Pristimantis altae (Dunn, 1942)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Superfamily: Brachycephaloidea > Family: Strabomantidae > Subfamily: Pristimantinae > Genus: Pristimantis > Species: Pristimantis altae

Eleutherodactylus altae Dunn, 1942, Not. Nat., Philadelphia, 104: 1. Holotype: ANSP 23815, by original designation. Type locality: "Atlantic slope of Costa Rica, on the pass between Barba and Irazu, below the divide and above the finca of Felix Delgado, approximately 4000 feet", Cantón de El Guarco, Provincia de Cartago, 2860 m, Costa Rica. Savage, 1974, Rev. Biol. Tropical, 22: 93, commented on the type locality.

Eleutherodactylus (Eleutherodactylus) altaeLynch, 1996, in Powell and Henderson (eds.), Contr. W. Indian Herpetol.: 154; Lynch and Duellman, 1997, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Spec. Publ., 23: 219.

Pristimantis altaeHeinicke, Duellman, and Hedges, 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Suppl. Inform., 104: Table 2.

Pristimantis (Hypodictyon) altaeHedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 114.

Common Names

Mountain Robber Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 72).

Distribution

Humid lowland and premontane zones of Atlantic slope northern and central Costa Rica, south to extreme northwestern Panama, 60–1245 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Costa Rica, Panama

Comment

In the Eleutherodactylus cruentus group, according to Savage, 1980, Prelim. Handlist Herptofauna Costa Rica: 6, and Savage and DeWeese, 1981 "1980", Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 93: 940, which is viewed as a subset of the Eleutherodactylus unistrigatus group of Lynch. See account by Taylor, 1952, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 35: 697. In the Eleutherodactylus (Eleutherodactylus) martinicensis series, Eleutherodactylus unistrigatus group according to Lynch and Duellman, 1997, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Spec. Publ., 23: 219. Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 265-266, provided an account and placed this species in his Eleutherodactylus martinicensis series, Eleutherodactylus cruentatus group. In the Pristimantis (Hypodictyon) ridens species series of Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 114. Not assignable to any current species group according to Padial, Grant, and Frost, 2014, Zootaxa, 3825: 127. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Eleutherodactylus altae) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 317. 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. Vocalization detailed by Cossel, Twining, Reich, and Roberts, 2023, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 28: 55–63. Included in the Pristimantis chalceus clade of the Pristimantis unistrigatus group as delimited by Mônico, Koch, Ferrão, Fernandes, Marques, Chaparro, Rodrigues, Lima, and Fouquet, 2024, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 108203: 1–19, on molecular grounds (mtDNA and nuDNA genes). 

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