Number of Pages: 3Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Lathrop, Amy

MacCulloch, Ross D.

English

Number of Pages: 3Integrative BiologyEarth and Planetary Science

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AMPHIBIA: ANURA: CRYPTOBATRACHIDAE Stefania evansi Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles. MacCulloch, R.D. and A. Lathrop. 2006. Stefania evansi. Stefania evansi (Boulenger) Evans' Stefania; Rana Stefania guayanesa Figure 1. Pattern variation in adults of Stefania evan- Hyla evansi Boulenger 1904:106. Type-locality "Gro- ete Creek, Essequibo, British Guiana." Holotype, British Museum of Natural History (BMNH) 1947.2.13.11, age and sex unknown, collected November 1902 by R. Evans (not examined by authors). Cryptobatrachus evansi Ruthven 1922:56. Stefania evansi Rivero 1 968:143. CONTENT. No subspecies are recognized. DEFINITION. Stefania evansi is one of the largest members of the genus, with adult females up to 97.5 mm and males to 53 mm SVL. Head width is 8&92% head length; distance between nostrils is 5046% interorbital distance, 1.5 times distance from nostril to tip of snout. Interorbital space is 1.1-1.4 times width of upper eyelid. Frontoparietal ridges are present but low. Tympanum is 4247% of eye diameter, separat- ed from the eye by a distance equal to or slightly greater than the tympanum diameter. Vomerine pro- cesses each bear 7-1 0 teeth. The skin of the dorsum is shagreened. Prominent tubercles are present in the temporal and post-tympanic regions. The largest finger disc is equal to 90% of the tympanum diame- ter. Finger and toe discs are approximately equal in size. Supernumerary tubercles on the hands and feet are numerous and distinct. Toe webbing formula is I 1 - (I+-1%) I1 I - (I+-I !4) Ill (I-I+) - (2-2%) IV (2-2%) - (1-1 +) v. Duellman and Hoogmoed (1984) illustrated three color patterns for S. evansi. However, it appears like- ly that their color morph C (dorsal chevrons) is the ju- venile pattern, while morphs A and B represent adult coloration. The dorsal chevron pattern, present in neonates of several species of Stefania (MacCulloch and Lathrop 2002), is retained in newly independent juveniles, but present only rarely in adults (Duellman and Hoogmoed 1984). Similarity in juvenile color pat- tern among Stefania makes this character an unreli- able tool for identification. Variation in color pattern of Stefania evansi is shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and in Mac- Culloch et al. (2006). Females carrying 11, 17,21,22,24 and 25 eggs or juveniles have been reported (Boulenger 1904, Jung- fer and Bohme 1991, Kok et al. 2006, Lang 1924, MacCulloch and Lathrop 2002, see also Fig. 3). Ju- veniles attain independence at about 19 mm SVL. DIAGNOSIS. Stefania evansican be distinguished from all other congeners except S. scalae by the extent of the toe webbing, with usually only slightly more than one phalange (two on toe IV) free of web- bing in S. evansiand S. scalae, and at least two pha- si.-specimens are 50-65 mm SVL (photograph by A. Lathrop). Figure 2. Juveniles of Stefania evansifrom Mt. Ayan- ganna, Guyana. Specimens are 19-21 mm SVL (photograph by A. Lathrop). Figure 3. Female Stefania evansi carrying juveniles, AMNH A-1 66304, Konawaruk River, Guyana (photo- graph by C.J. Cole). langes (three on toe IV) free in other Stefania. Ste- fania evansi has more extensive toe webbing (one phalange free on most toes), shagreened dorsal skin, low frontoparietal crests, toe discs equal in size to fin- ger discs and numerous prominent tubercles in the tympanic region, whereas S. scalae has less webbing (somewhat more than one phalange free on most toes), smooth skin, no frontoparietal crests, relatively small toe discs (largest toe disc equal to the smallest finger disc) and a few low tubercles in the tympanic region. There is also an elevational difference among reported localities for the two species, with S. evansi occurring at lower elevations and S. scalae at higher elevations. DESCRIPTIONS. The holotype was described by Boulenger (1904); the original description was re- Map. The known distribution of Stefania evansi. The type-locality is shown by the circled dot. Map cour- tesy of Blake Matejowsky. printed verbatim, along with descriptions of additional specimens, by Rivero (1968). Duellman and Hoog- moed (1 984) provided further descriptions, including color variation. Some additional descriptions of adults and juveniles is in Jungfer and Bohme (1991), Mac- Culloch and Lathrop (2002) and MacCulloch et al. (2006). ILLUSTRATIONS. Photographs are presented in Jungfer and Bohme (1991), Lang (1924), MacCulloch et al. (2006) and Rivero (1968). Several drawings are in Duellman and Hoogmoed (1984). DISTRIBUTION. Forested lowlands of west-cen- tral Guyana, up to 900 m. Its presence in Venezuela has not been confirmed (Barrio-Amoros and Fuentes, 2003). All of the higher-elevation specimens of S. evansi in Duellman and Hoogmoed (1984) are prop- erly referred to S. scalae. The distribution map is based on data from C.J. Cole (pers. comm.), M.A. Donnelly (pers. comm.), Duellman and Hoogmoed (1 984), Jungfer and Bohme (1 991), MacCulloch and Lathrop (2002), MacCulloch et al. (2006) and L.R. Minter (pers. comm.). At several locations S. evansi and S. woodleyi were collected syntopically. FOSSIL