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University of Kansas Publications

Museum of Natural History

Volume 17, No. 12, pp. 517-557, pls. 13-16, 9 figs. March 20, 1968

Middle American Frogs of the Hyla microcephala Group

WILLIAM E. DUELLMAN AND M. J. FOUQUETTE, JR.

University of Kansas Lawrence 1968

University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Frank B. Cross

Volume 17, No. 12, pp. 517-557, 4 pls. 9 figs. Published March 20, 1968

University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED BY ROBERT R. (BOB) SANDERS, STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1968

31-9419

Middle American Frogs of the Hyla microcephala Group

BY WILLIAM E. DUELLMAN AND M. J. FOUQUETTE, JR.

CONTENTS

PAGE

Introduction 519 Acknowledgments 520 Materials and Methods 520

Hyla microcephala Group 521 Key to Species and Subspecies 522

Accounts of Species and Subspecies 523

Cranial Osteology 540

Analysis of Mating Calls 544

Life History 550

Phylogenetic Relationships 552

Literature Cited 556

INTRODUCTION

The small yellow tree frogs, Hyla microcephala and its relatives, are among the most frequently heard and commonly collected frogs in the lowlands of southern Mexico and Central America. The similarities in size, proportions, and coloration of the different species have resulted not so much in a multiplicity of specific names, but in differences of opinion on the application of existing names to the various taxa. For example, the populations on the Atlantic lowlands have been known by three names, two of which have been applied to other taxa. Much of the confusion has been the result of previous workers' unfamiliarity with the animals in life and unawareness of the intraspecific geographic variation in the most widespread species.

Independently we undertook studies of these frogs in the field. The second author worked on the interspecific relationships and isolating mechanisms in Panama (Fouquette, 1960b) and later studied the species in southern Mexico. As part of his survey of the hylids of Middle America, the first author accumulated field and laboratory data on the frogs throughout their ranges in Mexico and Central America. The purpose of this report is to present our findings on the four species of Middle American frogs that we place in the Hyla microcephala group. In addition to conventional taxonomic characters, we have utilized the features of the cranial osteology and have relied heavily on the data obtained from an analysis of the mating calls. Furthermore, we have included ecological and distributional data in our synthesis of interspecific relationships.