Phyzelaphryne miriamae Heyer, 1977

Simões, Pedro Ivo, Costa, João Carlos Lopes, Rojas-Runjaic, Fernando J. M., Gagliardi-Urrutia, Giussepe, Sturaro, Marcelo José, Peloso, Pedro L. V. & Castroviejo-Fisher, Santiago, 2018, A new species of Phyzelaphryne Heyer, 1977 (Anura: Eleutherodactylidae) from the Japurá River basin, with a discussion of the diversity and distribution of the genus, Zootaxa 4532 (2), pp. 203-230 : 213-216

Phyzelaphryne miriamae Heyer, 1977

Figures 3 , 4

Holotype. Adult female (MZUSP 49894) in good state of preservation after 43 years preserved in ethanol 70 %. Examination of the specimen revealed no incongruences or noteworthy variations when compared with the description of Heyer (1977) or with illustrations provided in Hoogmoed & Lescure (1984).

Amended definition. Heyer (1977) provided a common definition for Phyzelaphryne and Phyzelaphryne miriamae , assuming the genus was monospecific. Here, we amend the original definition of P. miriamae , highlighting traits that are useful for the species diagnosis relative to a new Phyzelaphryne species, described below.

Phyzelaphryne miriamae is characterized by: (1) small body size, males 14.6–16.2 mm, females 19.4–20.0 mm SVL; (2) skin on dorsum shagreened; ventral surfaces smooth, finely tuberculate only on ventral surface of thighs; (3) snout subacuminate in dorsal view, protruding in lateral view; (4) tympanum round, horizontal tympanum diameter approximately 40 % the diameter of eye; tympanic annulus complete; (5) subtympanic glandular ridge present from below tympanum to approximately the insertion of upper arm; (6) three round supernumerary tubercles on palmar surface, all similar in shape and only slightly variable in maximum diameter; (7) thenar tubercle and subarticular tubercle on finger I not fused, separated by a conspicuous gap; (8) inner metatarsal tubercle and subarticular tubercle of toe I not fused, separated by a short but conspicuous gap; (9) body coloration cryptic, dorsum uniformly brown, sometimes with scattered small cream blotches or dots, more dense on dorsal surfaces of limbs and snout; venter light brown with tiny cream spots, uniformly scattered on throat, chest and abdomen; (10) iris golden copper with black reticulations and bright red pupil ring.

Color in life. Based of digital photographs of specimens from PNJ and Rondônia ( Fig. 4 ). Dorsum uniformly brown, with sparsely scattered small white dots, more densely scattered on snout. White spots sometimes present on upper and lower lips. Subtympanic glandular ridge white. Flanks brown, similar to dorsum, becoming paler towards venter. Lateral surface of snout brown, darker than dorsal snout. Ventral surfaces of throat, chest, abdomen and limbs uniformly light gray, with uniformly scattered tiny white spots.

Dorsal surface of upper arm orange to yellow, peppered with brown melanophores. Dorsal surface of forearm brown with irregular yellow blotches. Dorsal surface of hand and fingers brown with irregular gray blotches. Dorsal surface of thigh and shank brown, same color as dorsum. Tarsal region brown with irregular yellow blotches. Dorsal surface of foot and toes brown with irregular gray blotches.

Advertisement call. The advertisement call of Phyzelaphryne miriamae consists of two or three pulsed notes, each note formed by 2–4 pulses. Call duration 0.041 to 0.059 s. Peak frequency of first note 3.53 to 4.07 kHz and its duration 0.014 to 0.023 s. Peak frequency of second note 3.53 to 4.09 kHz and its duration 0.012 to 0.022 s. Notes within a call are separated by a short silent interval, between 0.014– 0.022 s long.

It is important to note that the advertisement call described and illustrated in Heyer (1977) actually belonged to Adelophryne adiastola , later described by Hoogmoed & Lescure (1994) from the reexamination of specimens considered in Heyer (1977).

Geographic distribution. Based on the new occurrences reported here for our study areas, Phyzelaphryne miriamae is distributed in the Madeira, Purus, Jaú and Solimões river basins west of Maués, Amazonas, Brazil. Its easternmost record is 3.94711° S, 58.45627° W. Its western and southernmost record is in Cachoeira do Teotônio, Porto Velho, Rondônia, 8.82861° S, 64.074722° W, but the species is known to occur along most of the upper Madeira River (Santo Antônio Energia / Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia, Estudos Ambientais no Rio Madeira, no trecho Cachoeira de Santo Antônio, unpublished report available at http://licenciamento.ibama.gov.br/ Hidreletricas/Santo%20Antonio%20(Rio%20Madeira)/ Relatorios/). Specimens collected in PNJ represent the northernmost record of the species, and the only record north of the Solimões/Amazon River ( Fig. 1 ).

Natural history notes. At PNJ, male Phyzelaphryne miriamae were found calling, hidden in the leaf litter. Calling activity began at dusk and continued for several hours. Males were calling but most ceased calling once approached, which made them difficult to locate. Once located, males could be easily exposed by removal of a few leaves.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Geographic location of study areas in Brazilian Amazonia (Estação Ecológica Juami-Japurá and Parque Nacional do Jaú) and known localities of Phyzelaphryne based in Hoogmoed & Lescure (1984), Fouquet et al. (2012) and the results of this study. Lighter green shades correspond to Brazilian conservation units and black dots mark type localities. Pentagons, P. nimio sp. nov.; circles, P. miriamae; Triangles and square, Phyzelaphryne sp. (C1) and Phyzelaphryne sp. (C2), respectively, two candidate new species.

FIGURE 3. Dorsal and ventral views of preserved specimens of Phyzelaphryne miriamae from different localities in Brazil. (A, B) an adult male (MPEG 41043) from Parque Nacional do Jaú, state of Amazonas; (C, D) an adult male (MPEG 52025) from Floresta Nacional do Pau-Rosa, Coari, state of Amazonas; (E, F) holotype adult female (MZUSP 49894) from Igarapé Puruzinho, on the west bank of the Madeira River, state of Amazonas.

FIGURE 4. (A) Waveform (upper graph) and spectrogram (lower graph) of the advertisement call of a male Phyzelaphryne miriamae (MPEG 41045) recorded at Parque Nacional do Jaú (PNJ), Amazonas, Brazil. At PNJ, calls of P. miriamae are formed by two very short notes, containing four or three pulses each (three pulses each in this example). Note second harmonic with low sound intensity at approximately 7.5 kHz. (B) Photograph of a male (MPEG 41043) collected at the same locality. (C) Waveform and spectrogram of the advertisement call of a male of P. miriamae recorded in Cachoeira do Teotônio, Rondônia, on the left bank of the Madeira River, approximately 190 km southwest of the species type locality. These advertisement calls are formed by two very short notes, containing two or three pulses each (two pulses each in this example). (D) Photograph of the recorded male.