A new species of Anadia (Reptilia, Squamata) from the Venezuelan 'Lost World', northern South America

A new gymnophthalmid lizard of the genus Anadia Gray, 1845 is described from the summit of Abakapá-tepui, Bolívar State, Venezuela, between 2200-2242 m elevation. The new species, Anadia mcdiarmidi sp. nov., is endemic to the Chimantá Massif and seemingly also occurs on Amurí-tepui and Murei-tepui. The new taxon is mainly distinguished from all known congeners by the following combination of characters: body fairly robust, dorsal scales small and quadrangular, middorsal scales 53-57, suboculars large, subequal in size, with sometimes one scale slightly protruding downward between 4th and 5th supralabial, nasal entire, without sub-nostril groove, body uniform beige or greyish to bluish brown in life, devoid of any conspicuous pattern in males, venter immaculate golden grey in life, femoral pores 9-10 on each side in males, preanal pores absent, hemipenis globose, weakly bilobed, bordered by numerous fl ounces (>20) bearing comblike rows of minute weakly mineralized spinules. The presence of a species of Anadia, a primarily Andean genus, on the top of tepuis is of considerable interest to the understanding of the Pantepui biogeography

A new genus of Cophomantini, with comments on the taxonomic status of Boana liliae (Anura: Hylidae)

© 2018 The Linnean Society of London The non-monophyly of both the genus Myersiohyla and the Boana punctata group has been recovered in a number of published phylogenetic analyses. In this paper we report on the analysis of sequences of Boana liliae, a species originally assigned to the B. punctata group, in a dataset of Cophomantini that recovered novel phylogenetic relationships for this hylid tribe. Our results reveal Myersiohyla to be paraphyletic with respect to B. liliae. Support for the placement of Myersiohyla kanaima is poor, but this taxon is recovered as the sister taxon of the other Cophomantini genera (excluding Myersiohyla) or as the sister taxon of the remaining species of Myersiohyla (including B. liliae). These results lead us to propose two taxonomic changes in order to remedy the paraphyly of Myersiohyla: (1) a new genus is described for M. kanaima, and (2) Boana liliae is transferred to Myersiohyla. We further provide notes on the natural history and vocalizations of the new monotypic genus, a new diagnosis of the former B. liliae in the context of Myersiohyla, and discuss the evolution of tadpole morphology and biogeography of the earlier diverging clades of Cophomantini

A redescription of Anomaloglossus praderioi (La Marca, 1998) (Anura: Aromobatidae: Anomaloglossinae), with description of its tadpole and call

Anomaloglossus praderioi was originally described as Colostethus praderioi by E. La Marca in 1998 on the basis of two male specimens. The present paper provides a redescription of the species on the basis of new material from Maringma Tepui in Guyana and an additional specimen from Sierra de Lema in Venezuela. The redescription includes descriptions of the tadpole and vocalisation. Anomaloglossus praderioi is a medium-sized species mainly distinguished from its known congeners in having Fingers I, II and IV equal in length, the tip of Finger IV barely reaching the base of the distal subarticular tubercle on Finger III when fingers are adpressed, Fingers II and III with preaxial keel-like lateral folds, toes basally webbed with folded flaplike fringing except on Toes IV-V, symmetrical cloacal tubercles present, thin pale dorsolateral stripe present from tip of snout to tip of urostyle, ventrolateral stripe inconspicuous, never straight, oblique lateral stripe absent, throat in male grey to very dark grey, almost solid black, with black blotches, throat in female bright orange, almost immaculate. The tadpole is dark brown to black, exotrophic, benthic, LTRF 2(2)/3. The advertisement call consists of long trains of a single note repeated at a rate of 61-76 notes/min with a dominant frequency ranging from 3,562 to 3,856 Hz. The species is reported from eastern Venezuela and western Guyana and inhabits montane medium-canopy forest at elevations between 1,310-1,950 m above sea level.<br>Anomaloglossus praderioi fue originalmente descrito como Colostethus praderioi por E. La Marca en 1998 con dos ejemplares machos. El presente artículo ofrece una redescripción detallada de la especie basada en nuevos ejemplares de Maringma Tepui, en Guyana y ejemplares adicionales de la Sierra de Lema, en Venezuela. La redescripción incluye la vocalización y descripción del renacuajo. Anomaloglossus praderioi es de tamaño mediano y se distingue principalmente de sus congéneres por los siguientes caracteres: los dedos I, II y IV con igual longitud; punta del dedo IV apenas llega a la base del tubérculo subarticular distal del dedo III, cuando estos son colocados juntos; dedos II y III con la quilla preaxial y pliegues laterales; dedos de los pies palmeados basalmente, excepto en los dedos IV-V; simétricos tubérculos cloacales presentes; franja delgada dorsolateral de color pálido, la cual va desde la punta del hocico hasta la punta de urostilo; banda ventrolateral inconspicua, nunca recta; banda lateral oblicua ausente. Macho con garganta de color gris a gris muy oscuro, casi negro uniforme. En hembras la garganta es de color naranja brillante, casi inmaculada. La larva es castaño oscuro a negro, de hábitos exotróficos y bentónicos, LTRF 2 (2)/3. La llamada de advertencia consiste de largas series de una nota sencilla repetida a un ritmo de 61-76 notes/min con una frecuencia dominante que va desde 3,562 a 3,856 Hz. La especie queda registrada para el sureste de Venezuela y oeste de Guyana, habitando bosques montanos con cobertura media en elevaciones entre los 1,310-1,950 m s.n.m

