Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Elachistocleis surinamensis (Daudin, 1802)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Gastrophryninae > Genus: Elachistocleis > Species: Elachistocleis surinamensis

Bufo surinamensis Daudin, 1802 "An. XI", Hist. Nat. Rain. Gren. Crap., Quarto: 91. Type(s): Frog figured on page 90, pl. 33, fig. 2 of the original publication; likely originally in MNHNP. Neotype designated as UWIZM 2016.22.58 by Jowers, Othman, Borzée, Rivas-Fuenmayor, Sánchez-Ramírez, Auguste, Downie, Read, and Murphy, 2021, Organisms Divers. Evol., 21: 199. Type locality: "Surinam". Neotype from "Trinidad, St. George, Arena, Cumuto Rd. (10.5866° N 4–61.23144° W)."

Rana bufonia Merrem, 1820, Tent. Syst. Amph.: 177. Substitute name for Bufo surinamensis Daudin, 1802. Synonymy by Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 51.

Elachistocleis surinamensis — Kenny, 1969, Stud. Fauna Curaçao and other Caribb. Is., 29: 66.

Elachistocleis surumu Caramaschi, 2010, Bol. Mus. Nac., Rio de Janeiro, N.S., Zool., 527: 9. Holotype: MNRJ 25210, by original designation. Type locality: "BRAZIL: RORAIMA: Municipality of Pacaraima, Vila Surumu (04° 12′ N, 60° 48′ W; 121m altitude)". Synonymy by Novaes-e-Fagundes, Lyra, Loredam, Carvalho, Haddad, Rodrigues, Baldo, Barrasso, Loebmann, Ávila, Brusquetti, Prudente, Wheeler, Orrico, and Peloso, 2023, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 197: 558.

Engystoma surumu — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 216.

Engystoma surinamense — Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 216.

Common Names

Surinam Oval Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 89).

Northeastern Oval Frog (Hedges, Powell, Henderson, Hanson, and Murphy, 2019, Caribb. Herpetol., 67: 15).

Distribution

Provisional: Coastal Venezuela east of Lago Maracaibo through northern Guyana to northeastern Suriname and French Guiana and adjacent Brazil; Trinidad. See comment.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Brazil, French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela

Comment

See comment under Elachistocleis which explains context of retaining this nominal taxon as distinct from Relictivomer pearsei, even though when recognizing Elachistocleis surinamensis, Kenny regarded it as a senior synonym of Relictivomer pearsei. See account by Rivero, 1961, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 126: 177, which probably addressed this species and Elachistocleis nigrogularis as Elachistocleis ovalis. See account for Suriname population by Ouboter and Jairam, 2012, Amph. Suriname: 278–281, who discussed that all specimens referred to Elachistocleis ovalis from Suriname are assignable to Elachistocleis surinamensis.

See Rivero, Langone, and Prigioni, 1986, Comun. Zool. Mus. Hist. Nat. Montevideo, 11: 6-7. Barrio-Amorós, 1999 "1998", Acta Biol. Venezuelica, 18: 57, commented on the Venezuelan distribution. Lavilla, Vaira, and Ferrari, 2003, Amphibia-Reptilia, 24: 279, regarded this nominal form to cover a complex of species. Murphy, 1997, Amph. Rept. Trinidad Tobago: 93-95, provided an account for Trinidad. See account for Suriname population by Ouboter and Jairam, 2012, Amph. Suriname: 278-279, who noted that all previous records of nominal Elachistocleis ovalis from Suriname are referable to this species. See Marinho, Carvalho, Bang, Teixeira, Azarak, Costa-Campos, and Giaretta, 2018, Zootaxa, 4521: 357–375, for discussion (as Elachistocleis surumu) of advertisement call, intraspecific variation, and diagnosis. See Barrio-Amorós, Rojas-Runjaic, and Señaris Vasquez, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (1: e180): 103, for comments on range and literature. Jowers, Othman, Borzée, Rivas-Fuenmayor, Sánchez-Ramírez, Auguste, Downie, Read, and Murphy, 2021, Organisms Divers. Evol., 21: 189–206, discussed the molecular phylogenetics and identification of this species (as Elachistocleis surinamensis and Elachistocleis surumu) and drew a provisional map that did not extend either into Suriname or the state of Roraima, Brazil, although reported in the former and expected in the latter.

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