The tadpole of Scinax camposseabrai (Bokermann) (Amphibia, Anura, Hylidae)
Author
Barreto, Gilvana Santos
Author
Grande, Maria Lúcia Del
Author
Napoli, Marcelo Felgueiras
Author
Garda, Adrian Antonio
Author
Juncá, Flora Acuña
text
Zootaxa
2019
2019-09-25
4674
3
393
396
journal article
25388
10.11646/zootaxa.4674.3.8
c38de8c6-ca80-4229-b1b9-cc274f1bf1d0
1175-5326
3470014
49A55F4C-535A-4A00-BB68-02278D9B541A
The tadpole of
Scinax camposseabrai
(Bokermann)
(Amphibia,
Anura
,
Hylidae
)
GILVANA SANTOS BARRETO
1,5
,
MARIA LÚCIA DEL GRANDE
2
,
MARCELO FELGUEIRAS NAPOLI
3
,
ADRIAN ANTONIO GARDA
4
&
FLORA ACUÑA JUNCÁ
1
1
Programa de Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Evolução, Museu de Zoologia, Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana –
UEFS
,
Av. Transnordestina
, 44036-900
Feira
de Santana
,
Bahia
,
Brasil
2
Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da
Bahia
,
Departamento de Ciências Naturais. Estrada do Bem Querer Km
4, 45083-900
Vitória
da Conquista
,
Bahia
,
Brasil
3
Museu de Zoologia, Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Rua Barão de Jeremoabo, Campus Universitário de
Ondina
, 40170–115
Salvador
,
Bahia
,
Brasil
4
Laboratório de Anfíbios e Répteis-LAR, Departamento de Botânica e Zoologia, Universidade Federal do
Rio Grande do Norte
,
Av. Salgado Filho S
/N, Lagoa Nova, 59072–970 Natal
,
Rio Grande do Norte
,
Brasil
5
Corresponding author. E-mail: gilsantosbarreto@gmail.com
The treefrog
Scinax camposseabrai
(Bokermann)
is endemic to the Brazilian semiarid region and known from the municipalities of Maracás, Igaporã and Curaçá, in the state of
Bahia
, and from the municipality of Matias Cardoso, northern
Minas Gerais state
,
Brazil
(
Frost 2019
). It was removed from the synonymy of
Scinax x-signatus
(Spix)
, recognized as a valid species, and placed in the
S. ruber
clade (sensu
Faivovich
et al.
2005
) by
Caramaschi & Cardoso (2006)
. Taxonomic changes proposed by
Duellman
et al
. (2016)
for the genus
Scinax
were discussed by
Lourenço
et al
. (2016)
and
Faivovich
et al
. (2018)
, and we follow here their suggestion to consider
Ololygon
and
Julianus
(erected for the
S. uruguayus
group) as synonyms of
Scinax
.
This large genus
Scinax
currently would include 123 species (
Frost 2019
), many of which have had their larval morphology formerly described. Here, we describe the external morphology of the previously unknown tadpoles of
S. camposseabrai
.
We obtained
30 tadpoles
of
S. camposseabrai
at different development stages from its type locality (
Maracás municipality
,
Bahia state
, northeastern
Brazil
) on
November 21, 2012
, in a temporary pond (
13°18′01.2′′S
,
40°26′0.17′′W
,
700 m
asl).
To confirm the species identity, we compared external morphologies and oral discs with three tadpoles of
S. camposseabrai
that were
raised from
eggs
deposited in a plastic bag by a couple of
S. camposseabrai
collected by us on
October
2009
in the municipality of
Vitória da Conquista
, state of
Bahia
,
Brazil
, ca.
230-airline km southwards Maracás
. Syntopic congeneric species include
S. x-signatus
(Spix)
,
S. pachycrus
(Miranda-Ribeiro)
,
S. auratus
(Wied-Neuwied)
, and
S. eurydice
(Bokermann)
, and as we discuss below, all have very different tadpoles, especially regarding oral features.
Specimens used in the present study are housed at the Museu de Zoologia da Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Feira de Santana,
Bahia State
,
Brazil
(MZFS lot 1196 and MZFS lot 1333), and at the amphibian scientific collection of Universidade Estadual do Sudoeste da
Bahia
, Vitória da Conquista,
Bahia State
,
Brazil
(UESB 0814 and 0815; tadpole lot 15). Measurements, terminology and labial tooth row formula follow
Altig (1970)
,
Altig & McDiarmid (1999)
and
Mercês & Juncá (2010)
. The external morphology is based on five tadpoles at stage 33 from Maracás and three tadpoles reared at stages 34–36 from Vitória da Conquista (tadpole stages sensu
Gosner 1960
). Measurements were taken using an ocular micrometer in a stereomicroscope and are in millimeters: total length (TL), body length (BL), oral disc width (ODW), internarial distance (ID); interorbital distance (IO); maximum tail height (MTH), tail musculature height (TMH); tail length (TaL); body width (BW), dorsal fin height (DFH), ventral fin height (VFH), spiracle–snout distance (SSD), body height (BH), snout–nostril distance (SND), snout-eye distance (SED), eye diameter (ED), eye nostril distance (END), and nostril diameter (DN).
