Colombian Andes cover approximately 24.5 % of the country and holds 53 % of the country’s amphibian diversity, with a high proportion of endemic species (Romero et al., 2008). From the mid-1950s, human occupation in the Colombian Andes has increased and as a consequence, this area is facing pressure from cultivation, cattle pastures, and legal and illegal mining that are threatening this ecosystem (Urbina-Cardona, 2011). As a result, the Colombian Andes are priority areas for conservation and long-term biodiversity research. We recently visited an unexplored area with illegal gold mining in the Cordillera Occidental. As a result of this exploration, we found new records for two terraranan frogs of the genus Pristimantis—Pristimantis buckleyi and Pristimantis jubatus. The collected specimens were deposited in the Colección de Prácticas Zoológicas of the Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia. These specimens were examined under a Leica dissecting microscope to identify sex and maturity. Finally, they were compared to morphological descriptions available and museum material for P. buckleyi and P. jubatus and their most similar congeneric species of both (i.e. P. calcaratus, P. curtipes, P. kelephus, P. quicato and P. vertebralis). Institutional abbreviations are: KU (Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas), ICN (Museo de Historia Natural, Instituto de Ciencias Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Colombia), and CPZ-UV (Colección de Prácticas Zoológicas, Departamento de Biología, Universidad del Valle).

Between September and December of 2017 a monitoring of amphibians was realised in an area directly affected by illegal gold mining, located within of the Farallones de Cali Natural Park on the Eastern flank of the Cordillera Occidental, department of Valle del Cauca, municipality of Cali (3.4021° N, -76.6830° W; 3199 m elevation). During the fieldwork, we found 13 individuals of P. buckleyi (Figure 1A) associated to herbaceous plants along a small stream, of which an adult male (CPZ-UV 5309; Figure 2A) and female (CPZ-UV 5305; Figure 2B) were collected. This species belongs to Pristimantis curtipes species group (sensu Hedges et

Herpetology Notes, volume 13: 609-612 (2020) (published online on 05 August 2020)

New country records and range extensions for Pristimantis buckleyi (Boulenger, 1882) and Pristimantis jubatus (García

and Lynch, 2006) (Anura: Craugastoridae) in the south-western Colombia

Oscar M. Cuellar-Valencia1,*, Andrés Gomez-Figueroa1, and Wilmar Bolívar-García1

1 Universidad del Valle, Departamento de Biología, Grupo de investigación en Ecología Animal. A. A. 25360, Cali, Colombia.

* Corresponding author E-mail: ocuellarvalencia@gmail.com

Figure 1. Living specimens of Pristimantis buckleyi (A; juvenile not collected) and Pristimantis jubatus (B; CPZ-UV 5475, adult male) observed at Farallones de Cali Natural Park, Cali, Colombia.

Oscar M. Cuellar-Valencia et al.610

al., 2008), of which only P. buckleyi presents tympanic membrane and annulus (Hedges et al., 2008). Besides, this species is characterised by having low dorsolateral folds and cranial crests, fingers bearing broad discs on narrow-truncate pads, fingers bearing lateral keels, toes bearing narrow lateral fringes, and by lacking calcar, ulnar and tarsal tubercles, and vocal slits and vocal sac in the males. The colouration is variable, in life it is grey-tan to yellow-brown through darker browns to reddish-brown or black; the pale areas on the flanks, groin, and hidden limb surfaces are creamy yellow; the venter is dirty cream with brown spots or marbling; and bearing a labial stripe white or cream (Lynch, 1981). Currently, P. buckleyi is catalogued as Least Concern (LC) with stable populations according to IUCN (Yánez-Muñoz et al., 2010), and previous to this report, this species occurs in the montane forests and paramos of the northern Andes (1900 to 3700 m elevation) from the Cordillera Intag and Nevado Cayambe in Ecuador (Lynch, 1981; Frolich et al., 2003) to southern Colombia (Cauca, Nariño, Valle del Cauca y Putumayo; Ruiz, Ardila, and Lynch, 1996; Acosta-Galvis, 2000; Castro-Herrera & Vargas-Salinas, 2008).

