Alsodes Bell, 1843

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Alsodidae > Genus: Alsodes
19 species

Alsodes Bell, 1843, Zool. Voyage Beagle, Part 5: 41. Type species: Alsodes monticola Bell, 1843, by monotypy.

Hammatodactylus Fitzinger, 1843, Syst. Rept.: 32. Type species: Cystignathus nodosus Duméril and Bibron, 1841, by original designation. Lynch, 1971, Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 53: 124–125, suggested that this name antedates Alsodes Bell, 1843, although Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 128, noted that he knew of no evidence to support this contention. Lavilla and Cei, 2001, Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 28: 98, considered Alsodes to have priority over Hammatodactylus based on the first revisor principle (Cope, 1865, Nat. Hist. Rev., N.S., 5: 113). Hammatodactylus was a nomen oblitum up to Lynch, 1971, Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 53: 124, when he placed it in the synonymy of Eupsophus (sensu lato). See also Lavilla and Cei, 2001, Monogr. Mus. Reg. Sci. Nat. Torino, 28: 98–99, regarding inferences on publication dates for both, Bell's and Fitzinger's papers.

Metaeus Girard, 1853, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 6: 424. Type species: Metaeus timidus Girard, 1853, by monotypy. Duellman and Trueb, 1986, Biol. Amph.: 531, suggested that Metaeus might be a junior synonym of Pleurodema. Synonymy by Lavilla, Rabanal, Langone, Vásquez, and Castro-Carrasco, 2019, Zootaxa, 4567: 187. 

Eusophus Cope, 1865, Nat. Hist. Rev., N.S., 5: 113. Type species: Cystignathus nodosus Duméril and Bibron, 1841, by original designation. Not Eupsophus Fitzinger, 1843.

Cacotus Günther, 1869 "1868", Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1868: 482. Type species: Cacotus maculatus Günther, 1869 "1868", by monotypy. Cacotus Günther was included in the synonymy of Borborocoetes Bell by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 252. Borborocoetes in the sense of Boulenger was a complex that included species today placed in Alsodes, Eupsophus, Ischnocnema, Phrynopus and Batrachyla.

Telmalsodes Diaz, 1989, Stud. Neotrop. Fauna Environ., 24: 32. Type species: Telmatobius montanus Lataste, 1902, by original designation. Synonymy by Wiens, 1993, Occas. Pap. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 162: 41–42.

Common Names

Spiny-chest Frogs (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 70).

Distribution

Chile and Argentina.

Comment

See comment under Alsodes laevis. Argentinian species reviewed by Cei, 1980, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Monogr., 2: 286–299. Karyological relationships discussed and species groups defined by Formas and Vera, 1983, Copeia, 1983: 1104–1107. Diaz, 1989, Stud. Neotrop. Fauna Environ., 24: 25–33, partitioned the genus into Telmalsodes and Alsodes, but this was rejected by Wiens, 1993, Occas. Pap. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 162: 41–42. Cuevas and Formas, 2003, Hereditas, Lund, 138: 138–147, reported on karyotypic variaiton among Alsodes pehuenche, Alsodes vanzolinii, Alsodes verrucosus and Alsodes vittatus. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, confirmed the monophyly of this taxon and provided a tree of their molecular exemplar species although these conclusions require confirmation given that a number of the Genbank sequences on which these conclusions were based were subsequently reidentified by Blotto, Nuñez, Basso, Úbeda, Wheeler, and Faivovich, 2013, Cladistics, 29: 120, who provided a detailed study on the molecular phylogenetics of the group. Barrasso, Alcalde, Blotto, and Basso, 2016, Herpetol. J., 26: 21–31, described the larva of Alsodes neuquensis in comparison with Alsodes gargola. Formas and Cuevas, 2017, Salamandra, 53: 131–136, reviewed the comparative larval morphology of the species. Correa-Quezada, Morales, Schussler, and Ortiz, 2020, MtDNA, Part A, 31: 25–34, described a population of Alsodes from Andes of central Chile with three species-level mitochondrial lineages showing hybridization/introgression involving Alsodes hugoiAlsodes igneus and Alsodes pehuenche. 

Contained taxa (19 sp.):

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