On the taxonomic validity of Pristimantis tepuiensis (Schlüter & Rödder, 2007) and P. stegolepis (Schlüter & Rödder, 2007), with remarks on the type series of P. guaiquinimensis (Schlüter & Rödder, 2007)

Kok, Philippe J.R., Barrio-Amorós, César L. (2013): On the taxonomic validity of Pristimantis tepuiensis (Schlüter &amp; Rödder, 2007) and P. stegolepis (Schlüter &amp; Rödder, 2007), with remarks on the type series of P. guaiquinimensis (Schlüter &amp; Rödder, 2007). Zootaxa 3694 (1): 75-80, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3694.1.

Anomaloglossus meansi sp. n., a new Pantepui species of the Anomaloglossus beebei group (Anura, Aromobatidae)

Recent extinctions and drastic population declines have been documented in the Guiana Shield endemic frog genus Anomaloglossus, hence the importance to resolve its alpha-taxonomy. Based on molecular phylogenies, the literature has long reported the occurrence of an undescribed species in the Pakaraima Mountains of Guyana in the Pantepui region. We here describe this new taxon and demonstrate that in addition to divergence at the molecular level the new species differs from congeners by a unique combination of morphological characters, notably a small size (maximum SVL in males 18.86 mm, maximum SVL in females 21.26 mm), Finger I = Finger II when fingers adpressed, Finger III swollen in breeding males, fringes on fingers absent, toes basally webbed but lacking fringes, in life presence of a thin dorsolateral stripe from tip of snout to tip of urostyle, and a black throat in preserved males (immaculate cream in females). Virtually nothing is known about the ecology of the new species. We suggest the new species to be considered as Data Deficient according to IUCN standards

Out of taxonomic limbo: a name for the species of Tepuihyla (Anura: Hylidae) from the Chimantá Massif, Pantepui region, northern South America

International audienceWe describe a new hylid species of the genus Tepuihyla from Pantepui, northeastern South America. The new species inhabits the Chimantá Massif, Bolívar state, Venezuela. The new species is likely part of a recent non-adaptive ra-diation, and was confused for more than a decade with T. edelcae, a morphologically similar species occurring on the sum-mit of Auyán-tepui, Bolívar state, Venezuela. The new species is mainly distinguished from known congeners by phyloge-netic data, as well as a medium size (37.1 mm maximum SVL in males, 38.4 mm maximum SVL in females), diameter of eye greater than distance from nostril to eye, skin on dorsum smooth in females, with scattered, fine, white-tipped spicules in males, skin on flanks smooth to faintly granular, presence of a pale labial stripe and a dark band or stripe from nostril to eye, a dorsal ground colour from pale grey to dark brown, usually suffused with small to minute dark brown or black mark-ings, no transverse bars on limbs, rear of thighs patternless, axillary membrane poorly developed, breeding males with conspicuous, usually black, nuptial pads extending beyond thenar tubercle, iris dark brown to copper with gold flecks and sometimes fine dark brown reticulation, and white limb bones. The new species inhabits open, mostly flat areas on tepui summits, between ca1,800 and 2,600 m altitude, where it is intimately associated with carnivorous bromeliads of the genus Brocchinia. The species breeds in deep pools in marshy areas and small shallow rocky pools; its tadpole and advertisement call are described. The IUCN conservation status of the new species is considered Least Concern (LC) because population size still seems relatively large, the species occurs in a number of locations, and is apparently not declining fast enough to qualify for any of the threat categories. Differentiation in morphological, acoustic, and genetic traits of species endemic to tepui summits are briefly discussed. Finally, Tepuihyla rimarum is considered a junior synonym of T. rodriguezi

Comparative osteology of the fossorial frogs of the genus Synapturanus (Anura, Microhylidae) with the description of three new species from the Eastern Guiana Shield

International audienc

Activity of rSpyCEP and PMN transmigration.