Likewise, an adult male (CPZ-UV 5475; Figure 2C) and female (CPZ-UV 5478; Figure 2D) of P. jubatus (García & Lynch 2006) were collected, which were found on vegetation near to a running stream (3.4017º N, -76.6811º W; 3084 m elevation). Pristimantis jubatus (Figure 1B) belongs to Pristimantis unistrigatus species group (sensu Hedges et al., 2008) and is distinguished from other species of the genus Pristimantis by having few pustules above sacrum, prominent dorsolateral folds, cranial crests, which are formed by the frontoparietal bones that project above the nape forming a U (Ospina-Sarria et al., 2011), a conical tubercle on upper eyelid, broad discs on outer fingers, lateral fringes on fingers, ulnar tubercles subconical, conical tubercle on heel, tubercles along outer edge of tarsus, lateral fringes on toes no webbing, with discs expanded smaller than those of fingers. In life, P. jubatus is orange-brown, ochre sparkling or brown-cream; venter cream or yellow-golden with brown or grey spotting; flanks cream or brown-cream with brown reticulation; groin, axillae, and thighs pale yellow or yellow-cream with brown spotting; iris golden orange with black reticulum (García and Lynch, 2006). Currently, this species is catalogued as Near Threatened (NT) with

Figure 2. Dorsolateral and ventral view of the preserved specimens of (A) an adult male of Pristimantis buckleyi (CPZ-UV 5309; 38.6 mm SVL); (B) an adult female of Pristimantis buckleyi (CPZ-UV 5305; 50.8 mm SVL); (C) and adult male of Pristimantis jubatus (CPZ-UV 5475; 30.9 mm SVL); and (D) an adult female of Pristimantis jubatus (CPZ-UV 5478; 37.9 mm SVL), collected at Farallones de Cali Natural Park, Cali, Colombia and deposited in Colección de Prácticas Zoologicas of the Universidad del Valle, Colombia.

stable populations in its type locality according to IUCN (IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group, 2017) and is only known in its type locality—Munchique Natural Park, department of Cauca, municipality of Tambo (García and Lynch, 2006).

These new records extend the distribution range for both species in approximately 88 km northernmost from the other locality where they are known in the Cordillera Occidental—Munchique Natural Park. Also, it is the first record of P. jubatus outside of the type locality (Figure 3). Finally, this discovery is evidence of the potential, and likewise, of the need to explore the Cordillera Occidental to find additional diversity, especially in poorly explored peaks as Farallones de Cali Natural Park (Lynch, 2001).

Acknowledgments. We are grateful to Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia for allowing us to participate in amphibian monitoring at Farallones de Cali Natural Park, to WCS and Zoo Zürich for project financing under the “Mono Hernandez” scholarship, to Colombian National Army for providing security

during the fieldwork, and we also thank Jhon Jairo Ospina Sarria Ph.D. for reviewing, making suggestions to the text, and providing museum images of P. buckleyi and P. jubatus.

References

Acosta-Galvis, A.R. (2000): Ranas, salamandras y caecilias (Tetrapoda: Amphibia) de Colombia. Biota Colombiana 1(3): 289-319.

Boulenger, G.A. (1882): Catalogue of the Batrachia Salientia s. Ecaudata in the collection of the British Museum. Second Edition. London, England, Taylor and Francis.

Castro-Herrera, F., Vargas-Salinas, F. (2008): Anfibios y reptiles en el departamento del Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Biota Colombiana 9(2): 251-277.

Frolich, L., Schultz, N., Almedia, D., Nogales, F. (2003): Las Ranas de los Andes Norte del Ecuador: Cordillera Oriental. Quito, Ecuador, Ediciones Abya Yala.

García, J.C., Lynch, J.D. (2006): A new species of frog (genus Eleutherodactylus) from a cloud forest in Western Colombia. Zootaxa 1171: 39–45.

