Abstract
We describe five new species of lungless salamanders (Plethodontidae) from high mountain habitats along the border betweenCosta Rica and Panama: Bolitoglossa splendida, Bolitoglossa aureogularis, Bolitoglossa kamuk, Nototriton matama, andOedipina nimaso. We also present phylogenetic hypotheses for the new taxa (with the exception of the Oedipina) and their rel-atives based on mitochondrial DNA sequence data. The new species were discovered on a series of expeditions to remote areas (primarily over 1000 m elevation) of the Cordillera de Talamanca, Costa Rica.References
AmphibiaWeb (2011) Information on amphibian biology and conservation. Berkeley, California: http://amphibiaweb.org/ (Accessed: November 21, 2011).
Bolaños, F. & Wake, D.B. (2009) Two news species of montane web-footed salamanders (Plethodontidae: Bolitoglossa) from the Costa Rica-Panamá border region. Zootaxa, 1981, 57–68.
Brame, A.H. Jr. (1968) Systematics and evolution of the Mesoamerican salamander genus Oedipina. Journal of Herpetology, 2, 1–64.
Edgar, R.C. (2004) MUSCLE: a multiple sequence alignment method with reduced time and space complexity. BMC Bioinformatics, 5, 1–19.
Excoffier, L., Laval, G., & Schneider, S., (2005) Arlequin (Version 3.0): an integrated software package for population genetics data analysis. Evolutionary Bioinformatics Online, 1, 47–50.
García-París, M. & Wake, D.B. (2000) Molecular phylogenetic analysis of relationships of the tropical salamander genera Oedipina and Nototriton, with descriptions of a new genus and three new species. Copeia, 2000, 42–70.
García-París, M., Parra-Olea, G., & Wake, D.B. (2008) Description of a new species of the Bolitoglossa subpalmata group (Caudata: Plethodontidae) from Costa Rica. Herpetological Journal, 18, 23–31.
Good, D.A. & Wake, D.B. (1993) Systematic studies of the Costa Rican moss salamanders, genus Nototriton, with descriptions of three new species. Herpetological Monographs, 7, 131–159.
Hanken, J., Wake, D.B., & Savage, J.M. (2005) A solution to the large black salamander problem (genus Bolitoglossa) in Costa Rica and Panamá. Copeia, 2005, 227–245.
Hasegawa, M. Kishino, H., & Yano, T. (1985) Dating of human-ape splitting by a molecular clock of mitochondrial DNA. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 22, 160–174.
Huelsenbeck, J.P. & Ronquist, F. (2001) MRBAYES: Bayesian inference of phylogenetic trees. Bioinformatics, 17, 754–755.
Kimura, M. (1980) A simple method for estimating evolutionary rates of base substitutions through comparative studies of nucleotide sequences. Journal of Molecular Evolution, 16, 111–120.
Köhler, G. (2002) A new species of salamander of the genus Nototriton from Nicaragua (Amphibia: Caudata: Plethodontidae). Herpetologica, 58, 205–210.
Köhler, G., Ponce, M., & Batista, A. (2007) A new species of worm salamander (genus Oedipina) from Fortuna, western central Panama (Amphibia, Caudata, Plethodontidae). Senckenbergiana Biologica, 87, 213–217.
Leviton, A.E., Gibbs, R.H., Jr., Heal, E., & Dawson, C.E. (1985) Standards in herpetology and ichthyology: Part I. Standard symbolic codes for institutional resource collections in herpetology and ichthyology. Copeia, 1985, 802–832.
Marshall, J.S. (2007) The geomorphology and physiographic provinces of Central America. In: Bundschuh, J. and Alvarado, G.E. (Eds), Central America: Geology, Resources and Hazards. Taylor & Francis, Oxford, UK, pp. 75–122.
McCranie, J.R. (2006) New species of Oedipina (Amphibia: Caudata) from Parque Nacional El Cusuco, northwestern Honduras. Journal of Herpetology, 40, 291–293.
McCranie, J.R. & Townsend, J.H. (2011) Description of a new species of worm salamander (Caudata: Plethodontidae) in the subgenus Oedipinola from the central portion of the Cordillera Nombre de Dios, Honduras. Zootaxa, 2990, 59–68.