Description is based on five tadpoles from Maracás at Gosner stage 33. Measurement range, mean and standard deviation are given in
Table 1
. Body elliptical in dorsal view and triangular in lateral view (
Fig. 1A,B
), slightly higher than wide (BH/BW = 1.10–1.18, 1.13 ± 0.03); body height less than body length (BH/BL = 0.65–0.71, 0.68 ± 0.02); BL approximately one third of tail length (BL/TaL = 0.33–0.35, 0.34 ± 0.01). Snout rounded in dorsal view and truncated in lateral view. Nostrils dorsolateral, rounded, closer to the eye than to the snout (SND/END = 1.63–2.27, 1.91 ± 0.24), without projection on the marginal rim, its major axis 4% to 5% of BW (DN/BW = 0.04–0.05, 0.04 ± 0.01). Eyes lateral, visible in ventral view and dorsal view (
Fig. 1C
); interorbital distance more than half of body width (IO/BW = 0.54–0.64, 0.61 ± 0.04). Spiracle sinistral, opening cylindrical, short, located at the middle third of the body (SSD/BL = 0.65–0.66, 0.66 ± 0.01), directed parallel to the midline of the body and having a wider base at the end, inner wall attached to the body wall and longer than the external wall. Coiled gut. Dextral vent tube positioned above the margin of the ventral fin. Tail longer and higher than the body (TaL/TL = 0.64–0.66, 0.66 ± 0.01; BH/MTH = 0.73–0.84, 0.78 ± 0.04). Dorsal fin beginning at the middle third of the body and slightly lower than the ventral fin (DFH/VFH = 0.71–0.85, 0.77 ± 0.06); dorsal and ventral fins contours arched. Tail ending in short flagellum. Lateral line system not evident without staining. Oral disc anteroventral with lateroventral emargination, less than a half of body width (ODW/BW = 0.39–0.45, 0.41 ± 0.02) (
Fig. 1D
). Marginal papillae in a single row; triangular shaped, larger and more spaced at the lower lip. Dorsal gap on upper lip. Few submarginal papillae lateral, aggregated and extending from the angular region to the infra-angular region. Labial tooth row formula (LTRF) 2(2)/3(1), A1 = A2, P1 = P2> P3, P3 almost 2/3 of P2, P1 slightly shorter than P
2 in
one specimen. Labial teeth well developed and curved. Jaw sheaths colored and serrated. Anterior jaw sheath widely keratinized, M-shaped (with medial projection and long lateral process). Lower jaw sheath keratinized, large, width over two times the upper jaw width, V-shaped. Ventrolateral keratinized sheets present (
Fig. 1E
) and keratinized spurs posterior to the edges of the lower jaw sheath (
Fig. 1F
). Tadpoles from Vitória da Conquista (n = 3, stages 34–36) are similar to those described above (
Table 1
).
TABLE 1.
Measurements (in millimeters) of tadpoles of
Scinax camposseabrai
from Maracás (n = 5, stage 33) and Vitória da Conquista (n = 3, stage 34–36) municipalities, Bahia State, northeastern Brazil. SD, standard deviation.
