PROC. BIOL. SOC. WASH. 91(2), 1978, pp. 418-430 NEW SPECIES OF LEPTODACTYLID FROGS OF THE GENUS ELEUTHERODACTYLUS FROM THE COSNIPATA VALLEY, PERtJ William E. Duellman Abstract. — Five new species of the Eleutherodactylus unistrigatus group are named from the Amazonian slope of the Andes in Departamento Cuzco, Peru. All of the species occur in cloud forests at elevations of 1,580-2,400 m in the valley of the Rio Cosiiipata. Frogs of the genus Eleutherodactylus are abundant as species and in-dividuals in the montane forests of Colombia and Ecuador, but heretofore few species have been recognized in Peru. During three excursions into the Cosnipata Valley in southern Peru in 1971, 1975, and 1977, five un-named species of Eleutherodactylus were discovered. These are named and described in this paper. The narrow, heavily forested valley of the Rio Cosnipata is on the north-eastern slopes of the Cadena de Paucartambo, a front range of the Andean Cordillera Oriental in Departamento Cuzco. The Rio Cosnipata is one of several streams originating high in the Andes and flowing into the Rio Madre de Dios, a tributary of the Brasilian Rio Madeira, which flows into the Rio Amazonas. The valley of the Rio Cosnipata is reached by road from the village of Paucartambo at 3,040 m in the dry upper Paucartambo Valley. The road leads north-northeastward for 25 km to Abra Acanacu (3,520) on the crest of the Cadena de Paucartambo. From the abra the road goes in a generally easterly direction to the Amazonian lowlands reached at Patria, 73 km from Abra Acanacu. Shortly after leaving Abra Acanacu the road enters the Rio Cosnipata drainage; for the last 50 km to Pilcopata the road lies in the Cosiiipata Valley (Fig. 1); several small settlements be-tween Abra Acanacu and Patria consist of one or two houses each. Abra Acanacu is above tree line; the vegetation is puna dominated by bunch grass (principally Stipa) with numerous low herbs, ferns, and mosses. Tree line is reached at 3,150 m. The upper reaches of the forest are characterized by low trees (Polylepis, Baccharis) and viney bamboo {Chu-quesia); somewhat lower on the slopes the forest is much taller with some tree ferns and bromeliads and a luxuriant undergrowth of mosses and ferns. In the lower montane forest tree ferns are more abundant, and bromeliads and mosses are less common than at higher elevations. In the following descriptions the designation of species groups is that of Lynch (1976), and the numerical sequence in the diagnoses follows Lynch (1974). Institutional abbreviations are: AMNH = American Mu-seum of Natural History, KU = Museum of Natural History, University of
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