<p>(<b>A</b>) Comparison of rSpyCEP and native SpyCEP activity on IL-8. SDS-PAGE (18% Tris-Glycine) and silver staining after 2 h of digestion with 5 ng, 1 ng, 0.2 ng, 0.04 ng or 0 ng (ctr lane) of rSpyCEP+3348Δ<i>spyCEP</i> extracts (left). Cell wall extracts containing comparable amounts of native SpyCEP from 3348 extracts (right). Full and trace arrowheads indicate intact and cleaved IL-8, respectively. Lower panel: control Western blot showing relative SpyCEP amounts compared to 5 ng of rSpyCEP (ctr). (<b>B,C</b>) SpyCEP effect on PMN transmigration. (<b>B</b>) Murine or (<b>C</b>) human PMN migration in response to KC or IL-8 (white), respectively, in the presence of rSpyCEP (black) or rSpyCEP* (grey). (<b>D</b>) Counteraction of rSpyCEP activity by specific antibodies. Human PMN migration using IL-8 (white); IL-8, rSpyCEP and α-SpyCEP (black); and IL-8, rSpyCEP, α-Spy0269 (grey). Data represent means plus SEM of one representative experiment using triplicates. Statistical significance was tested by unpaired Student T, (*) <i>P</i><0.05, (**) <i>P</i><0.01, (***), <i>P</i><0.001.</p

Phylogenetics of dart-poison frogs

262 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 26 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 184-203).The known diversity of dart-poison frog species has grown from 70 in the 1960s to 247 at present, with no sign that the discovery of new species will wane in the foreseeable future. Although this growth in knowledge of the diversity of this group has been accompanied by detailed investigations of many aspects of the biology of dendrobatids, their phylogenetic relationships remain poorly understood. This study was designed to test hypotheses of dendrobatid diversification by combining new and prior genotypic and phenotypic evidence in a total evidence analysis. DNA sequences were sampled for five mitochondrial and six nuclear loci (approximately 6,100 base pairs [bp]; å[arithmetic mean] = 53,740 bp per terminal; total dataset composed of approximately 1.55 million bp), and 174 phenotypic characters were scored from adult and larval morphology, alkaloid profiles, and behavior. These data were combined with relevant published DNA sequences. Ingroup sampling targeted several previously unsampled species, including Aromobates nocturnus, which was hypothesized previously to be the sister of all other dendrobatids. Undescribed and problematic species were sampled from multiple localities when possible. The final dataset consisted of 414 terminals: 367 ingroup terminals of 156 species and 47 outgroup terminals of 46 species. Direct optimization parsimony analysis of the equally weighted evidence resulted in 25,872 optimal trees. Forty nodes collapse in the strict consensus, with all conflict restricted to conspecific terminals. Dendrobatids were recovered as monophyletic, and their sister group consisted of Crossodactylus, Hylodes, and Megaelosia, recognized herein as Hylodidae. Among outgroup taxa, Centrolenidae was found to be the sister group of all athesphatanurans except Hylidae, Leptodactyidae was polyphyletic, Thoropa was nested within Cycloramphidae, and Ceratophryinae was paraphyletic with respect to Telmatobiinae. Among dendrobatids, the monophyly and content of Mannophryne and Phyllobates were corroborated. Aromobates nocturnus and Colostethus saltuensis were found to be nested within Nephelobates, and Minyobates was paraphyletic and nested within Dendrobates. Colostethus was shown to be rampantly nonmonophyletic, with most species falling into two unrelated cis- and trans-Andean clades. A morphologically and behaviorally diverse clade of median lingual process-possessing species was discovered. In light of these findings and the growth in knowledge of the diversity of this large clade over the past 40 years, we propose a new, monophyletic taxonomy for dendrobatids, recognizing the inclusive clade as a superfamily (Dendrobatoidea) composed of two families (one of which is new), six subfamilies (three new), and 16 genera (four new). Although poisonous frogs did not form a monophyletic group, the three poisonous lineages are all confined to the revised family Dendrobatidae, in keeping with the traditional application of this name. We also propose changes to achieve a monophyletic higher-level taxonomy for the athesphatanuran outgroup taxa. Analysis of character evolution revealed multiple origins of phytotelm-breeding, parental provisioning of nutritive oocytes for larval consumption (larval oophagy), and endotrophy. Available evidence indicates that transport of tadpoles on the dorsum of parent nurse frogs--a dendrobatid synapomorphy--is carried out primitively by male nurse frogs, with three independent origins of female transport and five independent origins of biparental transport. Reproductive amplexus is optimally explained as having been lost in the most recent common ancestor of Dendrobatoidea, with cephalic amplexus arising independently three times