Leptodactylus vastus Lutz, 1930

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

Leptodactylus vastus Lutz, 1930, Mem. Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, 23: 32. Holotype: AL-MNRJ 70, according to museum records (W. R. Heyer, personal commun.). Type locality: "Independencia (Parayba)", Brazil. Noted by Heyer, 2005, Arq. Zool., São Paulo, 37: 335, to now be called Guarabira, Paraiba, at 06° 51′ S, 35° 29′ W. Reported incorrectly as a replacement name for Leptodactylus gigas Lutz, 1926, by Bokermann, 1966, Lista Anot. Local. Tipo Anf. Brasil.: 75.

Common Names

Northeastern Pepper Frog (Heyer, 2005, Arq. Zool., São Paulo, 37: 335).

Distribution

Three distantly allopatric populations: (1) northeastern Brazil, (2) Serra da Jibóia, Bahia, Brazil, and (3) Amazonian Bolivia (see comment).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bolivia, Brazil

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Leptodactylus pentadactylus by Heyer, 2005, Arq. Zool., São Paulo, 37: 335, where it had been placed by Heyer, 1979, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 301: 23. Silva, Santos, Alves, Sousa, and Annunziata, 2010, Sitientibus, Ser. Cienc. Biol., 7: 334-340, provided records for Piauí, Brazil. Vieira, Santana, and Vieira, 2007, Zootaxa, 1397: 61-68, reported on comparative tadpole morphology. See comment under Leptodactylus labyrinthicus. Jansen and Schultze, 2012, Zootaxa, 3307: 35-47, suggested that populations of Leptodactylus in Bolivia, previously assigned to Leptodactylus labyrinthicus actually represent an isolated population of Leptodactylus vastus or an unnamed species closely related to Leptodactylus vastus. In the Leptodactylus pentadactylus 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. 63–64, but apparently did not agree the assignment of populations in Bolivia to this species, but did not address the issue directly. Schulze, Jansen, and Köhler, 2015, Zootaxa, 4016: 80–82, described, diagnosed, and pictured the larva. Freitas, Abegg, Dias, and Moraes, 2018, Herpetol. Notes, 11: 59–72, provided a record from the Serra da Jibóia, Bahia, Brazil. Dubeux, Silva, Nascimento, Gonçalves, and Mott, 2019, Rev. Nordestina Zool., 12: 18–52, summarized the literature on larval morphology. Lima, Pederassi, Pineschi, and Barbosa, 2019, Brazil. J. Biol., 79: 566–576, reported on the advertisement call from Piauí, Brazil. See Dubeux, Nascimento, Lima, Magalhães, Silva, Gonçalves, Almeida, Correia, Garda, Mesquita, Rossa-Feres, and Mott, 2020, Biota Neotrop., 20 (2: e20180718): 1–24, for characterization and identification of larvae north of the Rio São Francisco in the Atlantic Forest of northeastern Brazil. Vaz-Silva, Maciel, Nomura, Morais, Guerra Batista, Santos, Andrade, Oliveira, Brandão, and Bastos, 2020, Guia Ident. Anf. Goiás e Dist. Fed. Brasil Central: 134, provided an account for Goiás and the D.F., Brazil. Reported from the Environmental Protection Area of Catolé and Fernão Velho, Alagoas, Brazil, by Dubeux, Nascimento, Gonçalves, and Mott, 2021, Pap. Avulsos Zool., São Paulo, 61 (e20216176): 1–10, who provided a key to the frogs of that region. Bastos and Zina, 2022, Herpetol. Notes, 15: 365–376, reported the species from Jequié municipality, Bahia, Brazil, and briefly discussed its habitat and conservation status. Palmeira, Gonçalves, Dubeux, Lima, Lambertini, Valencia-Aguilar, Jenkinson, James, Toledo, and Mott, 2022, Cuad. Herpetol., 36: 65–75, reported on habitat in Natural Heritage Reserve Mata Estrela, Baía Formosa, Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil. Dubeux, Lisboa, Nascimento, Araujo, Tiburcio, Torquato da Silva, Freitas, Guarnieri, and Mott, 2024, Stud. Neotrop. Fauna Environ., 59: 967–982, reported the species from Estação Ecológica de Murici, Alagoas state, Brazil, and discussed its habitat. Ocampo, Aparicio, Bernal Hoverud, Domic, and Wallace, 2024, Herpetol. Notes, 17: 371–389, reported the species and its habitat in Madidi National Park, La Paz, Bolivia. Rivas, Wallace, and Callapa, 2025, Reptiles & Amphibians, 32(e21473): 1–10, reported the species from the Great Tectonic Lakes of Exaltación region, Beni, Bolivia.   

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