Pithecopus Cope, 1866

Duellman, William E., Marion, Angela B. & Hedges, Blair, 2016, Phylogenetics, classification, and biogeography of the treefrogs (Amphibia: Anura: Arboranae), Zootaxa 4104 (1), pp. 1-109 : 32-33

Pithecopus Cope, 1866

Pithecopus Cope, 1866:86 . Type species: Phyllomedusa azurea Cope, 1862 , by original designation. Bradymedusa Miranda-Ribeiro. 1926:104. Type species: Bradymedusa moschata Miranda Ribeiro (= Phyllomedusa rohdei ) by subsequent designation by Funkhouser 1957:18.

Definition. Medium-sized species (SVL ± 45 mm); Toe I much longer than, and opposable to Toe II ( Fig. 13A ); vomerine teeth absent; tadpoles with moderately small oral disc directed anteroventrally.

Content. Nine species: Pithecopus ayeaye Lutz , azureus (Cope) , centralis (Bokermann) , hypochondrialis (Daudin) , megacephalus (Miranda-Ribeiro) , nordestinus (Caramaschi) , oreades (Brandão) , palliatus (Peters) , and rohdei (Mertens) , all are new combinations.

Distribution. Tropical South America east of the Andes from southern Venezuela to northern Argentina Etymology. The generic name is derived from the Greek pithekodes meaning ape-like. The gender is masculine.

Remarks. Lutz’s (1966) resurrection of Cope’s genus Pithecopus was not accepted by most herpetologists; instead these frogs were designated as the Phyllomedusa hypochondrialis Group (e.g., Faivovich et al. 2010). The monophyly of Pithecopus is strongly supported (100%), as is the monophyly of Pithecopus + Callimedusa ( Fig. 4 ). The larger frogs in the genus Phyllomedusa ( Fig. 13 B) tend not to be agile branch walkers.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Maximum likelihood phylogeny of arboranan frogs based on DNA sequence data from 19 genes (16,128 aligned sites). The tree is rooted with Ceuthomantis smaragdinus, Dendrobates auratus, Haddadus binotatus, and Rhinoderma darwinii (not shown). Bootstrap support values are indicated at nodes.

FIGURE 13. A. Pithecopus hypochondrialis, KU 183441, Okinawa 1, 300 m, Santa Cruz, Bolivia. D. C. Cannatella. B. Phyllomedusa bicolor, KU 124907, Leticia, 96 m, Amazonas, Colombia. W. E. Duellman.