Hertz, A.

Lotzkat, S.

Valera-Leal, J.

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Check List 2007: 3(3) ISSN: 1809-127X  NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION    200Amphibia, Anura, Hylidae, Hylomantis medinai: Distribution extension  by discovery of a third population.  Sebastian Lotzkat1 Andreas Hertz1 Javier Valera-Leal2  1Forgschungsinstitut und Naturmuseum Senckenberg, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325 Frankfurt, Germany.  E-mail: lotzkat@yahoo.com  2Museo del Instituto de Zoología Agrícola, UCV. Aptdo-2101, Venezuela.   Hylomantis medinai is a lemur frog included in the  H. buckleyi group (Cannatella 1980) and inhabiting Cloud Forest above 1000 m a.s.l. in the Venezuelan Coastal Range (Funkhouser 1962; Manzanilla et al. 1995; Proy 2000). Like the other members of the genus (e.g. Hylomantis lemur), it reproduces in small ponds within mountain creeks or adjacent flooded areas (Proy 2000; Kubicki 2004). The species was originally described as Phyllomedusa medinae by Funkhouser (1962). Rivero (1967) corrected the specific name to medinai, and Faivovich et al. (2005) placed the species in the genus Hylomantis.   For a long time the species has been considered endemic to the type locality Rancho Grande (10º21' N, 67º41' W) in Henri Pittier National Park (PNHP, for its initials in Spanish), state of Aragua.  Hylomantis  medinai has not been detected again in Rancho Grande since 1974, and in spite of greatest search efforts carried out by Manzanilla et al. (1995) and Manzanilla (2001) as well as in the time between Januaries of 2005 and 2007 (Javier Valera-Leal, unpublished data) in PNHP between 400 - 1200 m a.s.l., new individuals have not been found neither in the type locality nor in its vicinity.    Figure 1. Distribution map showing the three localities known for Hylomantis medinai in northern Venezuela: the type-locality Rancho Grande (triangle), Bejuma (circle), and Cerro Zapatero (square).Check List 2007: 3(3) ISSN: 1809-127X  NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION    201 After the presence of H. medinai in PNHP had not been detected for almost three decades, Proy (2000) collected tadpoles of H. medinai from a flooded ditch at 1000 m a.s.l. in a cloud forest west of PNHP (10°18' N, 68°14' W), near the town Bejuma, state of Carabobo. Recently, during a field trip in October 2006 to the western extensions of the central Coastal Range, we observed several specimens of H. medinai on Cerro Zapatero (10º14' N, 68º38' W), between the towns of San Felipe and Nirgua, state of Yaracuy (see Figure 1). Two specimens (MIZA 405 and 406; male and female, respectively) were deposited at Museo del Instituto de Zoología Agrícola de la Universidad Central de Venezuela (MIZA).  Directly comparing their  morphological     and color characteristics with a paratype (EBRG-36) of the species, they were identified as H. medinai sensu Cannatella (1980) and Funkhouser (1962). This identification has been verified by Jesús Manzanilla. Now, three populations of H. medinai  are known, whereas the last localities (Bejuma and Cerro Zapatero) represent range extensions of approximately 60 and 100 km west of the type locality, respectively. The population of Cerro Zapatero was encountered around a still pond situated in a depression between two peaks of the mountain at 1300 m a.s.l. Some males were calling, while other adults were found in amplexus (Figure 2 shows the collected specimens MIZA 405 and 406 as they were found).     Figure 2. Amplexing pair of Hylomantis medinai on the banks of a still pond on Cerro Zapatero, Venezuela (male: MIZA 405; female: MIZA 406).      Check List 2007: 3(3) ISSN: 1809-127X  NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION    202Among the frogs of the H. buckleyi group (Cannatella 1980; Faivovich et al. 2005), H. danieli,  H. psilopygion and H. medinai are not assigned to any IUCN Red List category representing threat risk, but are listed as "Data Deficient" (Bolívar et al. 2004; Castro et al. 2004b; Manzanilla and La Marca 2004b). According to IUCN (2001), this category is applied to species for which the available information on distribution and/or population status is inadequate to assess the risk of extinction.  Hylomantis medinai is not the only amphibian that has literally vanished from Rancho Grande: Other species whose presence has not been reaffirmed in PNHP are the salamander Bolitoglossa borburata, the marsupial frog Gastrotheca ovifera, and the harlequin frog Atelopus cruciger, the latter two species having been quite abundant throughout most of the twentieth century (Manzanilla 2001; Manzanilla et al. 1995; Manzanilla and La Marca 2004a). In the case of Venezuelan species of Atelopus, the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is assumed to have played a role in their respective population declines (Bonaccorso et al. 2003; Lampo et al. 2006).   