Rediscovery of Laura's glassfrog Nymphargus laurae (Anura: Centrolenidae) with new data on its morphology, colouration, phylogenetic position and conservation in Ecuador

María José Sánchez-Carvajal; Grace C Reyes-Ortega; Diego F Cisneros-Heredia; H Mauricio Ortega-Andrade

doi:10.7717/peerj.12644

Rediscovery of Laura's glassfrog Nymphargus laurae (Anura: Centrolenidae) with new data on its morphology, colouration, phylogenetic position and conservation in Ecuador

PeerJ. 2021 Dec 23:9:e12644. doi: 10.7717/peerj.12644. eCollection 2021.

Authors

María José Sánchez-Carvajal^{1

2}, Grace C Reyes-Ortega^{1

2}, Diego F Cisneros-Heredia^{3

4}, H Mauricio Ortega-Andrade^{1

2

4}

Affiliations

¹ Ingeniería en Ecosistemas, Facultad de Ciencias de la Vida, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, Tena, Napo, Ecuador.
² Grupo de Investigación en Biogeografía y Ecología Espacial, Universidad Regional Amazónica Ikiam, Tena, Napo, Ecuador.
³ Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales, Instituto de Biodiversidad Tropical iBIOTROP, Museo de Zoología, Laboratorio de Zoología Terrestre, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador.
⁴ División de Herpetología, Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador.

Abstract

We report the rediscovery of Laura's Glassfrog, Nymphargus laurae Cisneros-Heredia & McDiarmid, 2007, based on two specimens collected at the Colonso-Chalupas Biological Reserve, province of Napo, Ecuador. The species was described and known from a single male specimen collected in 1955 at Loreto, north-eastern Andean foothills of Ecuador. Limited information was available about the colouration, systematics, ecology, and biogeography of N. laurae. We provide new data on the external morphology, colouration, distribution and comment on its conservation status and extinction risk. We discuss the phylogenetic relationships of N. laurae, which forms a clade together with N. siren and N. humboldti. The importance of research in unexplored areas must be a national priority to document the biodiversity associated, especially in protected areas.

Keywords: Colonso-Chalupas biological reserve; Glassfrogs; Phylogeny; Systematics; Taxonomy.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the following projects: “On the quest of the golden fleece in Amazonia: The first herpetological DNA—barcoding expedition to unexplored areas on the Napo watershed, Ecuador”, funded by the Secretaría Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología del Ecuador (Senescyt-ENSAMBLE Grant #PIC-17-BENS-001), and The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS Grant #16-095, granted to H. Mauricio Ortega-Andrade). Research by Diego Francisco Cisneros-Heredia was supported by the Smithsonian Women’s Committee, Smithsonian Institution (2002 Research Training Program, National Museum of Natural History), World Wildlife Fund (WWF-EFN, Russel E. Train Education for Nature Program), Secretaría de Educación Superior, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (SENESCYT, Programa “Becas de Excelencia”), Universidad San Francisco de Quito (Chancellor grants, COCIBA grants, Collaboration grants, projects HUBI ID 34, 36, 39, 48, 1057, 7703, 12253, 13524), and “Proyecto Descubre Napo”, an initiative of Universidad San Francisco de Quito in association with Wildlife Conservation Society and funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation as part of the project: WCS Consolidating Conservation of Critical Landscapes (mosaics) in the Andes. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.