A new toad of the Bufo typhonius complex froin humid montane forests of Bolivia (Amphibia, Anura, Bufonidae) Stefan Lötters & Jörn Köhler Lötters, S. & J. Köhler (2000): A new toad of the Bufo typhonius complex from humid montane forests of Bolivia (Amphibia, Anura, Bufonidae). -Spixiana 23/3: 293-303 A new species of toad referable to the Bufo typhonius species complex is described from humid montane forests in the Departamentos Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, Bolivia. The new species is mainly characterised by tuberculate dorsal skin, well developed protrusions at angle of jaws, a lateral row of conical tubercles and absence of neural vertebrae. In addition, we provide diagnostic characters for Bufo aciitirostris Spix, 1824 and comment on other available names of the complex. Including the new species, at least four different forms related to ß. typhonius (Linnaeus, 1758) are known from Bolivia. Stefan Lötters, Jörn Köhler, Zoologisches Forschungsinstitut und Museum Alex-ander Koenig, Adenauerallee 160, D-53113 Bonn, Germany; e-mail:
[email protected] (SL),
[email protected] (JK). Introduction The taxonomy of Neotropical toads related to Bufo typhonius is very chaotic (Hoogmoed 1986, 1989, 1990). In recent years it has become evident that behind the name B. typhonius a complex of similar species is hidden {Bufo margaritifer complex of some authors), which are distributed over the entire Amazon basin and lower Central America. Nothing is known about their phylogenetic relationships (Frost 1985, Hoogmoed 1986, 1989, 1990, Caldwell 1991, Duellman & Schulte 1992, Hass et al. 1995). Because of the difficulty to assign the many available names and the lack of a comprehensive revision (e.g. Hoogmoed 1990) contributors sometimes simply refer to morphs related to ß. typhonius without assigning names (e.g. Duellman & Mendelson 1995, Köhler & Lötters 1999). In recent times, Bolivia has become well known for its diversity in anurans. Due to a remarkable increase in scientific efforts within the last decade, the number of species known has almost doubled (De la Riva et al. 2000). Populations referable to ß. typhonius repeatedly were reported from this country (Schmidt 1857, 1858, De la Riva 1990, Hoogmoed 1990, Aparicio 1992, De la Riva et al. 1992, 1996, Reynolds & Foster 1992, Köhler et al. 1997, Harvey et al. 1998, Köhler & Lötters 1999, De la Riva et al. 2000). Among them, at least four different species or morphs can be distinguished (for their known distributions see Fig. 1): (1) Bufo castaneoticus and (2) a sympatric form occurring in the Departamento Pando in north-western Bolivia (Köhler & Lötters 1999). FoUowing the diagnosis provided for the latter form by Köhler & Lötters (1999), this morph is somehow similar to ß. aciitirostris, an apparently valid taxon known from eastern Colombia, southern Venezuela and north-western Brazil (Hoogmoed & Gruber 1983). Also Hoogmoed (1986) concluded that populations from Amazonian Bolivia resemble ß. acutirostris. But he suggested that Bolivian specimens are not conspecific with those from northern Amazonia because of the large intervening area from which such toads are unknown. Currently, it is 293
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