Phrynopus miroslawae Chaparro, Padial & Riva, 2008, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Chaparro, Juan C.
name: Padial, José M.
name: Riva, Ignacio De La
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2008
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Amphibia
Anura
Strabomantidae
Phrynopus
Phrynopus miroslawae

description: Phrynopus miroslawae sp. nov.
(Figs. 1–2)
Holotype. MHNC 6469 (field number JCC 4029), an adult female (Fig. 1) from Santa Bárbara, Distrito de Huancabamba, Provincia de Oxapampa, 3363 m a.s.l. (10° 20' 13.8"S, 75° 38' 47.3"W), Departmento Pasco, Peru, collected by J. C. Chaparro, A. Quiroz and D. Salcedo on 30 August 2007.
Diagnosis. (1) A medium-sized species (SVL 29.1 mm), body robust, legs moderately short (TL+FL 74% SVL); (2) tympanic membrane and annulus absent; (3) first finger slightly shorter than second; (4) tips of digits bulbous, not expanded laterally; (5) toes without basal webbing or fringes; (6) two metatarsal tubercles, inner larger than outer; tarsal fold absent, outer edge of tarsus with a row of subconical tubercles; (7) dorsal skin covered with small, round regular warts, with larger warts towards flanks and occipital region; dorsolateral, occipital and supratympanic folds prominent; ventral skin areolate, throat with small round granules; (8) snout rounded in dorsal view and in profile; (9) dorsum gray with large bold black blotches; (10) venter cream with small, scattered bold black blotches; (11) dentigerous processes of vomers and teeth absent.
Phrynopus miroslawae is unique among other Phrynopus by having the combination of warty dorsum with prominent dorsolateral, occipital and supratympanic folds, areolate belly, and grey dorsum with large bold blotches.
Twenty other species of Phrynopus (auriculatus, ayacucho, barthlenae, bracki, bufoides, dagmarae, heimorum, horstpauli, juninensis, kauneorum, kotosh, montium, nicoleae sp. nov., oblivius, paucari, peruanus, pesantesi, tautzorum, thompsoni, and tribulosus) are currently known. The species most similar to P. miroslawae is P. barthlenae, but P. miroslawae differs from it by having (characteristics of P. barthlenae in parentheses) throat with small granules (absent), toes lacking webbing (basal webbing between all toes), dorsolateral folds present (absent), and venter cream with small scattered black blotches (pale grey and marmorated with black); in addition, P. m i ro s l a w a e occurs in dwarf forest or the upper limits of the cloud forest, while P. barthlenae inhabits the puna or grassland. Superficially, P. m i ro s l a w a e is similar to P. ayacucho, from which it differs by having continuous dorsolateral folds (discontinuous in P. ayacucho), tympanic annulus absent (present), and venter cream with small black blotches (uniformly tan). Phrynopus miroslawae differs from P. horstpauli, P. oblivius, P. pesantesi, and P. tautzorum by having dorsolateral folds present (absent in these species); P. miroslawae lacks vomerine teeth and has digital tips bulbous (vomerine teeth present and digital tips weakly swollen or rounded in P. dagmarae, P. kauneorum, and P. k o t o s h); P. miroslawae has venter, chest, and groin cream, and possesses dorsolateral occipital folds (venter red and yellow and dorsolateral folds absent in P. heimorum); P. miroslawae has areolate venter (smooth in P. kauneorum and P. juninensis); P. miroslawae lacks tympanic membrane (present in P. peruanus); P. miroslawae has warty dorsum, conspicuous dorsolateral folds and supratympanic fold (dorsum with conical tubercles, discontinuous dorsolateral folds, and supratympanic fold weak in P. paucari); P. miroslawae has well-defined dorsolateral folds and small warts on dorsum (heavily warty dorsum, with large round warts forming three longitudinal rows in P. bufoides); P. miroslawae lacks tympanum and tympanic membrane (ventral part of tympanic annulus visible externally in P. montium); P. miroslawae has first finger shorter than second and tarsus bearing subconical tubercles (Fingers I and II equal in length and tarsum smooth in P. thompsoni). Three species (two of them described recently; Duellman & Hedges, 2008) occur in sympatry not far from the type locality of P. m i ro s l a - wae: P. auriculatus, P. bracki, and P. tribulosus (type locality, 5.5 km E Oxapampa, 2600 m; this locality lies 38 km airline SE Santa Bárbara, on mountains at the opposite side of the Oxapampa valley). From P. a u r i c u - latus and P. bracki, P. miroslawae differs by being larger, having dorsal skin coarsely warty with conspicuous dorsolateral folds, venter areolate, and lacking vomerine teeth; from P. tribulosus it differs by having dorsal skin coarsely warty with conspicuous dorsolateral folds, and venter areolate. In addition to morphological and color pattern differences, due to the high degree of species endemism in Phrynopus (and in similar high Andean genera) it is extremely unlikely that allopatric populations are conspecific (De la Riva, 2007). A sympatric species, P. n i c o l e a e sp. nov., described herein, is clearly distinguished from P. m i ro s l a w a e (see diagnosis of P. n i c o l e a e sp. nov.).
