Herpetological Review Herpetological Review - Doczine

FIG. 1. Juvenile Nectophryne batesii (MCZ A-138144), photographedin life, exhibit coloration and pattern that differ remarkably from adults.Guinea, and Gabon across to northeastern Democratic Republicof Congo (IUCN et al. 2006. ). Recentlymetamorphosed juveniles of N. afra are velvet black withthin bluish white lines that cover much of the dorsal surface andform loops or even rings (Scheel 1970. Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr. 81:225–236). In contrast, adult N. afra are black or brown with dorsolateralbands that extend posteriorly from the eyes to the inguinalregion and are lighter shades of brown or yellow. There are noreports of similar ontogenetic changes in color or pattern in N.batesii or the closely related Cameroonian toad genusWolterstorffina.In June 2006, juvenile Nectophryne specimens, MCZ A-138204(SUL 5.6 mm) and 138144 (SUL 6.9 mm), were collected by VDfrom leaves and branches surrounding orchids in moist, tropical,submontane forest near Bidjouka (3.1430556°N, 10.4775°E) andAkom 2 (2.7444444°N, 10.5305556°E), in Sud Province, Republicof Cameroon. These specimens exhibit a color pattern similarto each other but different from N. afra juveniles. The specimensare identifiable as Nectophryne because both exhibit lamellae onthe hands and feet, which are a unique, derived characteristic ofthis genus. To determine the species identity of these specimens, agenomic region consisting of 2365 base pairs of the mitochondrial12S and 16S ribosomal RNA, and intervening Valine tRNA,was amplified from MCZ A-138144 (Genbank [GB] No.EU394537) and compared to sequence data from the same genomicregion of adults of both N. afra (MVZ 234685, GBEU394535; MVZ 234686, GB EU394533; CAS 207832, GBEU394534; GB DQ283360) and N. batesii (MVZ 234687, GBEU394536; GB DQ283169). Sequences were aligned in ClustalX v.1.83.1 using default parameters and uncorrected pairwise sequencedivergences calculated using PAUP v.4.0b10. The meanpairwise divergence found within N. afra is 0.83% (range: 0.17–1.59%; N = 6 pairwise comparisons) and the pairwise divergencebetween the two N. batesii specimens is 6.67%. The mean divergencebetween N. afra and N. batesii is 10.80% (range: 10.08–11.23%; N = 8 pairwise comparisons). The mean pairwise divergencebetween the juvenile specimen (MCZ A-138144) and N.afra is 10.25% (range: 10.05–10.81%), whereas it is only 4.32%and 4.67% from the two N. batesii specimens. Because the latterare less than the divergence between the two N. batesii adults andfall within the range of intraspecific divergence in 16S rRNA documentedin other anurans (i.e., Vences et al. 2005. Front. Zool. 2:1–12), it is reasonable to assign these juvenile specimens to N. batesii.Similar results were obtained by local BLAST searches in BioEditv.7.0.5.The juvenile specimens were compared to adults of both N. afra(MCZ A-2607, A-101156–59; MVZ 234685–86) and N. batesii(MCZ A-46621, A-101155; MVZ 234687). In dorsal view, juvenileN. batesii are black with four prominent and solid transversestripes that are distributed at roughly equal intervals across therostrocaudal axis. In life, these stripes are pale light green andchange to either gray or white in preservative. In addition to thedorsal stripes, there is a white stripe extending proximodistally onthe posterodorsal surface of the femur, a small transverse stripe atboth the proximal and distal ends of the tibiofibula, and a spot atthe most proximal part of the tarsus. The throat is somewhat darkenedbut the belly exhibits little, if any, pigmentation. Only one ofthe adult N. batesii examined (MCZ A-101155) exhibits any markingsthat can be interpreted as similar to the juveniles. However,these are only apparent as very poorly defined lighter regions onthe dorsal surface in the approximate position of the four transversestripes. Relatively little is known of the natural history ofNectophryne (Scheel 1970, op. cit.). The function, if any, of thestrikingly different coloration and pattern of juveniles and adultsremains enigmatic. Future study should focus on whether this distinctivejuvenile coloration plays a role in crypsis, mimicry, orpossibly aposematism.Submitted by DAVID C. BLACKBURN, Department of Organismicand Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, 26 OxfordStreet, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Massachusetts02138, USA (e-mail: dblackb@fas.harvard.edu); andVINCENT DROISSART, Laboratoire de Botanique systématiqueet de Phytosociologie, Université Libre de Bruxelles, CP 169 AvF. Roosevelt 50 B – 1050, Brussels, Belgium (e-mail:vincent.droissart@ulb.ac.be).PHYSALAEMUS CUVIERI (Barker Frog). PREDATION. Althoughanuran amphibians are often preyed upon by invertebrates,including spiders of the family Ctenidae (Toledo 2005. Herpetol.Rev. 36:395–400; Menin et al. 2005. Phyllomedusa 4:39–47), thetaxonomic extent and size aspects of that relationship remain poorlydocumented. We observed a relatively small ctenid spider preyingon a Physalaemus cuvieri at 2152 h, 1 Jan 2007, on the propertyof Escola Evangelica Buriti (5.4066667°S; 55.8030556°W), ca. 7km W of Chapada dos Guimarães on Hwy MT251, Mato GrossoState, Brazil. The female spider (0.8 g) was obliquely head-up ona lichen- and moss-covered sapling (dbh 3 cm), ca. 1.2 m abovethe ground near a small stream, with the male P. cuvieri (SVL 29mm; mass 1.8 g; CFBH 14277, Coleção de Anuros, UNESP RioHerpetological Review 39(2), 2008 209