Hedges, S.B., Duellman, W.E., Heinicke, M.P. (2008): New World direct-developing frogs (Anura: Terrarana): Molecular phylogeny, classification, biogeography, and conservation. Zootaxa 1737: 1–182.

IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group. (2017): Pristimantis jubatus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Available at: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/135851/85910389. Accessed on 25 October 2019.

Lynch, J.D. (1981): Leptodactylid Frogs of the genus Eleutherodactylus in the Andes of Northern Ecuador and Adjacent Colombia. University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History 72: 1–46.

Lynch, J.D. (2001): A small amphibian fauna from a previously unexplored paramo of the Cordillera Occidental in Western Colombia. Journal of Herpetology 35(2): 226-231.

Ospina-Sarria, J.J., Mendez-Narvaez, J., Burbano-Yandi, C., Bolívar-García, W. (2011): A New species of Pristimantis (Amphibia: Craugastoridae) with cranial crests from the Colombian Andes. Zootaxa 3111: 37–48.

Romero, M., Cabrera, E., Ortiz, N. (2008): Informe sobre el estado de la biodiversidad en Colombia 2006-2007. Instituto de Investigaciones de Recursos Biológicos Alexander von Humboldt. Bogotá D.C, Colombia.

Ruiz-Carranza, P.M., Ardila-Robayo, M.C., Lynch, J.D. (1996): Lista actualizada de la fauna de Amphibia de Colombia. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Física y Naturales 20(77): 365-415.

Urbina-Cardona, J.N. (2011): Gradientes andinos en la diversidad y patrones de endemismo en anfibios y reptiles de Colombia: Posibles respuestas al cambio climático. Revista de la Facultad de Ciencias Básicas 7(1): 74–91.

Yánez-Muñoz, M., Almeida, D., Castro, F., Coloma, L.A., Ron, S., Bolívar, W. (2010): Pristimantis buckleyi. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Available at: https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/56481/11471569. Accessed on 25 October 2019.

New records and range extensions for Pristimantis buckleyi and P. jubatus 611

Figure 3. Map of south-western Colombia (inset) showing the known occurrence records for Pristimantis buckleyi (white squares) and Pristimantis jubatus (white tringle) in Colombia, and the new records for both species at Farallones de Cali Natural Park in the Cordillera Occidental (white star).

Appendix 1. Specimens Examined

Pristimantis buckleyi—COLOMBIA: VALLE DEL CAUCA: Municipio Pradera, Páramo de Las Tinajas (CPZ-UV 5731, 5811); COLOMBIA: VALLE DEL CAUCA: Municipio Sevilla, Páramo de El Tibí (CPZ-UV 4344, 4356); ECUADOR: CARCHI: Ciudad El Ángel 9.9 km E (KU 217867).

Pristimantis calcaratus—COLOMBIA: VALLE DEL CAUCA: Municipio La Cumbre, Corregimiento Bitaco, Vereda Chicoral (CPZ-UV 3608, 3609, 4349, 4715).

Pristimantis curtipes—ECUADOR: CHIMBORAZO: Ciudad de Cajabamba (KU 202352)*

Pristimantis jubatus—COLOMBIA: CAUCA: Municipio El Tambo, Parque Nacional Natural Munchique, sector La Romelia (ICN 52478 Holotype, 54282 Paratype).

Pristimantis kelephus—COLOMBIA: VALLE DEL CAUCA: Municipio El Cairo, Reserva Natural Comunitaria Cerro El Inglés (CPZ-UV 2285, 2312).

Pristimantis quicato—COLOMBIA: VALLE DEL CAUCA: Municipio Pradera, Corregimiento Bolo Blanco (CPZ-UV 5704, 5712, 5713); COLOMBIA: VALLE DEL CAUCA: Municipio Palmira, Corregimiento de Tenjo, Reserva Natural La Sirena (CPZ-UV 4064, 4066, 4067).

Pristimantis vertebralis—ECUADOR: COTOPAXI: Pilaló (KU 202552)*

* High resolution images of the specimens available at https://bioweb.bio/faunaweb/amphibiaweb/

Accepted by Gonçalo Rosa

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