Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 1981 No. 1: 16 Jan. 2009
Type: Article
Published: 2009-01-16
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.1981.1.5
Page range: 57–68
Abstract views: 64
PDF downloaded: 1

Two new species of montane web-footed salamanders (Plethodontidae: Bolitoglossa) from the Costa Rica-Panamá border region

Escuela de Biologia, Universidad de Costa Rica, San Pedro, Costa Rica
Department of Integrative Biology and Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. University of California, Berkeley, California 94720-3160, USA
Amphibia Bolitoglossa pygmaea sp. nov. B. robinsoni sp. nov. Cordillera de Talamanca taxonomy Central America biogeography

Abstract

Two new species of lungless salamanders (Plethodontidae) are described from high montane habitats of the border region between Costa Rica and Panamá. Bolitoglossa pygmaea and B. robinsoni are distinguished from each other and from other salamander species in this remote area by differences in adult body size, external proportions, foot webbing, tooth counts and/or external coloration. Both new species are assigned to the B. subpalmata species group, subgenus Eladinea. The miniaturized B. pygmaea is remarkable in being extensively depigmented, yet having the peritoneum and stomach area heavily pigmented and visible through the body wall.

References

  1. Alberch. P. (1983) Morphological variation in the neotropical salamander genus Bolitoglossa. Evolution, 37, 906–919.

    Alberch, P. & Alberch, J. (1981) Heterochronic mechanisms of morphological diversification and evolutionary change in the neotropical salamander, Bolitoglossa occidentalis (Amphibia: Plethodontidae). Journal of Morphology, 167, 249–264.

    AmphibiaWeb (2008) Information on amphibian biology and conservation. Berkeley, California. Available from: http://amphibiaweb.org/ (accessed 5 October 2008)

    Brame, A.H. Jr. II, Savage, J.M., Wake, D.B & Hanken, J. (2001) New species of large black salamander, genus Bolitoglossa, from western Panamá. Copeia, 2001, 700–704.

    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.

    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.

    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.

    Wake, D.B. (1991) Homoplasy: the result of natural selection, or evidence of design limitations? American Naturalist, 138, 543–567.

    Wake, D.B. (2005) Diversity of Costa Rican salamanders. In: Donnelly, M.A., Crother, B. I., Guyer, C. Wake, M.H. & White, M.E. (Eds.), Ecology and Evolution in the Tropics: a Herpetological Perspective. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, pp. 65–80.

    Wake, D.B. & Brame, A.H., Jr. (1972) New species of salamanders (genus Bolitoglossa) from Colombia, Ecuador and Panama. Contributions to Science, Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County, 219, 1–34.

    Wake, D.B., Brame, A.H., Jr. & Duellman, W.E. (1973) New species of salamanders, genus Bolitoglossa, from Panama. Contributions to Science, Natural History Museum, Los Angeles County, 248, 1–19.

    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.