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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 15, No. 7, pp. 297-349, pls. 11-18, 7 figs.

October 18, 1963

A Review of the Middle American Tree Frogs of the Genus Ptychohyla

WILLIAM E. DUELLMAN

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1963

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Theodore H. Eaton, Jr.

Volume 15, No. 7, pp. 297-349, pls. 11-18, 7 figs.

Published October 18, 1963

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED BY JEAN M. NEIBARGER, STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1963

A Review of the Middle American Tree Frogs of the Genus Ptychohyla

BY WILLIAM E. DUELLMAN

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION 301 Acknowledgments 301 Materials and Methods 302

ANALYSIS OF DATA 303 External Morphology 303 Color and Pattern 307 Osteology 307 Tadpoles 310 Breeding Call 312

SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNTS 314 Ptychohyla Taylor, 1944 314 Key to Adults 315 Key to Tadpoles 315 Ptychohyla euthysanota Group 315 Ptychohyla euthysanota 315 Ptychohyla euthysanota euthysanota (Kellogg) 315 Ptychohyla euthysanota macrotympanum (Tanner) 320 Ptychohyla leonhardschultzei (Ahl) 323 Ptychohyla spinipollex (Schmidt) 327 Ptychohyla schmidtorum Group 331 Ptychohyla schmidtorum 331 Ptychohyla schmidtorum schmidtorum Stuart 331 Ptychohyla schmidtorum chamulae Duellman 334 Ptychohyla ignicolor Duellman 337

DISTRIBUTION AND ECOLOGY 340 Geographic Distribution of the Species 340 Habitat Preference 342 Interspecific Competition 343 Reproduction and Development 344

PHYLOGENY OF PTYCHOHYLA 345 Ptychohyla as a Natural Assemblage 345 Generic Relationships 346 Interspecific Relationships 347

LITERATURE CITED 349

INTRODUCTION

Probably no ecological group of hylid frogs (some Hyla plus Plectrohyla and Ptychohyla) in Middle America is so poorly known as those species that live in the cloud forests on steep mountain slopes and breed in cascading mountain streams. During the last half of the nineteenth century most of the species of hylids living in the lowlands of southern Mexico and northern Central America were named and described. Despite the extensive collecting by Salvin and Godman, Nelson and Goldman, and the various expeditions of the Mission Scientifique, no members of the genus Ptychohyla were obtained until 1927, when in the mountains of El Salvador Ruben A. Stirton found a small tree frog that subsequently was described and named Hyla euthysanota by Kellogg (1928). Until recently frogs of this genus were known from few specimens and in the literature by nearly as many names.

Although I first collected Ptychohyla in 1956, it was not until 1960 that special efforts were made to obtain specimens of this genus. The summer of 1960 was spent in southern Mexico and Guatemala, where every accessible stream in the cloud forests was searched for tree frogs, especially Ptychohyla and Plectrohyla. Similar, but less extensive, investigations were carried out in 1961 and 1962. The result of this field work is a rather large collection of Ptychohyla representing all of the known species, plus tape recordings of the breeding calls and tadpoles of all of the species.

Previously, I have discussed the nomenclature of one of the species (Duellman, 1960) and have described two new species (Duellman, 1961). In the latter paper I made reference to a future account (this one) that would deal with the systematics and biology of the entire genus. Although I have series of specimens, tadpoles, osteological preparations, and recordings of breeding calls, thereby having a wide array of data at my disposal, much still remains to be learned about these frogs, especially about various aspects of their life histories. Even the validity of the genus is open to question; this problem is discussed at length in the section beyond entitled "Ptychohyla as a Natural Assemblage."

Acknowledgments