On Gastrotheca fissipes (Boulenger, 1888), with the description of a new species (Amphibia, Anura, Amphignathodontidae)

Abstract

The study of samples of Gastrotheca from the states of Pernambuco, Bahia, and Espírito Santo, Brazil, showed two distinct species currently treated in the literature as Gastrotheca fissipes. Both are large-sized species, with a casqued co-ossified skull, webbing absent in hands and very reduced in feet, morphological characters do not seen in other Brazilian species of Gastrotheca. Nototrema fissipes Boulenger, 1888, was described and figured on basis of only one female collected at Iguarasse (= Igarassú), in the State of Pernambuco; in more recent years, other samples of a Gastrotheca with a broad, casqued, co-ossified skull, were obtained at southern State of Bahia and State of Espírito Santo and referred in literature erroneously as G. fissipes. In this paper, data are given on additional samples of G. fissipes also collected in Pernambuco and the frogs obtained at Espirito Santo and southern Bahia are described as a new species. The two species differ by the head width, posterior edge of casque, and dorsal and lateral color patterns.