McCranie, J.R., Vieites, D.R., & Wake, D.B. (2008) Description of a new divergent lineage and three new species of Honduran salamanders of the genus Oedipina (Caudata, Plethodontidae). Zootaxa, 1930, 1–17.
Moritz, C., Schneider, C.J., & Wake, D.B. (1992) Evolutionary relationships within the Ensatina eschscholtzii complex confirm the ring species interpretation. Systematic Biology, 41, 273–291.
Nylander, J.A.A. (2004) MrModeltest. Program distributed by the author. Evolutionary Biology Center, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
Nylander, J.A.A., Wilgenbusch, J.C., Warren, D.L., & Swofford, D.L. (2008) AWTY (Are We There Yet?): a system for graphical exploration of MCMC convergence in Bayesian phylogenetics. Bioinformatics, 24, 581–583.
Palumbi, S.R., Martin, A.P., Romano, S., McMillan, W.O., Stice, L. & Grabowski, G. (1991) The Simple Fool's Guide to PCR. Special Publication, Department of Zoology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
Papenfuss, T.J. & Wake, D.B. (1987) Two new species of plethodontid salamanders (genus Nototriton) from Mexico. Acta Zoologica Mexicana (ns), 21, 1–16.
Parra-Olea, G., García-París, M. & Wake, D.B. (2004) Molecular diversification of salamanders of the tropical American genus Bolitoglossa (Caudata: Plethodontidae) and its evolutionary and biogeographical implications. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society of London, 81, 325–346.
Savage, J.M. (2002) The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, U.S.A. 934 pp.
Stamatakis, A. (2006) RAxML-VI-HPC: Maximum likelihood-based phylogenetic analyses with thousands of taxa and mixed models. Bioinformatics, 22, 2688–2690.
Tamura, K. & Nei, M. (1993) Estimating the number of nucleotide substitutions in the control region of mitochondrial DNA in humans and chimpanzees. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 10, 512–526.
Tavaré, S. (1986) Some probabilistic and statistical problems on the analysis of DNA sequences. Lectures on Mathematics in the Life Sciences, 17, 57–86.
Townsend, J.H., Butler, J.M., Wilson, L.D., & Austin, J.D. (2010) A distinctive new species of moss salamander (Caudata: Plethodontidae: Nototriton) from an imperiled Honduran endemism hotspot. Zootaxa, 2434, 1–16.
Townsend, J.H., Medina-Flores, M., Murillo, J.L., & Austin, J.D. (2011) Cryptic diversity in the Chortís Highland moss salamanders (Caudata: Plethodontidae: Nototriton) revealed using mtDNA barcodes and phylogenetics, with a new species from eastern Honduras. Systematics and Biodiversity, 9, 275–287.
Wake, D.B. (1966) Comparative osteology and evolution of the lungless salamanders, Family Plethodontidae. Memoirs of the Southern California Academy of Sciences, 9, 1–111.
Wake, D.B. (1987) Adaptive radiation of salamanders in Middle American cloud forests. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 74, 242–264.
Wake, D.B. (2005) Diversity of Costa Rican salamanders. In: Donnelly, M.A., Crother, B.I., Guyer, C., Wake, M.H. and White, M.E. (Eds), Ecology and Evolution in the Tropics: a Herpetological Perspective. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, USA, pp. 65–80.
Wake, D.B. & Brame, A.H., Jr. (1972) New species of salamanders (genus Bolitoglossa) from Colombia, Ecuador and Panama. Contributions in Science, Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County, 219, 1–34.
Wake, D.B. & Elias, P. (1983) New genera and a new species of Central American salamanders, with a review of the tropical genera (Amphibia, Caudata, Plethodontidae). Contributions in Science, Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County, 345, 1–19.
Wake, D.B. & Campbell, J.A. (2000) A new species of diminutive salamander (Amphibia: Caudata: Plethodontidae: Nototriton) from the Montañas de Mico of Guatemala. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 113, 815–819.
Wake, D.B., Savage, J.M., & Hanken, J. (2007) Montane salamanders from the Costa Rica-Panamá border region, with descriptions of two new species of Bolitoglossa. Copeia, 2007, 556–565.