RECORD. None. PERTINENT LITERATURE. Descriptions of re- production and brooding, as well as habitat, were pro- vided by Duellman and Hoogmoed (1984), Jungfer and Bohme (1991), MacCulloch and Lathrop (2002), and MacCulloch et al. (2006). A table of diagnostic characters useful for species identification is in Mac- Culloch and Lathrop (2002) and a key to species is in Seiiaris et al. (1 997). NOMENCLATURAL HISTORY. The species was first described as Hyla evansi by Boulenger (1 904). Ruthven (1 922) transferred the species to Cryptobatrachus; Rivero (1968) subsequently erect- ed the genus Stefania and included this species. Duellman and Hoogmoed (1984) synonymized Ste- fania scalae with S. evansi. Seiiaris et al. (1 997) sep- arated the two taxa, restoring Stefania scalae to spe- cies status. REMARKS. Stefania was placed in the new fami- ly Cryptobatrachidae by Frost et al. (2006). Rivero (1970) divided the genus Stefania into two species groups; Stefania evansi is in the S. evansi group by virtue of its head proportions. The Spanish vernacu- lar name "Rana Stefania guayanesa" is from Barrio- Amoros (1998). Frank and Ramus (1 995) proposed the English vernacular name "Groete Creek Tree- frog"; we feel that the use of "treefrog" for Stefania is confusing and imprecise, and therefore propose the name "Evans' Stefania", which is in accordance with names proposed for other Stefania, and follows the Spanish example of using the genus name as a com- mon name. ETYMOLOGY. The specific epithet is a patronym honoring R. Evans, who collected the holotype. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. For loan of specimens and use of a photograph we thank C.J. Cole (AMNH). C.J. Cole, M.A. Donnelly, and L.R. Minter provided unpublished localities for the map. B.P. Noonan shared information from specimens examined at BMNH. Acronyms follow Leviton et al. (1985). LITERATURE CITED Barrio-Amoros, C.L. 1998. Sistematica y biogeogra- fia de 10s anfibios (Amphibia) de ~enezueia. ~ c t a  Biol. Venez. 18:l-93. - and 0. Fuentes. 2003. A new species of Stefania (Anura: Hylidae: Hemiphractinae) from the sum- mit of Cerro Autana, estado Amazonas, Venezu- ela. Herpetologica 59:504-512. Boulenger, G.A. 1904. Description of a new frog of the genus Hyla from British Guiana carrying eggs on the back. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1904:106. Duellman, W.E. and M.S. Hoogmoed. 1984. The tax- onomy and phylogenetic relationships of the hylid frog genus Stefania. Misc. Pub. Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. (75):l-39. Frank, N. and E. Ramus. 1995. A Complete Guide to Scientific and Common Names of Reptiles and Amphibians of the World. NG Publ., Inc., Potts- ville, Pennsylvania. Frost, D.R., T. Grant, J. Faivovich, R.H. Bain, A. Haas, C.F.B. Haddad, R.O. de Sa, A. Channing, M. Wilkinson, S.C. Donnellan, C.J. Raxworthy, J.A. Campbell, B.L. Blotto, P. Moler, R.C. Drewes, R.A. Nussbaum, J.D. Lynch, D.M. Green, and W.C. Wheeler. 2006. The amphibian tree of life. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. (297):l-370. Jungfer, K.-H. and W. Bohme. 1991. The backpack strategy of parental care in frogs, with notes on froglet-carrying in Stefania evansi (Boulenger, 1904) (Anura: Hylidae: Hemiphractinae). Rev. fr. Aquariol. 18:91-96. Kok, P.J.R., G.R. Bourne, P. Benjamin, and G.L. Lenglet. 2006. Natural history notes. Stefania evansi. Reproduction. Herpetol. Rev. 37:212-213. Lang, H. 1924. Into the interior of British Guiana. Nat. Hist. 24:467478. Leviton, A.E., R.H. Gibbs, Jr., E. Heal, and C.E. Daw- son. 1985. Standards in herpetology and ichthyol- ogy: Part I. Standard symbolic codes for institu- tional resource collections in herpetology and ich- thyology. Copeia 1985:802-821. MacCulloch, R.D. and A. Lathrop. 2002. Exceptional diversity of Stefania (Anura: Hylidae) on Mount Ayanganna, Guyana; three new species and new distribution records. Herpetologica 58:327-346. -, A. Lathrop, and S.Z. Khan. 2006. Exceptional di- versity of Stefania (Anura: Cryptobatrachidae) ll: six species from Mount Wokomung, Guyana. Phyllomedusa 5:3142. Rivero, J. 1968 ("1966"). Notes on the genus Crypto- batrachus (Amphibia, Salientia) with the descrip- tion of a new race and four new species of a new genus of hylid frogs. Carib. J. Sci. 6:137-149. -. 1970. On the origin, endemism, and distribution of the genus Stefania Rivero (Amphibia, Salientia) with the description of a new species from south- eastern Venezuela. Bol. Soc. Venezolana Cien. Nat. 28:456-481. Ruthven, A. 1922. The amphibians and reptiles of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan (8):1-69. Seiiaris, J.C., J. Ayarzaguena, and S. Gorzula. 1997 ("1996). Revision taxonomica del genero Stef- ania (Anura: Hylidae) en Venezuela con la des- cripcion de cinco nuevas especies. Publ. Asoc. Amigos de Doiiana (7):l-57. Ross D. MacCulloch and Amy Lathrop, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Biology, Royal Ontario Museum, 100 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario M5S 2C6, Canada (Email: rossm@rom.on.ca). Primary editor for this account, Twan Leenders. Published 15 December 2006 and Copyright O 2006 by the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. 

Stefania evansi

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Stefania evansi

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