Two new fringe-limbed frogs of the genus Ecnomiohyla (Anura: Hylidae) from Panama

Abstract

Forest canopy-dwelling frogs are usually among the rarest anuran species observed in the neotropical forest, mainly because they fall outside of the scope of the standard search methods used by herpetologists. During field explorations undertaken in western and eastern Panama in recent years, we discovered two species belonging to the genus Ecnomiohyla, which showed significant differences in genetic distances (16S mtDNA gene) and morphological characteristics different from any known Ecnomiohyla species. The first specimen originates from the Serranía de Jingurudó, Darién province, southeastern Panamá, and is described herein as E. bailarina sp. nov., and the second specimen was found at Santa Fe National Park, Veraguas province, central-western Panama, and is described as E. veraguensis sp. nov. We provide a detailed description of both new species, including comparisons of morphological and molecular characters of almost all members of the genus in lower Central America, as well as an identification key for the entire genus.

Systematics of Ecnomiohyla tuberculosa with the description of a new species and comments on the taxonomy of Trachycephalus typhonius (Anura, Hylidae)

“…Fringe-limbed frogs, genus Ecnomiohyla Faivovich et al 2005, are a group of 14 species distributed in Central America, the Chocó region of Colombia and Ecuador and the Amazon Basin (Batista et al 2014). Their morphology is distinctive and characterized by large size, proportionally enlarged hands and feet, extensive webbing between fingers, moss-like dorsal coloration, and dermal fringes on the limbs (Batista et al 2014; Savage and Kubicki 2010).…”

“…Their morphology is distinctive and characterized by large size, proportionally enlarged hands and feet, extensive webbing between fingers, moss-like dorsal coloration, and dermal fringes on the limbs (Batista et al 2014; Savage and Kubicki 2010). These canopy dwellers that breed on phytotelmata and are rarely found in the lower forest strata (Batista et al 2014; Mendelson et al 2008) are scarce in scientific collections with few specimens known for some species.…”

“…Neither publication proposed an alternative phylogenetic position for Ecnomiohyla tuberculosa and they considered it insertae sedis . Nevertheless, Batista et al (2014) maintained the binomial Ecnomiohyla tuberculosa and noted that additional information was needed to determine its generic position. Recently, Duellman et al (2016) placed Ecnomiohyla tuberculosa in the genus Hypsiboas .…”

Taxonomic Review of the Populations of the Fringe-Limbed Treefrogs (Hylidae:Ecnomiohyla) in Mexico and Nuclear Central America

“…The original description provides a perfunctory description of the webbing on the hands that also renders comparison to specimens or illustrations difficult. In a similar vein, Batista et al (2014) provided a dichotomous key, based on morphological characters, to all species of Ecnomiohyla, yet evidently did not examine any specimens of E. minera nor other species; their key suggests that dorsal osteoderms usually are present in E. minera when, in fact, they are absent in all known specimens.…”

“…The recent discovery of several new species of large fringe-limbed tree frogs of the genus Ecnomiohyla in Lower Central America (e.g., Savage and Kubicki, 2010;Batista et al, 2014) and some confusion in the taxonomic identity of some populations of such frogs in Mexico and Nuclear Central America led us to review the available specimens from Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. The relevant taxa, E. echinata (Duellman, 1961), E. minera (Wilson et al, 1985), E. salvaje (Wilson et al, 1985), and E. valancifer (Firschein and Smith, 1956), are known from very few specimens (Duellman, 2001) and an understanding of most aspects of their biology remains speculative, being extrapolated from what little has been documented from E. miliaria and E. fimbrimembra in Costa Rica (e.g., Savage, 2002).…”