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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: 34
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.

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