Locality |
Maracás |
Vitória da Conquista |
Measurements |
min–max |
mean |
SD |
min–max |
Mean |
SD |
Total length |
25.4–27.5 |
26.4 |
0.8 |
31.2–35.2 |
32.9 |
2.1 |
Body length |
8.8–9.2 |
9.1 |
0.2 |
9.0–10.6 |
9.9 |
0.8 |
Body height |
6.0–6.4 |
6.1 |
0.2 |
6.4–7.2 |
6.8 |
0.4 |
Maximum tail height |
7.4–8.2 |
7.8 |
0.3 |
8.7–9.3 |
8.9 |
0.3 |
Body width |
5.1–5.7 |
5.4 |
0.2 |
6.0–6.6 |
6.3 |
0.3 |
Dorsal fin height |
2.2–2.7 |
2.4 |
0.2 |
3.1–3.2 |
3.2 |
0.0 |
Ventral fin height |
2.9–3.5 |
3.2 |
0.2 |
3.6–4.1 |
3.9 |
0.3 |
Spiracle-snout distance |
5.8–6.1 |
5.9 |
0.1 |
5.5–6.4 |
5.9 |
0.4 |
Interorbital distance |
3.1–3.5 |
3.3 |
0.1 |
3.2–3.5 |
3.4 |
0.1 |
Internarial distance |
2.8–3.0 |
2.9 |
0.1 |
2.8–3.3 |
3.1 |
0.3 |
Eye diameter |
1.2–1.4 |
1.3 |
0.0 |
1.4–1.5 |
1.5 |
0.0 |
Nostril diameter |
0.2–0.3 |
0.2 |
0.0 |
0.1–0.4 |
0.2 |
0.1 |
Snout-nostril distance |
1.5–2.0 |
1.7 |
0.2 |
2.0–2.1 |
2.1 |
0.1 |
Snout-eye distance |
2.7–3.2 |
2.9 |
0.2 |
3.1–3.3 |
3.2 |
0.1 |
Oral disc width |
2.0–2.4 |
2.2 |
0.1 |
2.4–2.8 |
2.6 |
0.2 |
Tail length |
16.6–18.3 |
17.4 |
0.7 |
22.2–24.6 |
23.0 |
1.4 |
Tail musculature height |
2.5–2.8 |
2.6 |
0.1 |
2.9–3.2 |
3.0 |
0.1 |
Color in preservative
. Body and tail musculature cream. Fins transparent. In lateral view, grayish brown spots grouped irregularly forming rounded blotches scattered along the fins and caudal musculature; brown lateral stripe extending from the snout to the eye. In dorsal view, from the anterior portion of the tail musculature to the beginning of the flagellum, there are thick brown stripes transversally positioned. Longitudinally between the eyes, a gray diamond spot that can extend to the beginning of the tail.
Tadpoles included in the
Scinax ruber
clade have a dextral proctodeal tube positioned above the margin of the lower fin, lateral eyes visible ventrally, and anteroventral oral discs, which are synapomorphic features of this clade (
Faivovich 2002
;
Faivovich
et al.
2005
). Tadpoles of
S. camposseabrai
have all of these features. Furthermore, in most aspects these tadpoles closely resemble larvae of the
Scinax uruguayus
group. Tadpoles of
S. uruguayus
(Schmidt)
,
S. pinimus
(Bokermann & Sazima)
, and a third undescribed species
S.
aff.
pinimus
share a set of distinctive, putative synapomorphic features of the clade (
Kolenc
et al.
2003
;
Faivovich
et al
. 2005
;
Alcalde
et al
. 2011
). Like these three species, tadpoles of
S. camposseabrai
have massive lower jaw sheaths more than two times wider than the upper sheaths, mental marginal papillae large and widely spaced, and keratinized ventrolateral sheets associated to the lower jaw sheath. Additionally, the large infralabial papillae described by
Alcalde
et al
. (2011)
occur in the buccal cavity of these tadpoles (
Fig. 1F
). Tadpoles of
S. camposseabrai
differ from these species in the following characteristics: snout truncate in lateral view in
S. camposseabrai
, rounded in
S. uruguayus
and
S. pinimus
; spiracle parallel to the midline of the body in
S. camposseabrai
, posterodorsal spiracle in
S. uruguayus
and
S. pinimus
; tail flagellum present in
S. camposseabrai
, absent in
S. pinimus
and
S. uruguayus
(however
Kolenc
et al.
2003
described that the tail tip of
S. uruguayus
tadpoles is rounded at stage 31-33, but mentioned that it becomes acute in older tadpoles and have “flagelliform movements”
in vivo
); marginal papillae and submarginal papillae conical in
S. camposseabrai
, submarginal papillae rounded and flat in
S. uruguayus
; anterior jaw sheath M-shaped and with long lateral process in
S. camposseabrai
, U-shaped and inconspicuous lateral process and in
S. uruguayus
; P3 almost 2/3 of P
2 in
S. camposseabrai
and
S. pinimus
(
Bokermann & Sazima 1973
)
, P3 almost half of P
2 in
S. uruguayus
(
Kolenc
et al
. 2003
)
; nostrils rounded in
S. camposseabrai
, oval in
S. uruguayus
; nostrils dorsolateral in
S. camposseabrai
, dorsal in
S. pinimus
; and oral disc with lateroventral emarginations in
S. camposseabrai
.
The similarity between the oral disc features of
S. camposseabrai
and
Scinax uruguayus
group tadpoles should be reinterpreted in a phylogenetic context, in order to elucidate at what level these morphological features are apomorphic.