Supplementary material from: Deep divergences among inconspicuous clades of Epipedobates poison frogs
Creators: name: López-Hervas, Karem
name: Santos, Juan C.
name: Ron, Santiago R.
name: Betancourth-Cundar, Mileidy
name: Cannatella, David C.
name: Tarvin, Rebecca
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: aposematism
cryptic species
genetic divergence
Polytypic species
Species delimitation
Phylogenetics

description: Abstract: Poison frogs (Dendrobatidae) are famous for their aposematic species, having a combination of diverse color patterns and defensive skin toxins, yet most species in this family are inconspicuously colored and considered non-aposematic. Epipedobates is among the youngest genus-level clades of Dendrobatidae that includes both aposematic and inconspicuous species. Using Sanger-sequenced mitochondrial and nuclear markers, we demonstrate deep genetic divergences among inconspicuous species of Epipedobates but relatively shallow genetic divergences among conspicuous species. Our phylogenetic analysis includes broad geographic sampling of the inconspicuous lineages typically identified as E. boulengeri and E. espinosai, which reveals two putative new species, one in west-central Colombia (E. sp. 1) and the other in north-central Ecuador (E. aff. espinosai). We conclude that E. darwinwallacei is a junior subjective synonym of E. espinosai. We also clarify the geographic distributions of inconspicuous Epipedobates species including the widespread E. boulengeri. We provide a qualitative assessment of the phenotypic diversity in each nominal species, with a focus on the color and pattern of inconspicuous species. We conclude that Epipedobates contains eight known valid species, six of which are inconspicuous. A relaxed molecular clock analysis suggests that the most recent common ancestor of Epipedobates is ~11.1 million years old, which nearly doubles previous estimates. Last, genetic information points to a center of species diversity in the Chocó at the southwestern border of Colombia with Ecuador. A Spanish translation this text is available in the supplementary materials.

 

Resumen: Las ranas venenosas (Dendrobatidae) son famosas por sus especies aposemáticas, que se caracterizan por una combinación de diversos patrones de color y toxinas cutáneas defensivas. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las especies de esta familia tienen colores inconspicuos y no se consideran aposemáticas. Epipedobates se encuentra entre los clados más jóvenes a nivel de género de Dendrobatidae que incluye especies tanto aposemáticas como inconspicuos. Usando marcadores mitocondriales y nucleares, demostramos profundas divergencias genéticas entre especies inconspicuos de Epipedobates pero divergencias genéticas relativamente superficiales entre especies conspicuas. Nuestro análisis filogenético incluye un amplio muestreo geográfico de los linajes inconspicuos típicamente identificados como E. boulengeri y E. espinosai. Los resultados revelan dos nuevas especies putativas, una en el centro-oeste de Colombia (E. sp. 1) y la otra en el centro-norte de Ecuador (E. aff. espinosai). Determinamos que E. darwinwallacei es un sinónimo subjetivo menor de E. espinosai y aclaramos las distribuciones geográficas de las especies inconspicuos de Epipedobates, incluyendo E. boulengeri. Con una evaluación cualitativa enfocado en el color y el patrón de las especies inconspicuas describimos la diversidad fenotípica en cada especie nominal. Concluimos que el género Epipedobates contiene ocho especies válidas conocidas, seis de las cuales son en su mayoría inconspicuas. Un análisis con reloj molecular relajado nos sugiere que el ancestro común más reciente de Epipedobates tiene ~11,1 millones de años, lo que casi duplica las estimaciones anteriores. Por último, la información genética apunta a un centro de diversidad de especies en el Chocó en la frontera suroeste de Colombia con Ecuador. Una traducción al español de este texto está disponible en los materiales suplementarios.
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description: Please see López-Hervas et al. (2024) for the full methods. In this study, we evaluate and clarify the phylogeny of the dendrobatid poison frog genus Epipedobates. Although Epipedobates is considered one of the youngest clades in the Dendrobatidae family, we find tremendous phenotypic variation within and among species, making them an interesting group for taxonomists and evolutionary biologists. We aimed to comprehensively assess the phylogenetic relationships among species within this clade, which until now has remained incomplete despite several in-depth studies. Briefly, we sequenced mtDNA and nDNA and estimated phylogenetic trees using Bayesian and Maximum Likelihood approaches (see Data S1, Fig. S1, Fig. S2, Table S2). We estimated and reviewed haplotypes based on each sequenced gene (Table S3). We then used alignments of mtDNA to estimate putative species limits in 1) Assemble Species by Automatic Partitioning (ASAP) and 2) Generalized Mixed Yule Coalescent (GYMC) (see Data S2 and Fig. S3). We reviewed published specimen data to estimate species ranges and differences in body sizes among putative species (see Data S3). Finally, we reviewed images of all examined specimens (Fig. S4-S27) as well as accompanying metadata (Table S1) to qualitatively compare color among species.