Diasporus diastema (Cope, 1875)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Superfamily: Brachycephaloidea > Family: Eleutherodactylidae > Subfamily: Eleutherodactylinae > Genus: Diasporus > Species: Diasporus diastema

Lithodytes diastema Cope, 1875 "1876", J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 8: 155. Syntypes: USNM 25170-71 according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 65; USNM 25170 designated lectotype by Dunn, 1942, Not. Nat., Philadelphia, 104: 2, who noted that USNM 25171 is a specimen of Eleutherodactylus ockendeni (= Eleutherodactylus taeniatus). Type locality: "Camp Mary Caretta, Panama".

Hylodes diastemaBoulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 212.

Eleutherodactylus diastemaStejneger, 1904, Annu. Rep. U.S. Natl. Mus. for 1902: 582-583, by implication; Barbour and Dunn, 1921, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 34: 161.

Hyla chica Noble, 1918, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 38: 335-339. Holotype: AMNH 8230, by original designation. Type locality: "near Bluefields, Nicaragua—Maselina Creek, two miles from mouth", Nicaragua. Synonymy by Dunn, 1931, Occas. Pap. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 5: 411; Dunn, 1942, Not. Nat., Philadelphia, 104: 2; Taylor, 1952, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 35: 701.

Syrrhopus ineptus Barbour, 1928, Proc. New England Zool. Club, 10: 25-26. Holotype: MCZ 13050, by original designation. Type locality: "Rio Chenillo, near Monte Lirio, Canal Zone of Panama". Synonymy by Dunn, 1931, Occas. Pap. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 5: 411; Dunn, 1942, Not. Nat., Philadelphia, 104: 2; Taylor, 1952, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 35: 701.

Eleutherodactylus (Eleutherodactylus) diastemaLynch, 1996, in Powell and Henderson (eds.), Contr. W. Indian Herpetol.: 154; Lynch and Duellman, 1997, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Spec. Publ., 23: 223.

Pristimantis diastemaHeinicke, Duellman, and Hedges, 2007, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Suppl. Inform., 104: Table 2.

Diasporus diastemaHedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 47.

English Names

Caretta Robber Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 74).

Distribution

Humid lowlands of eastern Honduras south through Central America to western Panama (see comment), sea level to 1620 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama

Comment

See comment under Eleutherodactylus moro. See account by Cochran and Goin, 1970, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 288: 422–424. Wilczynski and Brenowitz, 1988, Animal Behav., 36: 1054–1063, reported on vocalization. In the Eleutherodactylus (Eleutherodactylus) martinicensis series, Eleutherodactylus diastema group of Lynch and Duellman, 1997, Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Spec. Publ., 23: 223. Ruiz-Carranza, Ardila-Robayo, and Lynch, 1996, Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc. Exact. Fis. Nat., 20: 396, noted that Colombian records required confirmation, and Lynch, 2001, Rev. Acad. Colomb. Cienc. Exact. Fis. Nat., 25: 287–297, found all of these records to be attributable to other species. Savage, 2002, Amph. Rept. Costa Rica: 272–273, provided an account, noted that additional species might be found under this name, and placed this species in his Eleutherodactylus martinicensis series, Eleutherodactylus diastema group. McCranie, Nicholson, and Castañeda, 2002, Herpetol. Rev., 33: 220, reported the Honduras record and commented on the range. McCranie, 2007, Herpetol. Rev., 38: 38, summarized the departmental distribution in Honduras. Transferred to Diasporus by Hedges, Duellman, and Heinicke, 2008, Zootaxa, 1737: 47, on the basis of molecular data. See comments by Sunyer, Páiz, Dehling, and Köhler, 2009, Herpetol. Notes, 2: 189–202, regarding Nicaraguan populations. Hertz, Hauenschild, Lotzkat, and Köhler, 2012, ZooKeys, 196: 23–46, suggested on the basis of molecular data that this nominal species is composed of at least three species (one of these from El Copé, Coclé, Panama), none of which are sister taxa. Jiménez-Rivillas, Vargas, Fang, Di Filippo, and Daza-R., 2013, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 8: 1–4, reported on aspects of the advertisement call. Köhler, 2011, Amph. Cent. Am.: 140–191, provided a key to the genera and species of Brachycephaloidea (= Craugastoridae, Eleutherodactylidae) in Central America and provided maps and photographs of the species, including this one.. Sunyer, Martínez-Fonseca, Salazar-Saavedra, Galindo-Uribe, and Obando, 2014, Mesoam. Herpetol., 1: 172, provided a record for the department of Chontales, Nicaragua. Batista, Köhler, Mebert, Hertz, and Veselý, 2016, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 178: 267–311, suggested at least three unnamed species, morphologically associated with this species in eastern Panama. Capshaw, Foss-Grant, Hartmann , Sehuanes, and Moss , 2020, Bioacoustics, 29: 79–96, discussed the advertisement call. Martínez-Fonseca, Holmes, Sunyer, Westeen, Grundler, Cerda, Fernández-Mena, Loza-Molina, Monagan, Nondorf, Pandelis, and Rabosky, 2024, Check List, 20: 70, provided and discussed a record from Refugio Bartola, Departamento Río San Juan, Nicaragua, 60 m elevation. 

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.