Amazophrynella minuta (Melin, 1941)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Bufonidae > Genus: Amazophrynella > Species: Amazophrynella minuta

Atelopus minutus Melin, 1941, Göteborgs K. Vetensk. Vitterh. Samh. Handl., Ser. B, 1: 18. Syntypes: NHMG (5 specimens), according to Hoogmoed, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World : 66. Type locality: "Taracúa, Rio Uaupés, [State of Amazonas,] Brazil".

Dendrophryniscus minutus — McDiarmid, 1971, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 12: 40.

Amazonella minutus — Fouquet, Recoder, Teixeira, Cassimiro, Amaro, Camacho, Damasceno, Carnaval, Moritz, and Rodrigues, 2012, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 62: 832.

Amazophrynella minuta — Fouquet, Recoder, Teixeira, Cassimiro, Amaro, Camacho, Damasceno, Carnaval, Moritz, and Rodrigues, 2012, Zootaxa, 3244: 68.

English Names

Tiny Tree Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 44).

Amazonian Tiny Tree Toad (De la Riva, 1999, Herpetozoa, Wien, 12: 91).

Distribution

Amazonian Venezuela (Amazonas and Llanos), Colombia (from Caquetá, Meta, and Vichada. south to Amazonia), into eastern Amazonas, Brazil (Taracuá, São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Cucuí, and Japura River close to Vila Bittencourt), at elevations between 90–105 m). Older records from other countries, such as Suriname, Bolivia, now apply to other species or require confirmation. 

Comment

 Duellman and Lynch, 1969, Herpetologica, 25: 231–240, described the tadpole (as Atelopus minutus). Discussed by Duellman, 1978, Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 65: 120–121, who provided an account, including brief descriptions of call and tapole, and who reported geographic variation in belly pattern. D.C. Cannatella and M.S. Hoogmoed in Hoogmoed, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 6–7, believed that this variation is due to two species being confounded. Rodríguez and Duellman, 1994, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Spec. Publ., 22: 12, provided a brief account, as Dendrophryniscus minutus.  De la Riva, 1999, Herpetozoa, Wien, 12: 91–92, reported the Bolivian record; the identity of this population now requires confirmation (DRF). Lescure and Marty, 2000, Collect. Patrimoines Nat., Paris, 45: 56–57, provided a brief account, including a call description, and photo. 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: 129, suggested that Amazophrynella minuta (as Dendrophryniscus minutus) is placed in a pectinate tree above the level of the branches leading to Osornophryne, Atelopus, and Melanophryniscus (and likely, Truebella) and that any similarities to these genera is due to retention of plesiomorphic characteristics. Lynch, 2006, Caldasia, 28: 138, characterized the range in Colombia. Bernarde, Machado, and Turci, 2011, Biota Neotrop., 11: 117–144, reported specimens (as Dendrophryniscus minutus) from Reserva Extrativista Riozinho da Liberdade, Acre, Brazil. See account (as Dendrophryniscus minutus) for Suriname population by Ouboter and Jairam, 2012, Amph. Suriname: 52–53. Fouquet, Gilles, Vences, Marty, Blanc, and Gemmell, 2007, PLoS One, 10 (e1109): 1–10, provided molecular evidence that this is a species complex (although this is probably rectified as of this time by the naming of new species, DRF). Rojas-Runjaic, Castroviejo-Fisher, and Barrio-Amorós, 2013, Check List, 9: 1122–1123, provided a record from northwestern Amazonas, Venezuela. Rojas-Zamora, Carvalho, Gordo, Ávila, and Farias, 2014, Zootaxa, 3753: 79–95, suggested that unnamed species currently under this name exist in western Amazonia and on the Guiana Shield, and transferred record from the Manaus region of Amazonia to Amazophrynella manaos. With the naming of Amazophrynella matses, Amazophrynella javierbustamantei, and Amazophrynella amazonicola from Peru and the recognition of a likely unnamed species from western Amazonia by Rojas-Zamora, Carvalho, Ávila, Farias, Gordo, and Hrbek, 2015, Zootaxa, 3946: 79–103, it is not clear that non-topotypic populations of Amazophrynella minuta can confidently be assigned to that species (DRF). See map by Rojas-Zamora, Fouquet, Ron, Hernández-Ruz, Melo-Sampaio, Chaparro, Vogt, Carvalho, Pinheiro, Ávila, Farias, Gordo, and Hrbek, 2018, PeerJ, 6(e4941): 7, who discussed evolution within the genus and redelimited this species with the result that all previous literature of this species should be used with caution. Acosta-Galvis and Señaris, 2018, Vol. 6, Fauna Silvestre Escudo Guayanés: 86, noted the species in Caquetá and Vaupés Provinces, Colombia. Kaefer, Rojas-Zamora, Ferrão, Farias, and Lima, 2019, Zootaxa, 4577: 329, described the advertisement call. Duellman, 1978, Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 65: 1–352, reported on nominal Dendrophryiscus minutus, including the call, from Cuzco Amazonica, Ecuador, but the taxonomic identity of this population is now in doubt. See brief taxonomic account for Venezuela by Barrio-Amorós, Rojas-Runjaic, and Señaris, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (1: e180): 7. Señaris and Rojas-Runjaic, 2020, in Rull and Carnaval (eds.), Neotrop. Divers. Patterns Process.: 571–632, commented on range and conservation status in the Venezuelan Guayana. 

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