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Zootaxa, a New Species of Dink Frog (Anura: Eleutherodactylidae: Diasporus)

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Zootaxa, a New Species of Dink Frog (Anura: Eleutherodactylidae: Diasporus) Zootaxa 2088: 1–14 (2009) ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) www.mapress.com/zootaxa/ Article ZOOTAXA Copyright © 2009 · Magnolia Press ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) A new species of dink frog (Anura: Eleutherodactylidae: Diasporus) from Cordillera de Talamanca, Costa Rica GERARDO CHAVES1,3, ADRIÁN GARCÍA-RODRÍGUEZ1, ALEJANDRA MORA2 & ALEJANDRO LEAL2 1Zoology Museum, Department of Biology, Universidad de Costa Rica. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] 2Genetics and Biotechnology Section, Department of Biology, Universidad de Costa Rica. E-mail: [email protected] 3Corresponding authors. E-mail: [email protected] Abstract A new dink frog species of the genus Diasporus (Eleutherodactylidae) is described from the Cordillera de Talamanca in Costa Rica. The new species shows an amazing polymorphism in the dorsal and ventral coloration that varies from red to black and white that is unique in the genus. Here we include the description of its mating call, sexual dimorphism relative to coloration, and comments on its distribution and conservation status. In addition, molecular data that complement the morphological taxonomy are shown. Key words: Diasporus ventrimaculatus sp nov, intraspecific variation, polymorphism, polychromatism, Costa Rica Resumen Una nueva especie de rana campana del género Diasporus (Eleutherodactylidae) es descrita de la Cordillera de Talamanca en Costa Rica. La nueva especie muestra un sorprendente polimorfismo en la coloración dorsal y ventral que varía entre rojo hasta blanco y negro, lo cual es único en el grupo. Aquí incluimos la descripción de su canto de cortejo, dimorfismo sexual relacionado con la coloración así como comentarios sobre su distribución y estatus de conservación. Se muestran, además, datos moleculares que complementan la taxonomía morfológica. Palabras claves: Diasporus ventrimaculatus sp nov, variación intraespecífica, polimorfismo, policromatismo, Costa Rica Introduction Costa Rica hosts one of the best known herpetofaunas of any tropical country (Savage 2002). However there are still some areas within Costa Rica that have received little attention from herpetologists, such as the mountains of the Peninsula de Nicoya, the north Caribbean region and the highlands of the Cordillera de Talamanca. New species of salamanders (García-París et al. 2008; Wake et al. 2007), anurans (Lips 1996; Lips & Savage 1996) and reptiles (Lips & Savage 1994; Savage & Guyer 1998; Savage & Lahanas 1989) were recently described for the Talamancas, based on material collected from the few surveys carried out in the last decades. These new discoveries highlight the incomplete nature of our herpetological knowledge, especially in highland areas. In a recent survey of a high elevation valley known as Valle del Silencio, on the Caribbean versant of the Cordillera de Talamanca (Fig. 1), we found a remarkably abundant dink frog from the genus Diasporus (sensu Hedges et al. 2008). Frogs in the genus Diasporus were formerly placed in the family Leptodactylidae under the genus Eleutherodactylus (Frost 1985), but recently Heinicke et al. (2007) divided the eleutherodactylines Accepted by M. Vences: 27 Mar. 2009; published: 1 May 2009 1 FIGURE 1. Map of the Valle del Silencio area showing the Altamira-Valle del Silencio route (dotted line). Also shown are additional sites sampled during past expeditions. In the lower part is a close-up of the Valle del Silencio with the potential distribution of Diasporus ventrimaculatus marked with the red dot line. 2 · Zootaxa 2088 © 2009 Magnolia Press CHAVES ET AL. in to several genera based on a molecular phylogeny. The Eleutherodactylus diastema group (comprised by E. diastema, E. vocator, E. hylaeformis, E. quidditus, E. gularis, E. tinker, E. scolodiscus and E. chalceus) was reassigned to the genus Pristimantis, a group composed of approximately 400 species of South American origin (Heinicke et al. 2007). More recently, Hedges et al. (2008) added new sequences to the data set of Heinicke et al. (2007) and reorganized the classification of the ¨eleutherodactylines¨. Hedges et al. (2008) revealed that the frogs of the Eleutherodactylus diastema group formed a monophyletic clade with closer evolutionary affinities to the Caribbean clade of ¨eleutherodactylines¨. For this reason, Hedges et al. (2008) assigned the Eleutherodactylus diastema group (with the exception of P. scolodiscus and P. chalceus) to the genus Diasporus, characterized by the presence of a oval palmar tubercle, tympanic membrane usually differentiated, absence of cranial crests, digital discs expanded, finger I shorter than finger II and two longitudinal gular folds in