MCZ LIBRARY OCCASIONAL PAPERS ^ftf g \ 1989 of the MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY The University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas NUMBER 129, PAGES 1-18 APRIL 19,1989 A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES OF TOAD (ANURA: BUFONIDAE) WITH AN EXTRAORDINARY STREAM-ADAPTED TADPOLE FROM NORTHERN HONDURAS By James R. McCranie 1 , Larry David Wilson 2 , and Kenneth L. Williams 3 In early June, 1980, at the end of the dry season, JRM and LDW travelled to the Cordillera de Nombre de Dios south of the port of La Ceiba, Atlantida, Honduras. Our objective was to sample the herpetofauna of the highest elevations in the region of Cerro Biifalo. While working in cloud forest in these steep mountains at 1760 m, we found a single apparently undescribed female bufonid. On the return trip, we collected a second specimen, a male, in highland rainforest at 940 m and a series of peculiar tadpoles which we suspected belonged to the same taxon. In August of 1982 we returned to this area in the rainy season to try to link the strange tadpole and the undescribed toad. An additional adult male and numerous juveniles and tadpoles were collected. One of the tadpoles was in the process of metamorphosis and allowed its association with adults. A third trip to the same area in August, 1984, netted one adult male and more juveniles and tadpoles, including a number of metamorphosing indi-viduals. '10770 S.W. 164th Street, Miami, Florida 33157. department of Biology, Miami -Dade Community College, South Campus, Miami, Florida 33176. 'Department of Biological Sciences, Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Natchi-toches, Louisiana 71457.
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