GENETICS, BIOACOUSTICS, AND MORPHOLOGY REVEAL A NEW HIDDEN SPECIES IN Pristimantis dorsopictus (ANURA: STRABOMANTIDAE)

Abstract

 The phenotypic variation of some species at the geographic level makes them excellent models to evaluate different evolutionary attributes and answer questions related to their diversity. In addition, the constant effort of sampling in high Andean ecosystems that include the type localities of the species, and the integration of a novel data set can lead to unsuspected taxonomic findings. In this study we provide genetic, bioacoustics and morphological evidence to support the delimitation, and description of a new species from the northern Andean forests, historically confused with Pristimantis dorsopictus (Rivero & Serna, 1988). The latter and the new species were not recovered as sister lineages in our phylogenetic analyses, and although they are relatively similar, both differ phenotypically in body size, coloration pattern, skin texture, call duration and dominant frequency, among other attributes. Our phylogenetic inference suggests that the new species is part of the P. boulengeri group and was recovered as sister to the clade that includes P. urani, P. angustilineatus, P. boulengeri, P. brevifrons, and P. dorsopictus. The results suggest that advertisement calls constitute an important source of information for understanding the acoustic diversity of the P. boulengeri group and for delimiting the species of the genus Pristimantis, which despite its great diversity, presents a limited acoustic knowledge in those with distribution in Colombia.