Lithobates palmipes ( Spix 1824 )

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 : 109-110

Lithobates palmipes ( Spix 1824)

Syntypes: ZSM, including ZSM 963 /0, lost .

Type locality: “In aquis stagnantibus fluminis Amazonum” (= stagnant waters of the Amazon River), Brazil.

Distribution: Northern South America, including Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Widespread in Venezuela except in Los Llanos.

Remarks: Venezuelan specimens (from Cerro de la Neblina, the southernmost point of the country) used in a phylogeny by Hillis and Wilcox (2005) stand out from Lithobates palmipes . The geographically closest available name for such populations is Ranula gollmeri Peters, 1859 ( Hillis and Wilcox 2005). However, Lithobates palmipes must be a species complex, so more intensive sampling would be desired to apply that name, given that L. gollmeri is from Caracas, and few species are proven to inhabit both far north and far south Venezuela, in very different habitats. On the other hand, Lithobates vaillanti (Brocchi 1877) is known to occur on the Colombian side of Serranía de Perijá, and Venezuelan specimens from western Zulia State could be mistaken for it.

Selected references: Spix (1824); Lutz (1927); Ginés (1959); Röhl (1959); Rivero (1961, 1964a,b, 1967a, 1971a); Heatwole et al. (1965); Tello (1968); Hoogmoed and Gorzula (1979); Gremone et al. (1986); Rivero et al. (1986); Hillis and De Sá (1988); Duellman (1997); Gorzula and Señaris (1998); Barrio-Amorós and Brewer-Carías (2008); Barrio-Amorós et al. (2011b); Señaris et al. (2014).