Leptodactylus melanonotus (Hallowell, 1861)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Leptodactylidae > Subfamily: Leptodactylinae > Genus: Leptodactylus > Species: Leptodactylus melanonotus

Cystignathus melanonotus Hallowell, 1861 "1860", Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 12: 485. Holotype: USNM 6264 according to Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 88, apparently lost, according to Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9; KU 84848 designated neotype by Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 11. Type locality: "Nicaragua"; restricted to "Recero, Nicaragua", by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 320; this restriction vigorously disputed by Dunn and Stuart, 1951, Copeia, 1951: 58. Neotype from "Nicaragua, Zelaya, Bonanza".

Cystignathus echinatus Brocchi, 1877, Bull. Soc. Philomath., Paris, Ser. 7, 1: 181. Syntypes: MNHNP 6322-23, according to Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 30. Type locality: "Rio Madre Nieja [Vieja?] (Guatemala occidental)". Synonymy by Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9.

Cystignathus microtis Cope, 1879, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc., 18: 265. Syntypes: USNM 9906,9908, and 9909, according to  Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9. However, Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 88, considered USNM 9906 the "type", and Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 40, considered, in error, USNM 9906 to be the "holotype". Type locality: "Guanajuato", Mexico (presumed to be in error by  Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 12). Restricted to "Apatzingán (de la Constitución)", Michoacán, Mexico, by Smith and Taylor, 1950, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 33: 335. Synonymy by Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 40;  Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9.

Cystignathus perlaevis Cope, 1879, Am. Nat., 13: 269. Holotype: USNM 10041 by original designation and according to Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 89. Type locality: "near a well near Japana", Oaxaca, Mexico, = Tapanatepec according to Smith and Taylor, 1948, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 194: 57; = Tapana, Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, Mexico, according to Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 40. Synonymy by Kellogg, 1932, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 160: 89; Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 40;  Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 12.

Leptodactylus echinatusBrocchi, 1881, Miss. Scient. Mex. Amer. Centr., Rech. Zool., 3(2, livr. 1): 20.

Leptodactylus melanonotusBrocchi, 1881, Miss. Scient. Mex. Amer. Centr., Rech. Zool., 3(2, livr. 1): 20.

Leptodactylus microtisBoulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 244.

Leptodactylus perlaevisBoulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 215.

Leptodactylus occidentalis Taylor, 1937 "1936", Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 39: 349. Holotype: EHT 3322, by original designation; now FMNH 100015 according to Marx, 1976, Fieldiana, Zool., 69: 57. Type locality: "Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico". Synonymy by  Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9.

English Names

Sabinal Frog (Liner, 1994, Herpetol. Circ., 23: 25; Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 82; Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 78; Liner and Casas-Andreu, 2008, Herpetol. Circ., 38: 15).

Mexican River Frog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 89).

Black-backed Frog (Lee, 1996, Amph. Rept. Yucatan Peninsula: 71).

Fringe-toed Foamfrog (Campbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 62).

Black Jungle-Frog (Arteaga-Navarro, Bustamante, and Guayasamin, 2013, Amph. Rept. Mindo: 115).

Reddish-brown White-lipped Frog (Hedges, Powell, Henderson, Hanson, and Murphy, 2019, Caribb. Herpetol., 67: 14). 

Distribution

Central Sonora and southern Tamaulipas, Mexico, south through dry tropical and humid premontane habitats through Central America to southwestern Ecuador.

Comment

In the Leptodactylus melanonotus group of Heyer, 1970, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 191: 9–14, Lee, 1996, Amph. Rept. Yucatan Peninsula: 71–73, Campbell, 1998, Amph. Rept. N. Guatemala Yucatan Belize: 62–63, Lee, 2000, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Maya World: 78–80, Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 215–217, and McCranie and Wilson, 2002, Amph. Honduras: 446–451. Lips and Savage, 1996, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 109: 17–26, included this species n a key to the tadpoles found in Costa Rica. Köhler, Veselý, and Greenbaum, 2005 "2006", Amph. Rept. El Salvador: 58–60, provided an account (for El Salvador) and a color photograph. McCranie, 2007, Herpetol. Rev., 38: 38, summarized the departmental distribution in Honduras. See comments by Sunyer, Páiz, Dehling, and Köhler, 2009, Herpetol. Notes, 2: 189–202, regarding Nicaraguan populations. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2013, Amphibians and Reptiles of San Luis Potosí: 63–64, provided an account for San Luis Potosí, Mexico.. Farr, Lazcano, and Lavín-Murcio, 2013, Herpetol. Rev., 44: 634, discussed the range in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and corrected several literature records. Arteaga-Navarro, Bustamante, and Guayasamin, 2013, Amph. Rept. Mindo: 115–117, provided an account and dot map for Ecuador. Köhler, 2011, Amph. Cent. Am.: 276–281, provided a brief summary of natural history and identification key for the species of Leptodactylus in Central America and provided a range map and photograph for this species. In the Leptodactylus melanonotus species group of de Sá, Grant, Camargo, Heyer, Ponssa, and Stanley, 2014, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 9(Spec. Issue 1): 1–123, and who provided a summary of relevant literature (adult and larval morphology, identification, advertisement call, and range) on pp. 77–78. Lemos-Espinal and Smith, 2015, Check List, 11(1642): 1–11, noted the occurrence of the species in Hidalgo, Mexico, without providing a specific locality. Lemos-Espinal and Dixon, 2016, Amph. Rept. Hidalgo: 386–387, provided a brief account and map for Hidalgo, Mexico. Armijos-Ojeda, Székely, Székely, Cogǎlniceanu, Cisneros-Heredia, Ordóñez-Delgado, Escudero, and Espinosa, 2021, ZooKeys, 1063: 38, provided a dot map for the seemingly isolated population in western lowland Ecuador. Carvalho, Fouquet, Lyra, Giaretta, Costa-Campos, Rodrigues, Haddad, and Ron, 2022, Syst. Biodiversity, 20 (1: 2089269): 1–31, reported on the systematics, phylogenetics, ane advertisement call. 

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