Leptodactylus chaquensis Cei, 1950 (Leptodactylidae, Leptodactylinae): extension of the distribution in state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil

The Cei’s white-lipped frog Leptodactylus chaquensis Cei, 1950 is a common and widespread species in South America on the east of Andes, with known records for Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Brazil (Frost, 2016). In the Brazilian territory, this species has been recorded in the states of Acre, Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso, Mato Grosso do Sul, Paraná, São Paulo, Rondônia, and Rio Grande do Sul (see Oda et al., 2014).

In the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), southern Brazil, L. chaquensis has been found in low and middle elevations of southern Paraná Basin (municipalities of Bossoroca, São Vicente do Sul and Uruguaiana: Garcia and Vinciprova, 1998) and Pre-Cambrian shield areas (municipalities of São Sepé: Santos and Cechin, 2008, Caçapava do Sul: Trindade et al., 2010 and São Gabriel: Bolzan et al., 2014). Among these records, the municipality of São Sepé, in the northwestern border of the RS Pre-Cambrian shield, represents the currently known southeastern limit of the distribution of L. chaquensis. Herein, we report a new record of L. chaquensis in the eastern border of RS Pre-Cambrian shield, extending its distribution in the Brazilian Pampa.

On 23 May 2015 at 09:00 pm an adult L. chaquensis female (snout-vent length = 68.56 mm) was collected in a shrub grassland in a locality known as “Fortaleza”, municipality of São Lourenço do Sul (–31.3431°, –52.1182°; 90 m a.s.l.), central-eastern border of the RS Pre-Cambrian shield. The landscape in this area is characterized by a mosaic of cultivated fields (soy), shrub grasslands, riparian and slope forest remnants. Water bodies consist of streams, artificial pounds, and small bogs. The L. chaquensis female was found in syntopy with the anuran species Leptodactylus latrans (Steffen, 1815), Leptodactylus gracilis (Duméril & Bibron, 1840), Physalaemus biligonigerus (Cope, 1861) (Leptodactylidae), and Odontophrynus americanus (Duméril & Bibron, 1841) (Odontophrynidae). The specimen was deposited in the Herpetological Collection of the Federal University of Rio Grande (CHFURG 3302), Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

Three diagnostic morphological features were used to distinguish L. chaquensis from L. latrans, a similar simpatric species that occurs in the study area: (1) Presence of a non-triangular post-tympanic dark stripes in L. chaquensis, and triangular-shaped stripes in L. latrans; (Figure 1); (2) Presence of interrupted auxiliary dorsal folds, extending from the eye to the sacral region in L. chaquensis, which are absent in L. latrans; (3) Posterior surface of the thigh is greenish in L. chaquensis, and with conspicuous spots in L. latrans (Maneyro and Carreira, 2012; Sá et al., 2014). These characters are useful to distinguish both species, but it should be pointed out that some L. latrans populations have individuals with thigh coloration similar to that of L. chaquensis.

Figure 1
Leptodactylus chaquensis (CHFURG 3302, CRC = 67.55 mm) (above) and Leptodactylus latrans (CHFURG 3300, CRC = 75.96 mm) (below) from the municipality of São Lourenço do Sul, state of Rio Grande do Sul, southern Brazil (Image credits: Daniel Loebmann).

The present record extends the known distribution of L. chaquensis approximately 190 km southeastward to the municipality of São Sepé, the nearest locality with a previous record (Santos and Cechin, 2008). All records for the state are associated with formations with a predominance of low and middle elevations (up to 300 m a.s.l.) locally known as “coxilhas” (Dantas et al., 2010). Therefore, considering the present and previous records and the considerable effort on anurofauna sampling in RS coastal plain (e.g Braun and Braun, 1980; Gayer et al., 1988; Loebmann and Vieira, 2005; Colombo et al., 2008; Oliveira et al., 2013), the distribution of L. chaquensis in Brazilian Pampa may be restricted to Pre-Cambrian geological formations and the southern Paraná Basin.

• (With 1 figure)

References

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  16 Mar 2017
• Date of issue
  Nov 2017

History

• Received
  29 Mar 2016
• Accepted
  20 July 2016