A new species of terrestrial frog of the genus  Noblella  Barbour, 1930 (Amphibia: Strabomantidae) from the Llanganates-Sangay Ecological Corridor, Tungurahua, Ecuador

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Abstract

We describe a new species of terrestrial frog of the genus Noblella from the eastern versants of the Ecuadorian Andes in the upper Pastaza watershed. Noblella naturetrekii sp. n. differs from its Ecuadorian congeners by the presence of a differentiated tympanic membrane and a weakly defined tympanic annulus, and eyelids with rounded tubercles. In addition, the new species is characterized by its blackish–dark brown ventral coloration scattered with little white dots and the absence of papillae at the tip of the fingers and toes. We provide a detailed description of the call and osteology of the new species. Finally, we present the most complete phylogeny of the genus, which confirms that Noblella is a non-monophyletic group.

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Most cited references 45

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Amphibian fungal panzootic causes catastrophic and ongoing loss of biodiversity

Ben Scheele, Frank Pasmans, Lee Skerratt … (2019)

Anthropogenic trade and development have broken down dispersal barriers, facilitating the spread of diseases that threaten Earth’s biodiversity. We present a global, quantitative assessment of the amphibian chytridiomycosis panzootic, one of the most impactful examples of disease spread, and demonstrate its role in the decline of at least 501 amphibian species over the past half-century, including 90 presumed extinctions. The effects of chytridiomycosis have been greatest in large-bodied, range-restricted anurans in wet climates in the Americas and Australia. Declines peaked in the 1980s, and only 12% of declined species show signs of recovery, whereas 39% are experiencing ongoing decline. There is risk of further chytridiomycosis outbreaks in new areas. The chytridiomycosis panzootic represents the greatest recorded loss of biodiversity attributable to a disease.

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The use of bioacoustics in anuran taxonomy: theory, terminology, methods and recommendations for best practice.

JÖRN KÖHLER, MARTIN JANSEN, ARIEL RODRÍGUEZ … (2017)

Vocalizations of anuran amphibians have received much attention in studies of behavioral ecology and physiology, but also provide informative characters for identifying and delimiting species. We here review the terminology and variation of frog calls from a perspective of integrative taxonomy, and provide hands-on protocols for recording, analyzing, comparing, interpreting and describing these sounds. Our focus is on advertisement calls, which serve as premating isolation mechanisms and, therefore, convey important taxonomic information. We provide recommendations for terminology of frog vocalizations, with call, note and pulse being the fundamental subunits to be used in descriptions and comparisons. However, due to the complexity and diversity of these signals, an unequivocal application of the terms call and note can be challenging. We therefore provide two coherent concepts that either follow a note-centered approach (defining uninterrupted units of sound as notes, and their entirety as call) or a call-centered approach (defining uninterrupted units as call whenever they are separated by long silent intervals) in terminology. Based on surveys of literature, we show that numerous call traits can be highly variable within and between individuals of one species. Despite idiosyncrasies of species and higher taxa, the duration of calls or notes, pulse rate within notes, and number of pulses per note appear to be more static within individuals and somewhat less affected by temperature. Therefore, these variables might often be preferable as taxonomic characters over call rate or note rate, which are heavily influenced by various factors. Dominant frequency is also comparatively static and only weakly affected by temperature, but depends strongly on body size. As with other taxonomic characters, strong call divergence is typically indicative of species-level differences, whereas call similarities of two populations are no evidence for them being conspecific. Taxonomic conclusions can especially be drawn when the general advertisement call structure of two candidate species is radically different and qualitative call differences are thus observed. On the other hand, quantitative differences in call traits might substantially vary within and among conspecific populations, and require careful evaluation and analysis. We provide guidelines for the taxonomic interpretation of advertisement call differences in sympatric and allopatric situations, and emphasize the need for an integrative use of multiple datasets (bio-acoustics, morphology, genetics), particularly for allopatric scenarios. We show that small-sized frogs often emit calls with frequency components in the ultrasound spectrum, although it is unlikely that these high frequencies are of biological relevance for the majority of them, and we illustrate that detection of upper harmonics depends also on recording distance because higher frequencies are attenuated more strongly. Bioacoustics remains a prime approach in integrative taxonomy of anurans if uncertainty due to possible intraspecific variation and technical artifacts is adequately considered and acknowledged.

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Ernst Mayr and the modern concept of species.

