Two New Species ofMyersiohyla(Anura: Hylidae) from Cerro De La Neblina, Venezuela, with Comments on Other Species of the Genus

Abstract

Two new species of Myersiohyla are described from the 1984-1985 Cerro de la Neblina Expedition in southern Venezuela, together with notes on the genus and a test of its monophyly, which has been challenged in recent studies. The inclusion of new sequences results in a monophyletic Myersiohyla that is better supported than in earlier analyses. One of the new species is similar to M. inparquesi, with which it has been confused previously. This newly described species has, like M. inparquesi, a tadpole with a dorsoventrally flattened body and the largest labial toothrow formula so far reported for anuran larvae (16/21). It differs from M. inparquesi in larval characters, adult coloration, and vocalization. The other new species is unique in having a color pattern composed of stellate melanophores over a greenish ground color. Comments on the holotype of M. loveridgei provide details overlooked in previous references to this rare species and stress the need to establish diagnostic characters that might differentiate it from M. aromatica. Furthermore, we report one specimen not assigned to any species from Huachamacary Tepui, only 25 km from the type locality of M. loveridgei. So far, all studied species of Myersiohyla have relatively large (2.8-3.2 mm), yolky ovarian eggs, a character state shared with several other frogs in Cophomantini (Hyloscirtus, Aplastodiscus, the Hypsiboas benitezi species group), and likely a

Diversity and evolution of sexually dimorphic mental and lateral glands in Cophomantini treefrogs (Anura: Hylidae: Hylinae)

“…The optimization of the characters on the phylogenetic hypothesis modified from Faivovich et al . () indicates multiple instances of homoplasy, with all non‐autapomorphic transformations having between one and six extra steps (Figs , ; for the minimum number of steps implied by the topology for each character, see Appendix, Table A1). Further comments are provided in the Discussion.…”

“…In addition, published external morphological observations of mental and lateral glands of 12 species included in the phylogenetic analyses of Faivovich et al . () were added to the data matrix (Romero de Perez & Ruiz Carranza, ; Faivovich et al ., , , ; Faivovich & De la Riva, ; Brunetti et al ., ). This information only considers those reports in which the glands are macroscopically evident, excluding those in which the glands were not observable by stereomicroscope because, as demonstrated in the present study, the absence of external evidence does not necessarily imply absence of SDSGs.…”

“…They were optimized on the phylogenetic hypothesis proposed by Faivovich et al . (), to which we added six species (i.e. Bokermannohyla pseudopseudis , B. saxicola , Hyloscirtus caucanus , H. antioquia , H. lynchi , and Hypsiboas pombali ).…”

“…The present study aimed: (1) to describe the macroscopic and microscopic structure, histochemical properties, and variation of sexually dimorphic skin glands (SDSGs) from mental and lateral regions of selected species of Cophomantini; (2) to propose hypotheses of homology for the structural variation; (3) to study the evolution of SDSGs on the basis of the most recent phylogenetic hypothesis proposed for the clade by Faivovich et al . (), and (4) to discuss their possible function considering published information on the reproductive biology of Cophomantini, and that of other species of anurans where experimental studies have demonstrated the role of these glands.…”

“…Mental glands were reported in two subfamilies: in the Litoria citropa species group (Pelodryadinae; Tyler & Anstis, ; Mahony et al ., ) and in species of the tribes Cophomantini and Hylini (Hylinae; Duellman, , ; Trueb & Tyler, ; Hoogmoed, ; Campbell & Duellman, ). In particular, recent studies in Cophomantini show that mental glands are more frequent than previously reported (Faivovich et al ., , , ; Faivovich & De la Riva, ; Faivovich, McDiarmid & Myers, ), whereas Brunetti et al . () have also demonstrated the presence of lateral glands co‐occurring with mental glands in Hypsiboas punctatus , a species of the H. punctatus group.…”