Our unknown neighbor: A new species of rain frog of the genus Pristimantis (Amphibia: Anura: Strabomantidae) from the city of Loja, southern Ecuador

Paul Székely; Diana Székely; Leonardo Ordóñez-Delgado; Diego Armijos-Ojeda; Judit Vörös

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0258454

Our unknown neighbor: A new species of rain frog of the genus Pristimantis (Amphibia: Anura: Strabomantidae) from the city of Loja, southern Ecuador

PLoS One. 2021 Oct 27;16(10):e0258454. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258454. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Paul Székely^{1

2}, Diana Székely^{1

2}, Leonardo Ordóñez-Delgado^{1

2

3}, Diego Armijos-Ojeda^{1

2

3}, Judit Vörös⁴

Affiliations

¹ Museo de Zoología, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja, Ecuador.
² Departamento de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Laboratorio de Ecología Tropical y Servicios Ecosistémicos (EcoSs-Lab), Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja, Loja, Ecuador.
³ Programa de Doctorado en Conservación de Recursos Naturales, Escuela Internacional de Doctorado, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain.
⁴ Department of Zoology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, Budapest, Hungary.

Abstract

We describe a new species of rain frog of the genus Pristimantis from the city of Loja, Southern Ecuador, based on an integrative taxonomy approach, combining molecular, morphological and bioacoustics data. Pristimantis lojanus sp. nov. is a medium sized species of the phylogenetically strongly supported P. phoxocephalus group, and its sister species is P. torresi. The new species can be easily distinguished from its closest congeners and morphologically similar species (that also have acuminate snout with a fleshy keel) by its characteristic advertisement call and morphological features (dorsum finely tuberculate with scattered larger tubercles, flanks without longitudinal lateral folds, no markings in axilla, groin or on concealed limb surfaces, and bronze iris). Additionally, we describe the advertisement call of its sister species, P. torresi. Finally, we detail the current situation of the amphibian species present in the city of Loja and its surroundings.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animal Distribution
Animals
Anura*
Ecuador
Phylogeny

Grants and funding

PS, DS, DA and LO received financial support from Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja (https://www.utpl.edu.ec/), through the project “Descripción de nuevas especies de anfibios y reptiles del sur de Ecuador a partir de las colecciones del Museo de Zoología, UTPL” (PROY_INV_CCBIO_2020_2794). DA thanks the project “Convive con los ríos" Campaña de comunicación ambiental, participación social y levantamiento de indicadores socioambientales de las cuencas manejadas por Foragua” (PROY_VIN_GAM_001_2016) JV received funding from the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund of Hungary (https://nkfih.gov.hu/for-the-applicants), through the project no. KH130360, financed under the [KH_18]. Part of this study was funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF, https://www.cepf.net/grants/grantee-projects/amphibian-conservation-abra-de-zamora-key-biodiversity-area-ecuador), grant CEPF-108984, through the “Amphibian Conservation in the Abra de Zamora Key Biodiversity Area of Ecuador” project. PS received funding for fieldwork from Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund project 172515484 "Conservation of the Ridge Marsupial Frog (Gastrotheca psychrophila) in southern Ecuador" (https://www.speciesconservation.org/case-studies-projects/ridge-marsupial-frog/15484). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.