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Issue: Vol. 5884 No. 1: 25 Sept. 2026
Type: Article
Published: 2026-09-25
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5884.1.4
Page range: 97-118
Abstract views: 912
PDF downloaded: 7

A new species of marsupial frog (Anura: Gastrotheca) from the humid forests of the Mantaro basin in the central Andes, and first record of Hyloscirtus armatus and Rhinella leptoscelis in Huancavelica, Peru

Asociación Pro Fauna Silvestre Ayacucho; Huamanga; Ayacucho; Peru; Colección Científica Pro Fauna Silvestre Ayacucho; Huamanga; Ayacucho; Peru; Servicio Nacional Forestal y de Fauna Silvestre (SERFOR); Lima; Peru
Asociación Pro Fauna Silvestre Ayacucho; Huamanga; Ayacucho; Peru; Colección Científica Pro Fauna Silvestre Ayacucho; Huamanga; Ayacucho; Peru
Department of Biological Sciences; Florida International University; Miami; USA; Instituto Peruano de Herpetología; Lima; Peru
Amphibia Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis bioacoustics cloud forest VraeM

Abstract

We describe a new species of marsupial frog of the genus Gastrotheca, using morphological characters, bioacoustics, and molecular data as lines of evidence. The new species was discovered in the humid forests of the lower Mantaro Basin in the Central Andes of central Peru, at 2590 m a.s.l. It is distinguished from all congeners by the following combination of characters: head width equal to head length; no transverse cranial ridges; snout truncated in dorsal and lateral views; and golden-yellow dorsal, lateral, and ventral coloration. We describe the advertisement call of adult males. According to our phylogenetic analyses, the new species belongs to the Gastrotheca marsupiata species group and is closely related to G. rebeccae and G. pachachacae. We tested for the presence of the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd); no Bd infection was detected in the new species, but Bd infection was detected in a sympatric individual of Pristimantis. We also provide the first records of Hyloscirtus armatus and Rhinella leptoscelis for the department of Huancavelica extending their known distribution from the Amazonian versant of southern Peru and Bolivia into an inter-Andean valley of central Peru.

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How to Cite

Vargas, V.J., Rivera, K. & Catenazzi, A. (2026) A new species of marsupial frog (Anura: Gastrotheca) from the humid forests of the Mantaro basin in the central Andes, and first record of Hyloscirtus armatus and Rhinella leptoscelis in Huancavelica, Peru. Zootaxa, 5884 (1), 97–118. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5884.1.4