LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

A new nurse frog of the Allobates tapajos species complex (Anura: Aromobatidae) from the upper Madeira River, Brazilian Amazonia

Photo by robertbye from unsplash

Cryptic diversity is extremely common in widespread Amazonian anurans, but especially in nurse frogs of the genus Allobates. There is an urgent need to formally describe the many distinct but… Click to show full abstract

Cryptic diversity is extremely common in widespread Amazonian anurans, but especially in nurse frogs of the genus Allobates. There is an urgent need to formally describe the many distinct but unnamed species, both to enable studies of their basic biology but especially to facilitate conservation of threatened environments in which many are found. Here, we describe through integrative taxonomy a new species of the Allobates tapajos species complex from the upper Madeira River, southwestern Amazonia. Species delimitation analyses based on molecular data are congruent and delimit five candidate species in addition to A. tapajos sensu stricto. The new species is recovered as sister to A. tapajos clade F, a candidate species from Teles-Pires River, southeastern Amazonia. The new species differs from nominal congeners in adult and larval morphology and in male advertisement call. Egg deposition sites differ between east and west banks of the upper Madeira River, but there is no evidence of corresponding morphologic or bioacoustic differentiation. The new species appears to be restricted to riparian forests; its known geographic range falls entirely within the influence zone of reservoirs of two large dams, which underscores the urgent need of a conservation assessment through long-term monitoring. This region harbors the richest assemblage of Allobates reported for Brazilian Amazonia, with six nominal species and four additional candidate species awaiting formal description.

Keywords: upper madeira; allobates tapajos; new species; amazonia; madeira river

Journal Title: PeerJ
Year Published: 2022

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.