Synapturanus danta Chávez & Thompson & Sánchez & Chávez-Arribasplata & Catenazzi 2022
- Dataset
- A needle in a haystack: Integrative taxonomy reveals the existence of a new small species of fossorial frog (Anura, Microhylidae, Synapturanus) from the vast lower Putumayo basin, Peru
- Rank
- SPECIES
- Published in
- Chavez, German, Thompson, Michelle E., Sanchez, David A., Chavez-Arribasplata, Juan Carlos, Catenazzi, Alessandro (2022): A needle in a haystack: Integrative taxonomy reveals the existence of a new small species of fossorial frog (Anura, Microhylidae, Synapturanus) from the vast lower Putumayo basin, Peru. Evolutionary Systematics 6 (1): 9-20, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.6.80281, URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3897/evolsyst.6.80281
Classification
- kingdom
- Animalia
- phylum
- Chordata
- class
- Amphibia
- order
- Anura
- family
- Microhylidae
- genus
- Synapturanus
- species
- Synapturanus danta
description
Description of the holotype. An adult male (CORBIDI 21050), 17.9 mm SVL; body stout; head slightly wider than long, HL 24 % of SVL; dorsal and ventral skin smooth from head to cloaca; linea masculina visible through the translucent ventral skin in life, extending ventrolaterally from axilla to groin; supratympanic fold barely visible, running from the posterior corner of the eye to the level of the neck; snout long and strongly protruding, projecting way beyond the end of the lower jaw (1.34 mm), tip of the nose protruding, rounded in dorsal and lateral view. Eyes small, 66 % of EN; nares located laterally, closer to the tip of the snout (0.69 mm) than to the eye (1.51 mm); canthus rostralis acutely rounded, loreal region strongly concave, grooved; IN 19 % of HW; EN 35 % of HL. Tympanum barely visible; choanae small (less than 50 % of ED), oval, located anterolaterally, no odontophores. Forelimb robust, skin smooth; HAND 15 % of SVL; Finger II longer than Finger I when fingers adpressed; fingers short, tips tapering excepting Finger III, unwebbed, with pre- and postaxial fringes, particularly developed on Fingers II and III where fringes extend towards the base of fingers; no finger discs; relative length of adpressed fingers III> IV> II> I; subarticular tubercles not visible on fingers; thenar tubercle indistinct, palmar tubercle small, oval. Glandular unpigmented supracarpal pad present. Hind limb robust, skin smooth; TL 28 % of SVL; FL 41 % of SVL; relative length of adpressed toes IV> III> V> II> I; toes without discs, tapering on I, IV, and V, expanded on II and II. Toes unwebbed with narrow pre- and postaxial fringes. Subarticular tubercles not visible on toes; inner metatarsal tubercle indistinct, outer metatarsal tubercle indistinct. Metatarsal fold absent.
distribution
Distribution, habitat and natural history. Synapturanus danta sp. nov. is only known from a population in the Lower Putumayo River Basin, Loreto, Peru (Fig. 1). All individuals were captured at night in galleries underneath roots of Clusia spp. in habitats classified as Amazon Peatlands (Xu et al. 2018; Figs 1, 7), at the beginning of the rainy season. This peatland ecosystem is thought to occur over large areas in the Putumayo Basin (Figs 1, 7; Gumbricht et al. 2017, Xu et al. 2018,); however, some of the areas predicted to be peatlands have yet to be validated with field surveys. Synapturanus danta sp. nov. inhabits the soils of stunted pole forests growing on peat. The vegetation at the type locality consists of treelet species which are common in stunted varillal and chamizal forests on white sand in Loreto, Peru (e. g., Mauritiella armata, Macrolobium limbatum, Retiniphyllum concolor, Dendropanax resinosus, Remijia ulei, as well as the filmy ferns in the genus Trichomanes), treelet species only known to grow in Loreto in stunted forests on peat soils (e. g., Tabebuia insignis var. monophylla, Diplotropis purpurea, Graffenrieda limbata, Macrolobium sp., Rapatea ulei) and small populations of other common wetland species such as Mauritia flexuosa and Euterpe precatoria (Rios Paredes et al. 2021). These peatlands are seasonally saturated ecosystems, with periods of high-water levels resulting in a matrix of pools formed by rainwater and unsaturated land sitting above the pooled water, and periods of drying down of the landscape when there is low to no rainfall. We sampled during a period of rising water levels at the beginning of the rainy season; however, many unsaturated areas were present, scattered throughout the habitat around root chambers of individual trees and palms. Adult males were caught in those unsaturated areas within chambers and galleries of 15 - 30 cm depth, underneath roots of Clusia spp. Instead, the only juvenile collected (CORBIDI 21013) was captured only 5 cm depth, jumping between roots of the same species of tree where the adults were calling from. All individuals were observed 3 - 4 meters apart from each other.
etymology
Etymology. The specific epithet is a noun in apposition and refers to the Amazon Tapir (Tapirus terrestris), a large mammal locally known as " Danta ". During our expedition, the first time that local people and other researchers in the team spotted one of these frogs, they called it " Rana Danta ", because its head profile reminded them of the head of the Amazon Tapir.