A new species of the genus Noblella (Amphibia: Strabomantidae) from Ecuador, with new information for Noblella worleyae

From Firenze University Press Journal: Acta Herpetologica

Carolina Reyes-Puig, Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas & Ambientales COCIBA & Instituto de Diversidad Biológica Tropical iBIOTROP, Museo de Zoología/ Laboratorio de Zoología Terrestre, Campus Cumbayá, Quito

Juan M. Guayasamin, Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales COCIBA, Instituto BIOSFERA, Campus Cumbayá, Quito

Claudia Koch, Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig ZFMK, Leibniz-Institut zur Analyse des Biodiversitätswandels, Bonn

David Brito-Zapata, Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas & Ambientales COCIBA & Instituto de Diversidad Biológica Tropical iBIOTROP, Museo de Zoología/ Laboratorio de Zoología Terrestre, Campus Cumbayá, Quito

Matthijs Hollanders, Southern Cross University, School of Environment, Science and Engineering, Lismore

Melissa Costales, University of New Brunswick, Department of Biology, Fredericton

Diego F. Cisneros-Heredia, Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ, Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas & Ambientales COCIBA & Instituto de Diversidad Biológica Tropical iBIOTROP, Museo de Zoología/ Laboratorio de Zoología Terrestre, Campus Cumbayá, Quito

The amphibian diversity in the tropical Andes is outstanding (Duellman, 1988; Myers et al., 2000; Hutter et al., 2013, 2017). Each year, several species are described from montane forests of this biodiversity hot-spot (e.g., Rojas-Runjaic et al., 2018; Guayasamin et al., 2019; Paez and Ron, 2019; Reyes-Puig et al., 2019b; Santa-Cruz et al., 2019; Yanez-Muñoz et al., 2019; Acevedo et al., 2020; Ospina-Sarria et al., 2020; Lehr et al., 2021). Most described species from Ecuador belong to the hyper-diverse genus Pristimantis (Paez and Ron, 2019; Reyes-Puig et al., 2020a), but diversity in other anuran taxa has also increased considerably (e.g., Osornophryne, Hyloscirtus, Noblella, Centrolenidae; Mueses-Cis-neros et al., 2010; Cisneros-Heredia and Gluesenkamp, 2010; Yánez-Muñoz et al., 2010a; Páez-Moscoso and Guayasamin, 2012; Almendáriz et al., 2014; Guayasamin et al., 2017a, 2019; Reyes-Puig et al., 2019c).

Terrestrial-breeding frogs of the genus Noblella Barbour 1930 are minute-size anurans (SVL < 22 mm), morphologically differentiated by having terminal discs on digits not or barely expanded, discs and circumferential grooves present distally (except in N. duellm-ani), terminal phalanges narrowly T-shaped, pointed tips of at least Toes III‒IV, and an inner tarsal tubercle (De La Riva et al., 2008; Hedges et al., 2008; Duellman and Lehr, 2009). However, phylogenetic relationships of Noblella are not fully resolved and its monophyly is uncertain (De la Riva et al., 2017; Santa-Cruz et al., 2019). As currently defined, Noblella includes 16 species, fourteen distributed in the Andes of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, and two (N. losamigos and N. myrmecoides) in the Amazonian lowlands from southeastern Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and western Brazil (Frost, 2021). During the last 15 years, the number of species in the genus has doubled; and four new species have been described since 2019 (Catenazzi and Ttito, 2019; Reyes-Puig et al., 2019c, 2020b; Santa-Cruz et al., 2019).

Currently, the total number of species of the genus Noblellais 16, distributed in ten species in Peru, seven in Ecua-dor, three in Bolivia, and one in Colombia and Brazil (Frost, 2021). Andean species of the genus Noblella show a high level of endemicity, with very restricted distributions. While some species of Noblella may apparently be able to survive in environments modified by humans (e.g., N. duellmani, N. losamigos, N. lochites, N. nature-trekii; Duellman and Lehr, 2009; Reyes-Puig et al., 2019c; Santa-Cruz et al., 2019); most species (e.g., N. coloma, N. heyeri, N. personina, N. pygmaea; Lynch, 1986; Guayasamin and Terán-Valdez, 2009; Harvey et al., 2013) seem to depend on undisturbed forest.

Three species of Noblella have been described from western Ecuador, all from mature mountain forests: Noblella heyeri (Lynch, 1986) occurs in southwestern Ecuador and extreme northwestern Peru; Noblella coloma Guayasamin and Terán-Valdez, 2009 is known from its type locality and surroundings (Rio Guajalito and Chiriboga area; Ron et al., 2019); and Noblella worleyae, a recently described species is known just from seven specimens, all found in mature forest in the Río Manduriacu Reserve, province of Imbabura, Ecuador (Reyes-Puig et al., 2020b).

While the Ecuadorian Andes have suffered serious habitat destruction and fragmentation caused by expansion of deforestation, agriculture, mining, among others (Castellanos et al., 2011; Roy et al., 2018; Guayasamin et al., 2019; Lessmann et al., 2019; Ortega et al., 2021), there are still some areas with mature forests that have not been exploited due to their complex topography, difficult access, private protection, or preservation for touristic activities. Unfortunately, all such sites are under strong anthropogenic pressure, including mining concessions and the expansion of agricultural boundaries, among others (Cuesta et al., 2017; Roy et al., 2018; Guayasamin et al., 2019; Ortega et al., 2021).

These privileged areas have proven to keep an extremely high cryptic diver-sity of small vertebrates and contain the last remnant populations of numerous threatened species (Cisneros-Heredia and Yanez-Muñoz, 2010; Reyes-Puig et al., 2010, 2019a, 2019b; Yánez-Muñoz et al., 2010b, 2018; Guayasamin et al., 2018, 2019, 2020; Sánchez-Nivicela et al., 2018; Barrio-Amorós et al., 2020). During the last five years, we have carried out surveys on the western slopes of the Andes in the provinces of Imbabura and Pichincha, Ecuador. As a result of this continuous effort, we found a new species of leaf-litter frog of the genus Noblella, which we describe herein based on a combination of morphological, molecular, and osteological features. We also document new information on distribution, external morphology and osteology for the recently described Noblella worleyae, information that was not described in detail in the original description. We also include intraspecific variation that will allow complete full with members of the same genus in the future.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/a_h-10742

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