males. Pristimantis chalceus and P. scolodiscus were found to be imbedded in the South American clade containing Pristimantis, and these species differ from Diasporus frogs by the presence of bifid palmar tubercles, weakly developed vomerine teeth and by not having the longitudinal gular folds (i.e. Lynch 2001; Hedges et al. 2008). Diasporus contains few recognized species at present, but according to some authors (Lynch, 2001; Savage 2002), some taxonomic names may be obscuring greater diversity within the clade. Costa Rica is home to four of the eight species of this genus (Hedges et al. 2008), one of which, Diasporus hylaeformis, lives in the humid lower montane region between 1500 to 2500 meters of altitude (Savage 2002). This species commonly has the dorsal surfaces colored pink or diffuse red. However, the dink frog we found in Valle del Silencio presents significant variation in the dorsal and ventral coloration, from red to black and white and others morphological and ecological traits that indicate that this animal was a new species of Diasporus. Herein we present a description of this new species with notes on its natural history. Materials and methods Field-work was carried out on the east side of the Cordillera de Talamanca close to the Costa Rica-Panama border within Parque Internacional La Amistad between July and September 2008. During the surveys we made a 14 km transect from Altamira (9.0296 N, -83.0080 W, 1391 m elevation) on the Pacific slope to El Valle del Silencio on the Caribbean slope (9.1116 N, -82.9617 W, 2550 m; Fig 1). On the Pacific slope, the first three kilometers of the transect were in secondary forest that, according to locals we talked to, was only recently not dedicated to agriculture. The rest of the transect went through a mature oak forest that classified as Tropical Lower Montane Rainforest (Holdridge 2000) with a dry season between December and March (Herrera 1985). The Valle del Silencio is a flat and slightly flooded area with mature oak forest with many clusters of the giant terrestrial bromeliad, Greigia sylvicola. This valley is classified as Tropical Montane Rainforest (Holdridge 2000) with a short two month dry season beginning in December (Herrera 1985). We sampled the leaf litter, logs, mosses and bromeliads in several places through the trail searching for amphibians and reptiles. All the collected specimens were housed in the Zoology Museum of the Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR). We followed Hedges et al. (2008) who assigned to the genus Diasporus those species included in the older Eleutherodactylus diastema group (Savage 2002). Terminology for morphological characters follows Savage (2002). All measurements of external morphology were recorded in mm to the nearest 0.1 mm with dial calipers and the aid of a dissecting microscope on preserved specimens. We report the measurements as mean ± 1 standard deviation. The sex of the specimens was determined by observing the vocal sac and the vocal slits; only individuals with vocal sac distended were considered reproductive males, otherwise they were considered non-reproductive males; individuals lacking vocal slits were classified as females. That classification was corroborated by dissecting specimens to verify sex and gonadal development. For our species diagnosis, we followed the 14 numbered statements developed by Lynch and Duellman (1980). Color descriptions were base on photographs of the specimens in life or recently preserved. NEW SPECIES OF DIASPORUS FROM COSTA RICA Zootaxa 2088 © 2009 Magnolia Press · 3 Between 00:30 am and 01:00 am on July 11, 2008, the vocalizations of six adult males were recorded in the field before being collected, using a digital recorder Marantz PMD 660 and a Sennheiser Me 66 directional microphone at a distance no greater than 1 meter. Temperature during recording was measured using a mercury thermometer. We made all recordings in a high quality uncompressed format, using 16-bit linear Pulse Code Modulation PCM at a sampling rate of 44100 Hz. Analysis was performed with the software, Raven 1.2.1 (FFT Hanning Window 512; 50 % temporal overlap 86.1 Hz of grid spacing). In total, 56 notes consisting of a single pulse were analyzed. None of the calls were filtered for the analysis, because of their high quality. Range of frequencies, highest and lowest frequencies, dominant and fundamental frequencies, duration of the pulses, interval between pulses and pulse rate were determined by selecting directly on the oscillogram and spectrogram the areas of interest, then measurements were automatically provided by the software. The terminology for the vocal analysis follows that presented in Duellman (1970). To evaluate the distribution range of the new species, we mapped the Altamira to Valle del Silencio route using data provided by Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio) geographic information
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