Herpetology Notes, volume 8: 523-526 (2015) (published online on 03 October 2015) New records of Rhinella achavali (Maneyro, Arrieta and de Sá, 2004) (Anura, Bufonidae) from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil Diego Janisch Alvares¹ ,*, Camila Camargo de Souza², Michelle Abadie¹, Caroline Zank³ and Márcio Borges-Martins¹ Amphibian diversity and distribution is widely The toad Rhinella achavali (Maneyro, Arrieta e de Sá, underestimated when compared to other classes of 2004) was originally described as endemic from streams Tetrapoda (Scheffers et al. 2012, Pinn et al. 2014). in hill systems (“Cuchilla de Haedo” and “Cuchilla Nearly 24% of all known species was described along Grande”) from northeastern Uruguay (Departments the last decade (AmphibiaWeb 2015), and the lack of of Artigas, Rivera, Tacuarembó and Treinta y Tres). distributional data for many species hinders a proper It was later recorded in Rio Grande do Sul, Southern assessment of their conservation status, especially Brazil, extending the known geographic distribution in in some biodiverse and poorly studied regions of the ca. 380 km to the north (Kwet, Di-Bernardo e Maneyro, Neotropics (Fonte et al. 2014). Rhinella Fitzinger, 1826 2006). Most records were restricted to the Pampa is the second most diverse genus of Bufonidae, currently biome; however, the northernmost records indicated comprising 88 valid Neotropical species (Frost 2015, its occurrence also in the southern limits of the Atlantic Pramuk et al . 2007 ). The Rhinella marina group is Forests. Maximum altitude reported ranges from 370- currently composed by 10 species of large-sized toads, 500 m a.s.l. (Maneyro, Arrieta e de Sá, 2004; Kwet, Di- including Rhinella achavali (Maneyro, Arrieta, and de Bernardo e Maneyro, 2006). Sá, 2004), R. arenarum (Hensel, 1867), R. cerradensis Maciel, Brandão, Campos, and Sebben, 2007, R. icterica (Spix, 1824), R. jimi (Stevaux, 2002), R. marina (Linnaeus, 1758), R. poeppigii (Tschudi, 1845), R. rubescens (Lutz, 1925), R. schneideri (Werner, 1894) and R. veredas (Brandão, Maciel, and Sebben, 2007) (Frost 2015). ¹ Programa de Pós-Graduação em Biologia Animal, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). Av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500 CEP: 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. 2 Laboratório de Herpetologia, Museu de Ciências e Tecnologia, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul. Av. Ipiranga, 6681. CEP: 90619-900, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Figure 1. Geographic distribution of Rhinella achavali and new ³ Setor de Fauna, Departamento de Biodiversidade, Secretaria records in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil: municipalities do Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Sustentável (SEMA). of 1) Coronel Barros, 2) Jaquirana, 3) São Sepé, 4) Taquara, Avenida Borges de Medeiros, 261. CEP: 90020-021, Porto 5) Canela and 6) Arvorezinha. Other records correspond to Alegre, RS, Brazil. previously published localities (Maneyro, Arrieta and de Sá, * Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected] 2004; Kwet, Di-Bernardo and Maneyro, 2006). 524 Diego Janisch Alvare s et al. the municipality of Arvorezinha, cited by Dalmolin et al. (2014). Voucher specimens were deposited in the collection of the Departamento de Zoologia from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS). All geographic coordinates are in latitude/longitude degrees format (datum WGS84). The new records are as follows (numbers correspond to localities in Fig. 1): # 1) three specimens from the municipality of Coronel Barros (-28.396667/- 54.087778), 307 m a.s.l, June/2010 (UFRGS. 4864, 4869-4870; Fig. 2A); # 2) one specimen from Tainhas river, in the Tainhas State Park, Jaquirana municipality (-29.084780/-50.366718), 800 m a.s.l, November/2012 (UFRGS. 6416; Fig. 2B, Fig. 3A); # 3) one specimen from São Sepé municipality (-30.270952/-53.663828), 163 m a.s.l, November/2006 (UFRGS. 2665); #4-5) two specimens derived from historical records from the municipalities of Taquara (UFRGS. 829, October/1956) and Canela (UFRGS. 831, October/1974), which were not cited in previous reports; and #6) one specimen from the municipality of Arvorezinha, collected in the margins of the Forqueta river, Perau de Janeiro (- 28.853229/-52.303220), 525 m a.s.l, October/2010 (UFRGS. 5150; Fig. 2C, Fig. 3B). The new records extend the known geographic and altitudinal distribution of Rhinella achavali , reporting for the first time the presence of this species at elevations above 500 m a.s.l and indicating a wide occurrence over the Araucarian Plateau. Collection data corroborates the association of R. achavali with lotic habitats (Maneyro, Arrieta and de Sá, 2004; Kwet, Di-Bernardo and Maneyro, 2006, Maneyro and Kwet 2008), and also suggests a wider habitat occupancy than previously thought. The new records of R. achavali encompass Seasonal and Araucaria Moist forests, indicating that this toad is not restricted to open formations in the Pampa biome, and that it was probably misidentified as R. icterica (Fig.4) in southern Brazil (Kwet, Di- Figure 2. Rhinella achavali A) Adult male (UFRGS 4870) Bernardo e Maneyro, 2006). Rhinella achavali can be from Coronel Barros, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. B) Adult diagnosed from R. icterica by a combination of the male (UFRGS 6416) from Jaquirana, Parque Estadual do Tainhas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. C) Adult male (UFRGS following characteristics: well developed webbing 5150) from Arvorezinha, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. between toes (versus less developed in R. icterica ); inner margin of parotoid glands concave (versus sinuous in R. icterica ); cephalic crest over the orbit prominent, higher than eyelid (versus not prominent in R. icterica ); dorsal coloration dark brown, ferruginous, at least in cephalic crests and glands (versus light yellow with large dark In the present work we report five new localities for blotches, in females, or uniform yellowish, greenish or R. achavali , extending further north the distribution brownish in males, in R. icterica ), ventral coloration in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. We also whitish, without dark markings (versus whitish with provide additional information about the record from black markings in R. icterica ) (Kwet, Di-Bernardo and New records of Rhinella achavali from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil 525 Figure 3. Collection sites of Rhinella achavali : A) margins of the Tainhas river, Parque Estadual do Tainhas, municipality of Jaquirana, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil; B) margins of the Forqueta river, Perau de Janeiro, municipality of Arvorezinha, State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Maneyro, 2006). These records highlight the lack in our knowledge about the geographical distribution of Neotropical anuran species, even for the large-sized toads of the Rhinella marina group. Acknowledgements. We thank the Sistema de Autorização e Informação em Biodiversidade (SISBIO/ICMBio) for allowing us to collect the specimens (permit number 10341-1). We are grateful to Raúl Maneyro who provided useful suggestions on an earlier version of this manuscript. 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