Craugastor bransfordii (Cope, 1886)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Superfamily: Brachycephaloidea > Family: Craugastoridae > Genus: Craugastor > Species: Craugastor bransfordii

Lithodytes bransfordii Cope, 1886, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 23: 274. Syntypes: USNM 14179 (10 specimens) (given as 14200 in the original publication and by Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 65); lectotype, renumbered USNM 166895, designated by Savage and Emerson, 1970, Copeia, 1970: 636. Type locality: "Nicaragua".

Hylodes polyptychus Cope, 1886, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 23: 276. Syntypes: USNM 14199 (2 specimens) according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 61; one of the syntypes renumbered as USNM 166894 and designated lectotype by Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 261. Type locality: "Nicaragua"; locality data for the lectotype given as Nicaragua: Río San Juan: between Machuca and San Juan del Norte". 

Hylodes bransfordii — Günther, 1901, Biol. Centr. Amer., Rept. Batr., Vol. 7, Part 162: 238.

Eleutherodactylus bransfordii — Stejneger, 1904, Annu. Rep. U.S. Natl. Mus. for 1902: 582–583, by implication; Noble, 1918, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 38: 332; Barbour and Dunn, 1921, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 34: 161.

Eleutherodactylus polyptychus — Stejneger, 1904, Annu. Rep. U.S. Natl. Mus. for 1902: 582-583, by implication; Noble, 1918, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 38: 328; Barbour and Dunn, 1921, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 34: 161; Lynch, 1965, Nat. Hist. Misc., 182: 7.

Microbatrachylus bransfordii — Taylor, 1952, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 35: 675.

Microbatrachylus costaricensis Taylor, 1952, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 35: 682. Holotype: R.C. Taylor 372, by original designation; now FMNH 178240 according to Marx, 1976, Fieldiana, Zool., 69: 58. Type locality: "Morehouse Finca, approximately four miles south of Turrialba, [Cantón de Turrialba, Provincia de Cartago,] Costa Rica". Savage, 1974, Rev. Biol. Tropical, 22: 98, commented on the type locality. Synonymy by Savage and Emerson, 1970, Copeia, 1970: 623–644.

Microbatrachylus polyptychus — Taylor, 1952, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 35: 667.

Eleutherodactylus bransfordii — Lynch, 1965, Nat. Hist. Misc., 182: 7.

Eleutherodactylus costaricensis — Lynch, 1965, Nat. Hist. Misc., 182: 7.

Eleutherodactylus (Craugastor) bransfordii — Hedges, 1989, in Woods (ed.), Biogeograph. W. Indies: 317, by implication; Lynch, 1996, in Powell and Henderson (eds.), Contr. W. Indian Herpetol.: 154.

Craugastor bransfordii — Crawford and Smith, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 35: 551, by implication; Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 360.

Craugastor podiciferus — Crawford and Smith, 2005, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 35: 551, by implication; Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 360.

Craugastor (Craugastor) bransfordii — Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 41.

Craugastor (Craugastor) polyptychus — Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 41.

Common Names

Bransford's Robber Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 73).

Bransford's Flesh-bellied Frog (Cossel, Twining, Di Stefano, O’Brien, Reich, and Sandoval-Alanis, 2019, Herpetol. Conserv. Biol., 14: 236). 

Many-folds Flesh-bellied Frog (Craugastor polyptychus [no longer recognized]: Cossel, Twining, Di Stefano, O’Brien, Reich, and Sandoval-Alanis, 2019, Herpetol. Conserv. Biol., 14: 236). 

Distribution

Humid lowlands and adjacent premontane slopes on the Atlantic versant from extreme eastern Honduras and eastern Nicaragua to central Costa Rica, 60–880 m elevation. (See comment.)

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua

Likely/Controversially Present: Panama

Comment

Reviewed by Savage and Emerson, 1970, Copeia, 1970: 623-644, who placed this species in the Eleutherodactylus rhodopis group. Miyamoto, 1983, Syst. Zool., 32: 43–51, studied biochemical variation, removed Eleutherodactylus stejnegerianus from synonymy and noted that the remaining nominal species, Eleutherodactylus bransfordii, was composed of two cryptic species. In the Eleutherodactylus (Craugastor) rhodopis group according to Lynch and Duellman, 1997, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Spec. Publ., 23: 221. See account by Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 257-258, who included this species in his Eleutherodactylus rhodopis series, Eleutherodactylus rhodopis group, and noted (p. 257) that a number of species exist under this name, awaiting description or resurrection. See comment under Eleutherodactylus persimilis. In the Craugastor rhodopis species series, Craugastor podiciferus species group of Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 41, and of Padial, Grant, and Frost, 2014, Zootaxa, 3825: 123. See comments by Sunyer, Páiz, Dehling, and Köhler, 2009, Herpetol. Notes, 2: 189–202, regarding Nicaraguan populations. Köhler, 2011, Amph. Cent. Am.: 140–191, provided a key to the genera and species of Brachycephaloidea (= Craugastoridae, Eleutherodactylidae) in Central America and provided maps and photographs of the species, including this one. Cossel, Twining, Di Stefano, O’Brien, Reich, and Sandoval-Alanis, 2019, Herpetol. Conserv. Biol., 14: 235–249, mapped the species in Costa Rica. See comment under Craugastor polyptychus. Martínez-Fonseca, Holmes, Sunyer, Westeen, Grundler, Cerda, Fernández-Mena, Loza-Molina, Monagan, Nondorf, Pandelis, and Rabosky, 2024, Check List, 20: 65, provided a record from Refugio Bartola, Departamento Río San Juan, southern Nicaragua. In the Craugastor podiciferus group, Craugastor bransfordii clade of Arias, Crawford, Hertz, and Parra-Olea, 2025, PeerJ, 13(e18212): 1–33, who reported on the molecular phylogenetics of the species group and provided a dot map of the distribution. They also removed Craugastor rearki from the synonymy of this species and added  Craugastor polyptychus as well as noting that populations from Panama previously assigned to this species represent an unnamed species. 

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