Luiz H K Queiroz (2005)

Ernst Mayr played a central role in the establishment of the general concept of species as metapopulation lineages, and he is the author of one of the most popular of the numerous alternative definitions of the species category. Reconciliation of incompatible species definitions and the development of a unified species concept require rejecting the interpretation of various contingent properties of metapopulation lineages, including intrinsic reproductive isolation in Mayr's definition, as necessary properties of species. On the other hand, the general concept of species as metapopulation lineages advocated by Mayr forms the foundation of this reconciliation, which follows from a corollary of that concept also advocated by Mayr: the proposition that the species is a fundamental category of biological organization. Although the general metapopulation lineage species concept and Mayr's popular species definition are commonly confused under the name "the biological species concept," they are more or less clearly distinguished in Mayr's early writings on the subject. Virtually all modern concepts and definitions of the species category, not only those that require intrinsic reproductive isolation, are to be considered biological according to the criterion proposed by Mayr. Definitions of the species category that identify a particular contingent property of metapopulation lineages (including intrinsic reproductive isolation) as a necessary property of species reduce the number of metapopulation lineages that are to be recognized taxonomically as species, but they cause conflicts among alternative species definitions and compromise the status of the species as a basic category of biological organization.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Carolina Reyes-Puig

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): PeerJ

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): PeerJ

Journal ID (pmc): PeerJ

Journal ID (publisher-id): PeerJ

Title: PeerJ

Publisher: PeerJ Inc. (San Diego, USA )

ISSN (Electronic): 2167-8359

Publication date (Electronic): 12 August 2019

Publication date Collection: 2019

Volume: 7

Electronic Location Identifier: e7405

Affiliations

[1 ]Fundación EcoMinga, Fundación Oscar Efren Reyes , Baños, Tungurahua, Ecuador

[2 ]Unidad de Investigación, Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad , Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

[3 ]Instituto de Zoología Terrestre & Museo de Zoología, Instituto BIOSFERA, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales COCIBA, Universidad San Francisco de Quito , Campus Cumbayá, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

[4 ]Museo de Zoología QCAZ, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador , Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

[5 ]Laboratorio de Biología Evolutiva, Instituto BIOSFERA, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales COCIBA, Universidad San Francisco de Quito , Campus Cumbayá, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

[6 ]Centro de Investigación de la Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático, Universidad Tecnológica Indoamérica , Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

[7 ]Saint Michael’s College , Colchester, VT, USA

[8 ]Tropical Herping , Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador

[9 ]Leibniz-Institut für Biodiversität der Tiere, Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig , Bonn, Germany

Author information

Santiago Ron http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6300-9350

Juan M. Guayasamin http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0098-978X

Article

Publisher ID: 7405

DOI: 10.7717/peerj.7405

PMC ID: 6694786

PubMed ID: 31423356

SO-VID: 946f3dff-182c-422a-b26b-f001ac21e40b

License:

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.

History

Date received : 22 March 2019

Date accepted : 3 July 2019

Funding

Funded by: World Land Trust

Funded by: SENESCYT (Arca de Noé Initiative) and Dirección General Académica of Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador

Funded by: Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Award ID: Collaboration Grants 5521, 5467, 5447, 11164, Fondos COCIBA and Fondos Semilla Biosfera

Funded by: Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Award ID: Project ID: 48

Funded by: World Land Trust’s “Keepers of the Wild” program

Funded by: “Programa de cooperación Trilateral Alemania-Brasil-Ecuador” financed by international cooperation GIZ

This work was supported by Naturetrek and its founders, David and Maryanne Mills, who financed the creation of two ecological reserves at the study area, through donations to the World Land Trust. Laboratory work was funded by a grant from SENESCYT (Arca de Noé Initiative; Santiago R. Ron and Omar Torres-Carvajal principal investigators) and Dirección General Académica of Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador. Juan Manuel Guayasamin’s research is supported by Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Collaboration Grants 5521, 5467, 5447, 11164, Fondos COCIBA and Fondos Semilla Biosfera). Carolina Reyes-Puig’s research is supported by Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Project ID: 48). The EcoMinga rangers who helped discover this species are funded by the World Land Trust’s “Keepers of the Wild” program. Mario Yánez-Muñoz’s and Claudia Koch’s research is supported by the “Programa de cooperación Trilateral Alemania-Brasil-Ecuador,” financed by international cooperation GIZ. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

A new species of terrestrial frog of the genus Noblella Barbour, 1930 (Amphibia: Strabomantidae) from the Llanganates-Sangay Ecological Corridor, Tungurahua, Ecuador

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Abstract

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Phytosauria

Most cited references 45

Amphibian fungal panzootic causes catastrophic and ongoing loss of biodiversity

The use of bioacoustics in anuran taxonomy: theory, terminology, methods and recommendations for best practice.

Ernst Mayr and the modern concept of species.

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