Physalaemus cuvieri Fitzinger, 1826

English Names

Barker Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 83).

Cuvier's Foam Froglet (Eterovick and Sazima, 2004, Anf. Serra do Cipó: 101).

Distribution

Northeastern, central, and southern Brazil, barely into adjacent northern Uruguay; arguably from Misiones, Argentina; eastern and northern Paraguay; Departments of Beni and Santa Cruz in Bolivia; lowlands of southern Venezuela (Bolívar and Delta Amacuro states). See comment for taxonomic uncertainties. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Guyana, Paraguay, Uruguay, Venezuela

Comment

In the Physalaemus cuvieri group of Nascimento, Caramaschi, and Cruz, 2005, Arq. Mus. Nac., Rio de Janeiro, 63: 308. Discussed by Barrio, 1965, Physis, Buenos Aires, 25: 421–448, who noted that this is a sibling species of Physalaemus albonotatus and Physalaemus centralis. See account by Heyer, Rand, Cruz, Peixoto, and Nelson, 1990, Arq. Zool., São Paulo, 31: 312–313. Gorzula and Señaris, 1999 "1998", Scient. Guaianae, 8: 67–69, reported this or a closely related species from the state of Bolívar, Venezuela. Canelas and Bertoluci, 2007, Iheringia, Zool., 97: 21–26, provided a record for the Serra do Caraça, southern end of the Serra do Espinhaço, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Brusquetti and Lavilla, 2006, Cuad. Herpetol., 20: 17, briefly discussed the range in Paraguay. Maneyro and Beheregaray, 2007, Bol. Soc. Zool. Uruguay, Ser. 2, 16: 36–41, provided a record from the vicinity of Rivera, northern Uruguay, and provided a sonogram of the advertisement call. Jansen, Vidoz, and Helmig, 2008, Herpetol. Rev., 39: 106–107, provided a record for the Department of Beni, Bolivia, and briefly discussed the range in that country. Eterovick and Sazima, 2004, Anf. Serra do Cipó: 101–102, provided a photograph and brief account. Cruz, Feio, and Caramaschi, 2009, Anf. Ibitipoca: 116–117, provided photographs and a brief account for Parque Estadual do Ibitipoca, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Jansen, Bloch, Schulze, and Pfenninger, 2011, Zool. Scripta, 40: 567–583, suggested on the basis of molecular data the existed of unnamed cryptic species in Bolivia. Conte, Cancado, Laborda, Zucchi, Andrade, Rossa-Feres, Siqueira, Souza, and Recco-Pimentel, 2009, Conserv. Genetics, 10: 1849–1852, discussed microsaellite variation. See Cole, Townsend, Reynolds, MacCulloch, and Lathrop, 2013, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 125: 428–429, for brief account and records for Guyana. Weiler, Núñez, Airaldi, Lavilla, Peris, and Baldo, 2013, Anf. Paraguay: 104, provided a brief account, image, and dot map for Paraguay. Gambale and Bastos, 2014, Herpetol. J., 24: 31–39, reported on vocalizations.  In the Physalaemus cuvieri clade, Physalaemus cuvieri species group, of Lourenço, Targueta, Baldo, Nascimento, Garcia, Andrade, Haddad, and Recco-Pimentel, 2015, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 92: 204–216, and who noted that this name represents a complex of cryptic species. Cardozo and Pereyra, 2018, Zootaxa, 4387: 588, discussed the possible presence of this species in Misiones, Argentina. Miranda, Maciel, Lima-Ribeiro, Colli, Haddad, and Collevatti, 2018 "2019", Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 132: 67–80, reported on molecular biogeography. Neves, Yves, Pereira Silva, Alves, Vasques, Coelho, and Silva, 2019, Herpetozoa, Wien, 32: 113–123, provided habitat information and records for western Minas Gerais, Brazil. See Barrio-Amorós, Rojas-Runjaic, and Señaris, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (1: e180): 99, for comments on range (with special reference to Venezuela) and literature. Nascimento, Lima, Suárez, Baldo, Andrade, Pierson, Fitzpatrick, Haddad, Recco-Pimentel, and Lourenço, 2019, Frontiers in Genetics, 10 (719): 1–15, reported on the phylogenetics of the Physalaemus ephippifer–Physalaemus cuvieri group, suggesting that the Physalaemus cuvieri is a complex of at least 6 species, and including Physalaemus ephippifer as one of the named lineages in the complex. Hepp and Pombal, 2020, Zootaxa, 4725: 1–106, discussed this species as part of a genus-wide discussion of bioacoustical traits among the species. Dubeux, Silva, Nascimento, Gonçalves, and Mott, 2019, Rev. Nordestina Zool., 12: 18–52, summarized the literature on larval morphology. Rossa-Feres and Nomura, 2006 "2005", Biota Neotrop., São Paulo, 6 (2: bn00706012006): 1–24, characterized larval morphology of this species and provided a key to the larvae of northwestern São Paulo state, Brazil. See Dubeux, Nascimento, Lima, Magalhães, Silva, Gonçalves, Almeida, Correia, Garda, Mesquita, Rossa-Feres, and Mott, 2020, Biota Neotrop., 20 (2: e20180718): 1–24, for characterization and identification of larvae north of the Rio São Francisco in the Atlantic Forest of northeastern Brazil. Vaz-Silva, Maciel, Nomura, Morais, Guerra Batista, Santos, Andrade, Oliveira, Brandão, and Bastos, 2020, Guia Ident. Anf. Goiás e Dist. Fed. Brasil Central: 137, provided an account for Goiás and the D.F., Brazil. Eterovick, Souza, and Sazima, 2020, Anf. Serra do Cipó: 1–292, provided an account, life history information, and an identification scheme for the Serra de Cipó, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Alves-Ferreira, Paixão, and Nomura, 2021, Biota Neotrop., 21 (4: e20201178): 1–11, reported on larval morphology in Goias, Brazil. Reported from the Environmental Protection Area of Catolé and Fernão Velho, Alagoas, Brazil, by Dubeux, Nascimento, Gonçalves, and Mott, 2021, Pap. Avulsos Zool., São Paulo, 61 (e20216176): 1–10, who provided a key to the frogs of that region. Pezzuti, Leite, Rossa-Feres, and Garcia, 2021, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 22 (Special Issue): 1–109, described and discussed larval morphology and natural history. Palmeira, Gonçalves, Dubeux, Lima, Lambertini, Valencia-Aguilar, Jenkinson, James, Toledo, and Mott, 2022, Cuad. Herpetol., 36: 65–75, reported on habitat in Natural Heritage Reserve Mata Estrela, Baía Formosa, Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil. Manzano, Takeno, and Sawaya, 2022, Zootaxa, 5178: 453–472, reported on the advertisement call from southern Brazll. Santos, Feio, and Nomura, 2023, Biota Neotrop., 23 (3:e20231486): 1–43, characterized tadpole morphology as part of an identification key to the tadpoles of the Brazilian Cerrado. Souza, Pierson, Tenório, Ferro, Gatto, Silva, Andrade, Suárez, Haddad, and Lourenço, 2024, Sci. Rep. (Nature, London), 14 (1119): 1–17, reported on the karyology of multiple contact zones among unnamed lineages and Physalaemus ephippifer in eastern Brazil. Vicente-Ferreira, Nascimento, Batista, Kardush, Reyes, and Garey, 2024, Biota Neotrop., 24(1: e20231526): 1–17, provided records from the Refúgio Biológico Bela Vista, Paraná, southern Brazil (adjacent to the Paraguay border), as well as providing identification keys to these species based on larval and adult morphology.       

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