Description of two dendrobatid tadpoles (Anura: Dendrobatidae: Andinobates and Oophaga) with comments on egg clutches
Author
Higgins, Kathleen
0000-0002-9893-8931
Department of Biological Sciences, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Dr, V 5 A 1 S 6, Burnaby, BC, Canada. kathleen _ higgins @ sfu. ca, kehiggins 012 @ gmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 9893 - 8931
kehiggins012@gmail.com
Author
Ibáñez, Roberto
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado Postal 0843 - 03092, Panamá, Republic of Panama. & Sistema Nacional de Investigación, SENACYT, Clayton, Panamá, Republic of Panama.
text
Zootaxa
2022
2022-08-17
5175
3
395
400
journal article
124667
10.11646/zootaxa.5175.3.8
b95e8ef4-8327-458d-ab9a-6364dbdec66e
1175-5326
7003720
335805D3-D62F-4359-88F5-7DA7DDF18326
Andinobates geminisae
Body and tail length measurements of
A. geminisae
tadpoles are summarized in
Table 1
. The body is oval-shaped and depressed (
Fig. 1A
). Eyes and nares are positioned dorsally, oriented dorsolaterally. Nares are round without projection in the inner margin of the nasal rim. The spiracle is sinistral and vent tube is dextral. The oral disc is round with a very slight lateral indentation. The posterior labium is lined with a single row of oral papillae that extend the bottom lateral corners of the anterior labium. LTRF is 2(2)/3[1] in older tadpoles, but all Stage
25 specimens
had only two posterior labial tooth rows. The jaw sheath is massive and serrate, and the mouth is oriented anteroventrally. The upper jaw sheath is U-shaped. In 10% formalin,
A. geminisae
tadpoles are greyish brown dorsally and light grey to transparent ventrally (
Fig. 2A
). A differentiated short gut in the abdominal area can be noticed. The tail fin is light grey or translucent and nearly reaches the body. Live tadpoles were dark grey to black dorsally, with a lighter grey ventral side. The tail tip is rounded and translucent.
Viable clutches of
A. geminisae
with eggs at Stage ≤ 3 were examined (n = 16). In our sample, the number of eggs per clutch was one (n = 14) or two (n = 2). While eggs from the same clutch were always in close contact, the translucent jelly capsules surrounding each egg (n = 18) were discrete in
A. geminisae
.
The embryos were solid medium-dark grey in the animal pole with varying amounts of light grey at the vegetal pole (
Fig. 2C
). Average egg diameter was
6.2 mm
(n = 18, SD = 0.85), with a mean embryo diameter of
2.4 mm
(n = 18, SD = 0.23).