The Glass Frog Tadpoles of Costa Rica (Anura: Centrolenidae) A Study of Morphology

About this book

Language: English

Larvae of the neotropical frog family Centrolenidae live hidden on the bottom of rivers between stones, gravel, and leaf litter. Their lotic fossorial behavior makes it impossible to find and study these tadpoles in their natural environment. Therefore, presently only poor reports and descriptions of them are available in the literature.

In the present study all known 13 Costa Rican centrolenid species (or taxa) were reared under laboratory conditions. Their live tadpoles are described in different stages of their development. Six of the 13 descriptions are new (Cochranella euknemos, Sachatamia albomaculata, Sachatamia ilex, Hyalinobatrachium chirripoi, Hyalinobatrachium talamancae and Hyalinobatrachium vireovittatum). A species key and detailed diagnostic descriptions with abundant illustrations allow the identification of tadpoles of the thirteen species.
 

Contents

Introduction 3
Material and Methods 6

Genus Cochranella 9
Cochranella euknemos (Savage & Starrett 1967) 9
Description of the hatchlings 10
Description of further developed tadpoles 10
Cochranella granulosa (Taylor 1949) 13
Description of the hatchlings 14
Description of further developed tadpoles 16

Genus Espadarana 19
Espadarana prosoblepon (Boettger 1892) 19
Description of the hatchlings 20
Description of further developed tadpoles 22

Genus Sachatamia 24
Sachatamia albomaculata (Taylor 1949) 24
Description of the hatchlings 25
Description of further developed tadpoles 26
Sachatamia ilex (Savage 1967) 30
Description of the hatchlings 30
Description of further developed tadpoles 31

Genus Teratohyla 34
Teratohyla pulverata (Peters 1873) 34
Description of the hatchlings 35
Description of further developed tadpoles 36
Teratohyla spinosa (Taylor 1949) 38
Description of the hatchlings 39
Description of further developed tadpoles 40

Genus Hyalinobatrachium, Species group H. fleischmanni 42
Hyalinobatrachium fleischmanni (Boettger 1893) 42
Description of the hatchlings 43
Description of further developed tadpoles 44
Hyalinobatrachium valerioi (Dunn 1931) 46
Description of the hatchlings 47
Description of further developed tadpoles 47

Genus Hyalinobatrachium, Species group H. chirripoi 51
Hyalinobatrachium chirripoi (Taylor 1958) 51
Description of the hatchlings 52
Description of further developed tadpoles 52
Hyalinobatrachium colymbiphyllum (Taylor 1949) 55
Description of the hatchlings 56
Description of further developed tadpoles 57
Hyalinobatrachium talamancae (Taylor 1952) 59
Description of the hatchlings 60
Description of further developed tadpoles 60
Hyalinobatrachium vireovittatum (Savage & Starrett 1973) 63
Description of the hatchlings 64
Description of further developed tadpoles 64

Discussion 65

Acknowledgements 67

References 67
Key for the mature centrolenid tadpoles of Costa Rica 69
Tables 70

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