Hypsiboas lemai (Rivero)

Myers, C. W. & Donnelly, M. A., 2008, The Summit Herpetofauna Of Auyantepui, Venezuela: Report From The Robert G. Goelet American Museum-Terramar Expedition, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2008 (308), pp. 1-147 : 52-53

Hypsiboas lemai (Rivero)

[a nonsummit species] Figure 29

Hyla lemai Rivero , ‘‘1971’’ [1972]: 183, fig. [1]C (dorsal view of holotype). Holotype UPR-M 3179 from ‘‘Paso del Danto, La Escalera, entre El Dorado y Sta. Elena de Uairén, Serranía de Lema, 1300–1400 m.’’, Estado Bolívar, Venezuela, collected March 22, 1968, by J. A. Rivero and J. Pulido. Hoogmoed, 1979a: 32 (mention of Auyantepui in range). Duellman, 1997: 10, 16 (color photo, description, and call analysis of specimens from general region of the type locality). MacCulloch and Lathrop, 2005: 25, figs. 5, 11 (description and illustrations of Guyana specimens, and map showing Auyantepui record).

MATERIAL: BMNH 1975.1356 from Auyantepui, 3200 ft. [975 m], collected by Adrian Warren (field no. 112).

the body is a usually overlooked character that also is widespread in the Cophomantini according to Faivovich.

Adult Hypsiboas angelicus appears to belong to the benitezi species group (sensu Faivovich et al., 2005: 86), for which tadpoles are virtually unknown. We earlier described a single tadpole from a flood-prone, granitebottom stream on Cerro Tamacuari as possibly Hypsiboas benitezi , a common frog along that stream and the only adult hylid collected there (Myers and Donnelly, 1997: 28–29). Assuming that the present tadpole with 2/3 tooth rows is correctly associated with Hypsiboas angelicus , our earlier assignment of a tadpole with 5/8 tooth rows to H. benitezi sensu lato seems questionable. In any case, Hypsiboas benitezi , as currently recognized, is most likely a composite of two or more species (Myers and Donnelly, 1997: 30–33).

REMARKS

As indicated above, Hyla lemai has been mentioned and mapped as occurring on Auyantepui. These references are based on BMNH 1975.1356, which was collected by A. Warren in 1974 and identified by M. S. Hoogmoed in 1977 according to BMNH records. The given elevation of 3200 ft. (<975 m) indicates that it probably was collected near the old Guayaraca campsite on the footpath to Auyantepui—some 1400 m below the summit.

The specimen (fig. 29) is an adult female 40 mm SVL; it contains numerous large, unpigmented ova, the largest being about 2 mm in diameter. Coloration in alcohol is very faded, nearly without pattern. An illdefined narrow black stripe (not evident in fig. 29) extends posteriad under the canthal ridge, across the outer edge of the upper eyelid, over the supratympanic fold, and ends about midbody. This dark line, very vague posteriorly, is emphasized along its upper edge by a barely discernible narrow, whitish stripe from snout to midbody. There is a thin black line across each wrist and another such line across the middle of the left forearm. The body and limbs otherwise are unicolor, densely punctated with melanophores over all dorsal surfaces (present but less dense in the pale dorsolateral line).

The black lines on the wrist and lower arms resemble markings on another Venezuelan specimen of H. lemai shown by Duellman (1997: fig. 10), and the positioning of the faint white dorsolateral stripe, from snout to midbody, is consistent with a more vividly marked Guyanese specimen shown in MacCulloch and Lathrop, 2005: fig. 5).

Hypsiboas jimenezi Señaris and Ayarzagüena