On the base of these extensions of the geographical distribution (although the presence of H. medinai in Bejuma is to be verified as Proy (2000) did not mention any voucher specimens) and the results obtained by a study that is currently being carried out in the Costal Range (with the support of the fund IEA-Provita, Venezuela) concerning the status of knowledge on H. medinai (Valera-Leal et al., in progress), the necessity arises to carry out detailed studies on the populational status of H. medinai as well as the presence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in the members of its populations. Thus reevaluating the current status of conservation of this rare species will allow for the proposal of programs that benefit the preservation of this lemur frog directly and other species indirectly.   Acknowledgments We would like to thank the colleagues who arbitrated this note, as well as Dinora Sánchez and Jesus Manzanilla for their suggestions concerning the manuscript. We thank Marjorie Machado, Mario Palacios, Jesus Manzanilla, Gunther Köhler and Marco Natera for their technical consultantship and logistical support both in the laboratory and search locality. Douglas Mora provided valuable help during field work, which was made possible by the courtesy of the head of the Estación Ecológica la Guáquira, Carlos Rivero-Blanco. Jesús Manzanilla gracefully provided a raw version of the map (Figure 1). For financial support of their respective fieldwork, SL is indebted to the DAAD and JVL to the fund IEA-Provita.    Literature cited Bolívar, W., K. H. Jungfer, and J. M Renjifo. 2004. Hylomantis psilopygion. In IUCN 2006, 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Electronic database accessible at http://www.iucnredlist.org. Captured on 14 November 2006.  Bonaccorso, E., J. M. Guayasamin, D. Méndez, and R. Speare. 2003. Chytridomycosis as a possible cause of population declines in Atelopus cruciger (Anura: Bufonidae). Herpetological Review 34(4): 331-334.  Castro, F., J. Lynch, and A. Acosta-Galvis. 2004. Hylomantis danieli. In IUCN 2006, 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Electronic database accessible at http://www.iucnredlist.org. Captured on 14 November 2006.  Cannatella, D. C. 1980. A review of the Phyllomedusa buckleyi group (Anura:  Hylidae).  Occasional  Papers     of The Museum of Natural History, The University of Kansas 87: 1-40.  Faivovich, J., C. F. B. Haddad, P. C. A. Garcia, D. R. Frost, J.A. Campbell, and W. C. Wheeler. 2005. Systematic review of the frog family Hylidae, with special reference to Hylinae: a phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 294: 1-240.  Funkhouser, A. 1962. A new Phyllomedusa from Venezuela. Copeia 1962(3): 588-590.  IUCN. (2001). Categorías y Criterios de la Lista Roja de la UICN: Versión 3.1. Comisión de Supervivencia de Especies de la UICN. Gland: IUCN, ii + 33 p. Kubicki, B. and T. Facio-Hernández (Tr.). 2004. Leaf Frogs of Costa Rica = Ranas de Hoja de Costa Rica. 1ª Ed. INbio. 120 p.  Check List 2007: 3(3) ISSN: 1809-127X  NOTES ON GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION    203Lampo, M., A. Rodríguez-Contreras, E. La Marca, and P. Daszak. 2006 A Chitridiomycosis epidemic and a severe dry season precede the disappearance of Atelopus species from the Venezuelan Andes. Herpetological Journal 16(4): 395-402 Manzanilla, J. 2001. Clave Ilustrada y Descripción de los Anfibios del Noroeste del Estado Aragua, con Comentarios sobre su Historia Natural. Trabajo de Ascenso como para optar al cargo de profesor agregado de la Facultad de Agronomía de la UCV. 183 p.  Manzanilla, J., A. Fernández-Badillo, and E. La Marca. 1995. Fauna del Parque Nacional Henri Pittier, Venezuela: Composición y distribución de los anfibios. Acta Científica Venezolana 46: 294-302.  Manzanilla, J. and E. La Marca. 2004a. Museum records and field samplings as sources of data indicating population crashes for Atelopus cruciger, a proposed critically endangered species from the Venezuelan coastal range. Memoria de la Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales 157: 5-30.                                    Manzanilla, J. and E. La Marca. 2004b. Hylomantis medinai. In IUCN 2006, 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Electronic database accessible at http://www.iucnredlist.org. Captured on 12 November 2006.  Proy, C. 2000. Neue Daten zu Verbreitung und Entwicklung von Phyllomedusa medinai Funkhouser, 1962. Herpetofauna 22: 19-22.  Rivero, J. A. 1967. Adiciónes recentes a la fauna anfibia de Venezuela. Memoria de la Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales 76: 5-10.  Sols, F., R. Ibañez, J. Savage, C. Jaramillo, Q. Fuenmayor, B. Kubicki, A. Pounds, G. Chaves, and K.-H. Jungfer. 2004. Hylomantis lemur. In IUCN 2006, 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Electronic database accessible at http://www. iucnredlist.org. Captured on 14 November 2006.  Received March 2007 Accepted July 2007 Published online August 2007 

Amphibia, Anura, Hylidae, <i>Hylomantis medinai</i>: Distribution extension by discovery of a third population.

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