Aromobates leopardalis (Rivero, 1978)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Superfamily: Dendrobatoidea > Family: Aromobatidae > Subfamily: Aromobatinae > Genus: Aromobates > Species: Aromobates leopardalis

Colostethus leopardalis Rivero, 1978 "1976", Mem. Soc. Cienc. Nat. La Salle, 35: 327. Holotype: UPRM 5157, by original designation. Type locality: "Mucubají, 3300 m, Edo. Mérida, Venezuela".

Nephelobates leopardalisLa Marca, 1994, Inst. Geograf. Fac. Cienc. Forestal., Univ. Los Andes, An. Invest., 1991: 40. Combination made in error (E. La Marca, personal commun.).

Aromobates leopardalisGrant, Frost, Caldwell, Gagliardo, Haddad, Kok, Means, Noonan, Schargel, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 299: 160.

English Names

Leopard Rocket Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 49).

Distribution

Páramo and subpáramohabitat in Sierra Nevada, Merida State, Venezuela, 2400–3300 m elevation. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Venezuela

Endemic: Venezuela

Comment

Related to Aromobates alboguttatus (as Colostethus) according to the original publication.  Mijares-Urrutia, 1998, Rev. Biol. Tropical, 46: 119–143, characterized the larval morphology as part of a key to the tadpoles of the high elevation frogs in Venezuela. In the Colostethus alboguttatus group (Group VIII) of Rivero, 1990 "1988", Mem. Soc. Cienc. Nat. La Salle, 48: 3-32, although not transferred to Nephelobates by La Marca, 1994, Inst. Geograf. Fac. Cienc. Forestal., Univ. Los Andes, An. Invest., 1991 (the appearance of the combination "N. leopardalis" on page 40, was in error, and the species is not listed in the formal diagnosis of Nephelobates in the same paper; E. LaMarca, personal commun.). Barrio-Amorós and Fuentes-Ramos, 1999, Acta Biol. Venezuelica, 19: 2, considered this species to be a Colostethus (sensu lato). Previously, Barrio-Amorós, 1999 "1998", Acta Biol. Venezuelica, 18: 17, suggested that this species might be associated with Mannophryne. Barrio-Amorós, 2004, Rev. Ecol. Lat. Am., 9: 7, reported on distribution and relevant literature. See map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Colostethus leopardalis) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 224. Gross, 2009 "2008", Herpetotropicos, Mérida, 5: 9-20, provided evidence of the extinction of this species. Barrio-Amorós and Santos, 2012, Zootaxa, 3422: 26, noted the apparent disappearance from habitat. Sánchez, 2013, Zootaxa, 3637: 569–591, provided information on larval morphology. See Barrio-Amorós, Rojas-Runjaic, and Señaris, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (1: e180): 40–42, for comments on range, taxonomy, and literature. 

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