Species from southern Peru and Bolivia formerly placed in Phrynopus are now placed in different genera (Hedges et al., 2008), and comparing them with Phrynopus from Central Peru is unnecessary.
Description of the holotype. Body robust; dorsal skin coarsely warty, with enlarged warts in occipital region and flanks; small tubercles on upper eyelid; dorsolateral folds prominent, from above arms to the level of sacral region; a pair of oblique prominent occipital folds; a slender middorsal fold; ventral skin areolate; pectoral fold present; head wider than long; HW 39% of SVL, HL 33% of SVL; snout short, rounded in dorsal view and in profile; nostrils prominent, closer to eyes than to snout; canthus rostralis concave in dorsal view, sharp in frontal profile; eye-nostril distance 67% of eye length; loreal region slightly concave; cranial crests absent; tympanic membrane and tympanic annulus absent, skin of the tympanic area covered by low, round subconical tubercles; supratympanic fold prominent; tongue large, oval; choanae round, small, widely spaced; dentigerous processes of vomers absent; limbs moderately short; tips of digits bulbous, not expanded laterally; ulnar tubercle and fold absent; inner palmar tubercle single, elongate, flat, smaller than subtriangular outer; fingers moderately short, not fringed; subarticular tubercles large, round; supernumerary tubercles smaller and less prominent than subarticular tubercles; first finger shorter than second; relative length of fingers 1<2<4<3; tibia length 35% of SVL; tarsal fold absent; a row of tarsal subconical tubercles; two oval metatarsal tubercles, inner slightly larger than outer; supernumerary tubercles small, poorly defined; subarticular tubercles of toes round; toes lacking basal webbing or lateral fringes; relative length of toes 1<2<5=3<4; foot length 39% of SVL.
In life, the dorsum of the holotype was gray with bold black to dark brown blotches on middorsal regions, occipital region and interocular region. Most surfaces of flanks, ventral surfaces and dorsolateral folds were creamy-gray with few round black blotches; the upper lip was creamy-gray, with a fine brown stripe along the border; the eyelid and supratympanic fold were gray dorsally and bold black ventrally; the throat was cream; the belly, ventral surface of arms and legs were cream with few scattered black blotches; the fingers, toes and plantar surfaces were purplish-gray; the iris was bronze with black reticulations.
In preservative the pattern is similar, with dorsal surfaces, head, and superior extremities dark gray and a black supratympanic stripe; most parts of the belly are cream with small black blotches; the throat is cream with black on the border of the lower lip; the palmar surfaces are creamy-gray; the groin is cream.
Measurements and proportions (in mm): SVL, 29.2; HL, 9.7; HW, 11.4; IND, 2.5; END, 1.9; ED, 2.8; IOD, 4.4; EW, 2.3; TL, 10.2; FL, 11.4; HL/SVL, 0.33; HW/SVL, 0.39; END /ED, 0.67; TL/SVL, 0.35; FL/ SVL, 0.39.
Etymology. The name is a patronym for Miroslawa Jagielko (Poland) in recognition of her friendship and her support of taxonomic research and nature conservation in Peru.
Distribution and natural history. Phrynopus miroslawae is known only from Santa Bárbara, Distrito de Huancabamba, Provincia de Oxapampa, Departamento Pasco, Peru, at 3363 m a. s. l. (Fig. 3). This species inhabits elfin forest or “ceja de montaña” (Fig. 4 A). Specimens were collected during the dry season inside moss. Other amphibians found in sympatry were Gastrotheca griswoldi and Phrynopus nicoleae sp. nov.
description: Published as part of Chaparro, Juan C., Padial, José M. & Riva, Ignacio De La, 2008, Two sympatric new species of Phrynopus (Anura: Strabomantidae) from Yanachaga Chemillén National Park (central Peruvian Andes), pp. 49-58 in Zootaxa 1761 on pages 50-53, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.181938