Bolitoglossa peruviana (Boulenger, 1883)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Caudata > Family: Plethodontidae > Subfamily: Hemidactyliinae > Genus: Bolitoglossa > Species: Bolitoglossa peruviana

Spelerpes peruvianus Boulenger, 1883, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 5, 12: 165. Holotype: BMNH 1946.9.6.16 (formerly 1874.8.4.103), according to Brame and Gorham, 1972, Checklist Living & Fossil Salamand. World (Unpubl. MS): 258, and museum records. Type locality: "Moyobamba", 854 m elevation, Departamento de San Martín, Peru (but see comment by Cusi Martínez, Gagliardi-Urrutia, Brcko, Wake, and von May, 2020, Zootaxa, 4834: 399, who suggested that the elevation or even identification of the type locality is guesswork.

Oedipus peruvianus — Parker, 1939, Mem. Mus. R. Hist. Nat. Belg., Ser. 2, 2: 87-89.

Bolitoglossa peruviana — Taylor, 1944, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 30: 219.

Bolitoglossa (Eladinea) peruviana — Parra-Olea, García-París, and Wake, 2004, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 81: 336.

Common Names

Peru Mushroomtongue Salamander (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 30).

Moyabamba Salamander (Cusi Martínez, Gagliardi-Urrutia, Brcko, Wake, and von May, 2020, Zootaxa, 4834: 395). 

Moyabamba Mushroomtongue Salamander (Raffaëlli, 2022, Salamanders & Newts of the World: 730).

Distribution

Tall terrace forests of the eastern Andes and the Amazonian plain in the basins of the Mayo river (tributary of the Huallaga river) and Cachiyacu river (tributary of the Paranapura river) in the borderland between the San Martin and Loreto departments, northern Peru. See comment for Ecuadorian specimens (Pastaza, Orellana, Sucumbios, and Napo provinces) previously identified as this species. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Peru

Comment

See accounts by Brame and Wake, 1963, Contrib. Sci. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 69: 18,  Duellman, 1978, Misc. Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist. Univ. Kansas, 65: 80–82, provided a brief account for Amazonian Ecuador, and Fugler and Walls, 1979, Rev. Biol. Tropical, 27: 1–5. In the Bolitoglossa (Eladinea) adspersa group of Parra-Olea, García-París, and Wake, 2004, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 81: 336; formerly in the Bolitoglossa altamazonica group of Wake and Lynch, 1976, Sci. Bull. Nat. Hist. Mus. Los Angeles Co., 25: 1-65. A member of the Bolitoglossa altamazonica complex according to Cusi Martínez, Gagliardi-Urrutia, Brcko, Wake, and von May, 2020, Zootaxa, 4834: 395–399, who delimited several unnamed species on the basis of molecular evidence, redescribed the holotype and noted that specimens from Ecuador, nominally identified as this species should be referred to Bolitoglossa cf. peruviana. This literature includes: (1) Crump, 1978 "1977", Herpetologica, 33: 415-426, who discussed diagnostic features and habitat preference. (2) Elmer, Bonett, Wake, and Lougheed, 2013, BMC Evol. Biol., 13(59): 1–16, who reported on substantial cryptic diversity under the name Bolitoglossa peruviana (although they did not address topotypic material leaving it questionable whether any of the populations they did sample are conspecific with Bolitoglossa peruviana), and (3) Raffaëlli, 2013, Urodeles du Monde, 2nd ed.: 339, discussed these results and provided a brief account, photograph, and range map. For comparison of morphometric and dentition characters of Bolitoglossa altamazonica, Bolitoglossa peruviana, Bolitoglossa caldwellae, Bolitoglossa paraensis, Bolitoglossa palmata, and Bolitoglossa awafun, see  Cusi Martínez, Gagliardi-Urrutia, Brcko, Wake, and von May, 2020, Zootaxa, 4834: Tables 6–7. 

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