Mantella laevigata Methuen & Hewitt

Jovanovic, Olga, Glos, Julian, Glaw, Frank, Randrianiaina, Roger-Daniel & Vences, Miguel, 2009, Comparative larval morphology in Madagascan frogs of the genus Mantella (Amphibia: Mantellidae), Zootaxa 2124, pp. 21-37 : 30-31

Mantella laevigata Methuen & Hewitt

The description is based on a tadpole in Gosner stage 25 catalogued as ZSM 1447/2004 (figure 6), obtained through captive breeding, from parental specimens without precise collecting locality, in 1996–1998 (see Glaw et al. 2000). The examined specimen had the following measurements: BL 5.2 mm, BH 2.2 mm, BW 3.6 mm, TMH 0.9 mm, TMW 0.8 mm, MTH 2.2 mm, TMHM 0.7 mm, ED 0.4 mm, IOD 1.4 mm, IND 1.1 mm, ODW 1.6 mm, TAL 9.5 mm, TL 14.7 mm. Oral disc morphology is based on a tadpole in Gosner stage 38 catalogued as 1502/2004. Mouth part is not yet fully developed. Body is dorsolaterally flattened, with eyes positioned and directed dorsally. TAL/TL is 65%. The mouth opens ventrally. The mouth part is not emarginated. The papillae are rounded, biserial in the lower labium and in the lateral side of upper labium. The jaw sheath is thick, fully pigmented and with fewer big serrations. The labial tooth row formula is 3(2–3)/ 3(1).

Other tadpoles examined are catalogued as ZSM 1442–1444 /2004, 1502/2004 and 1524/2004 (6 tadpoles). All tadpoles were obtained through captive breeding. Variation is shown in tables 3–5, and 7.

M. laevigata tadpoles examined in this study appear to have unusual oral disc development. The development starts at Gosner stage 25 with the formation of papillae and the first tooth rows. In contrast to the other Mantella species, the mouth parts are already considerably degraded at stage 39, with teeth falling out which is possibly a result of earlier metamorphosis, or may be an artefact during captive rearing. Due to a small sample size and lack of specimens captured in the nature, we cannot generalize that this is the case with all M. laevigata tadpoles.