Hyalinobatrachium pallidum ( Rivero 1985 )

Barrio-Amorós, César L., Rojas-Runjaic, Fernando J. M. & Señaris, J. Celsa, 2019, Catalogue of the amphibians of Venezuela: Illustrated and annotated species list, distribution, and conservation, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 180) 13 (1), pp. 1-198 : 28

Hyalinobatrachium pallidum ( Rivero 1985) *

Holotype: UPR-M 4554.

Type locality: “ Guacharaquita, entre La Grita y Páramo de La Negra, 1,768 m, Edo Táchira, Venezuela.”

Distribution: Region 1. Cordillera de Mérida in its western, southern, and eastern versants (Mérida, Táchira, and Barinas States), and Sierra de Perijá (Zulia State).

Remarks: This species has a wider distribution than previously known. Formerly only known from its type locality until Señaris andAyarzagüena (2005) redescribed the species based on new topotypic specimens. Later, Guayasamin et al. (2009) assigned a population from the eastern versant of the Andes, reported as Hyalinobatrachium ibama by Barrio-Amorós (2006d) to H. cf. pallidum . Based on molecular work ( Guayasamin et al. 2009 and unpub.), it is doubtful that H. ibama is the species occupying the eastern versant of the Cordillera de Mérida ( Barrio-Amorós 2006d), but is more likely H. pallidum (Image 47A). Actually, this implies that H. ibama from Colombia could be a junior synonym of H. pallidum . Another population from Quebrada La Rana , near La Macana, Mérida, is morphologically slightly different from the H. pallidum population at San Isidro, Barinas (Image 47B). More research is needed to resolve the status of H. pallidum in the Venezuelan Andes. More recently, Rojas-Runjaic et al. (2012) reported four additional localities, along the eastern versant of the Sierra de Perijá, at elevations 1,132 –1,832 m asl.

Selected references: Rivero (1985); Señaris and Ayarzagüena (2005); Barrio-Amorós (2006d); Guayasamin et al. (2009); Rojas-Runjaic et al. (2012).