New World bufonids and included newly coded data. The data indicate that (1) there are no autapomorphies supporting the recognition of Atelophryniscus; (2) this taxon is embedded within the genus Bufo; and (3) it is sister to Bufo veraguensis of South America.

Secondary Homonymy of Bufo Proboscideus Spix, 1824, with Phryniscus Proboscideus Boulenger, 1882

Chaparro et al. (2007) recently placed Rhamphophryne Trueb, 1971 into the synonymy of Rhinella Fitzinger, 1826. The result of this synonymy is that Bufo (Oxyrhynchus) proboscideus Spix, 1824 (formerly Rhinella proboscidea) and Phryniscus proboscideus Boulenger, 1882 (formerly Rhamphophryne proboscidea) are rendered as secondary homonyms. To remedy this homonymy we provide the new name Rhinella boulengeri as a replacement for the junior name, Phryniscus proboscideus, under the provisions of Article 60 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (1999).

Neopalatine Odontoids in Bufo alvarius (Anura: Bufonidae)

The lack of teeth among all species in the family Bufonidae is considered a synapomorphy to support the monophyly of this nearly cosmopolitan group (Ford and Cannatella, 1993; Graybeal and Cannatella, 1995). Odontoids occur in many frogs (e.g., the mandible of the hylid Hemiphractus; Shaw, 1989) but are simple tooth-like projections of bone and, thus, differ from true pedicellate, dentine-covered, amphibian teeth (Duellman and Trueb, 1986). No bufonid has been reported to have teeth or odontoids. Thus we were surprised to observe, in Bufo alzarius, discrete tooth-like odontoids on the ventral surface of the neo-