Rhinella diptycha (Cope, 1862)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Bufonidae > Genus: Rhinella > Species: Rhinella diptycha

Bufo diptychus Cope, 1862, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 14: 353. Holotype: USNM 5841, by original designation (apparently lost); not mentioned in USNM type list by Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220, or for ANSP by Malnate, 1971, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 123: 345-375. Type locality: Not mentioned specifically, but the Page Expedition visited many localities now in Brazil, northeastern Argentina, and southern Paraguay, along the drainages of the Paraná and Paraguai Rivers.

Bufo schneideri Werner, 1894, Zool. Anz., 17: 411. Holotype: NHMB 1916, according to Hoogmoed, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 59. Type locality: "Paraguay". Considered a primary homonym of "Bufo schneideri Merrem", 1820 (= Lithodytes lineatus) by Boulenger, 1895, Zool. Rec., 31: 40, although this is in error. Merrem, 1820, used the name Rana schneideri which is neither a primary or secondary homonym so the name is available. Synonymy by Lavilla and Brusquetti, 2018, Zootaxa, 4442: 161. 

Bufo paracnemis Lutz, 1925, C. R. Mém. Hebd. Séances Soc. Biol. Filial., Paris, 93 (1925, vol. 2): 213. Syntypes: Not stated; USNM 97238–39 are syntypes according to Hoogmoed, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 54. Type locality: "l'etat de Minas . . . de Belo Horizonte", Brazil; given as "Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil" by Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 36. Synonymy with Bufo schneideri by Gallardo, 1962, Physis, Buenos Aires, 23: 96. See comment.

Bufo marinus paracnemisMüller and Hellmich, 1936, Wissenschaft. Ergebn. Deutschen Gran Chaco Exped., Amph. Rept.: 14.

Bufo paracnemisFreiberg, 1942, Physis, Buenos Aires, 19: 223; Cei, 1949, Acta Zool. Lilloana, 7: 528; Cochran, 1955 "1954", Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 206: 32.

Bufo pisanoi Casamiquela, 1967, Ameghiniana, 5: 162. Holotype: FML 2197, incomplete skeleton, by original designation. Type locality: "Proximadades del puente Ruta Nacional No. 3, a unas 20 cuadras (aguas abajo) sobre la margen derecha del rio Quequén [Salado], Provincia de Buenos Aires", Argentina. [Upper Pliocene fossil.] Considered a likely synonym of Bufo schneideri by Sanchíz, 1998, Handb. Palaeoherpetol., 4: 125.

Bufo schneideriFrank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 43.

Bufo jimi Stevaux, 2002, Rev. Brasil. Zool., 19: 236. Holotype: JJ 7628, by original designation. Type locality: "BRAZIL, Bahia: Maracás (40° 26′ W, 13° 26′ S, Fazenda Cana Brava)". Synonymy by Pereyra, Blotto, Baldo, Chaparro, Ron, Elias-Costa, Iglesias, Venegas, Thomé, Ospina-Sarria, Maciel, Rada, Kolenc, Borteiro, Rivera-Correa, Rojas-Runjaic, Moravec, De la Riva, Wheeler, Castroviejo-Fisher, Grant, Haddad, and Faivovich, 2021, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 447: 54. 

Chaunus schneideriFrost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 364; Savage and Bolaños, 2009, Zootaxa, 2005: 4, by implication.

Chaunus diptychus — Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 364; Savage and Bolaños, 2009, Zootaxa, 2005: 4, by implication.

Chaunus jimi — Frost, Grant, Faivovich, Bain, Haas, Haddad, de Sá, Channing, Wilkinson, Donnellan, Raxworthy, Campbell, Blotto, Moler, Drewes, Nussbaum, Lynch, Green, and Wheeler, 2006, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 297: 364; Savage and Bolaños, 2009, Zootaxa, 2005: 4, by implication.

Rhinella jimi — Chaparro, Pramuk, and Gluesenkamp, 2007, Herpetologica, 63: 211, by implication.

Rhinella diptycha — Chaparro, Pramuk, and Gluesenkamp, 2007, Herpetologica, 63: 211, by implication.

Rhinella schneideriChaparro, Pramuk, and Gluesenkamp, 2007, Herpetologica, 63: 211, by implication; Pramuk, Robertson, Sites, and Noonan, 2008, Global Ecol. Biogeograph., 17: 76.

Rhinella diptycha Lavilla and Brusquetti, 2018, Zootaxa, 4442: 161. 

English Names

Cururu Toad (Bufo paracnemis: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 43).

Schneider's Toad (Bufo schneideri: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 43).

Cope's Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 41).

Distribution

Northeastern Brazil from Pará (Municipality of Bujaru) and Maranhão to Piauí, Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte, and Alagoas, south to Rio Grande do Sul and Espíritu Santo,  Brazil, inland through Paraguay to Amazonian and eastern Bolivia; and southwest to northern and central Argentina and northern Uruguay, 15 to 1500 m elevation. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay

Comment

In the Bufo marinus group of Martin, 1972, in Blair (ed.), Evol. Genus Bufo: 57. Formerly confused with Rhinella marina or Rhinella paracnemis.  Gallardo, 1962, Physis, Buenos Aires, 23: 96, apparently studied the holotype of Bufo schneideri and concluded that Bufo paracnemis is a junior synonym of Bufo schneideri. Inasmuch as Bufo schneideri Werner is not a primary homonym of Rana schneideri Merrem, Bufo schneideri Werner takes precedence as the oldest available name of this taxon. See brief account by Köhler, 2000, Bonn. Zool. Monogr., 48: 85. See comments under Rhinella marina and Rhinella jimiLangone, 1995 "1994", Mus. Damaso Antonio Larrañaga, Ser. Divulg. 5: 21–22, and Achaval and Olmos, 2003, Anf. Rept. Uruguay, ed. 2: 13, provided for the Uruguayan population a brief account (as Bufo paracnemis) and photograph. Kwet, Di-Bernardo, and Maneyro, 2006, Iheringia, Zool., 96: 479–485, provided a key to distinguish this species from other members of the Rhinella marina group. Brusquetti and Lavilla, 2006, Cuad. Herpetol., 20: 20, briefly discussed the range in Paraguay. Juncá, 2006, Biota Neotrop., 6: 1–17, briefly summarized the presence of nominal Rhinella jimi in the Serra da Jibóia region, Bahia, Brazil, and its habitat. Maneyro and Kwet, 2008, Stuttgart. Beit. Naturkd., Ser. A, Neue Ser., 1: 95–121, noted that populations from Bahia and Pernambuco (Brazil) may actually be assignable to Rhinella jimi; these authors also summarized the taxonomic, geographic, and conservation status as well as summarizing what is know of its natural history. Eterovick and Sazima, 2004, Anf. Serra do Cipó: 31–32, provided a photograph and brief account. Maneyro and Kwet, 2008, Stuttgart. Beit. Naturkd., Ser. A, Neue Ser., 1: 95–121, noted that populations in Bahia and Pernambuco previously assigned to Rhinella schneideri may actually be assignable to Rhinella jimiVallinoto, Sequeira, Sodré, Bernardi, Sampaio, and Schneider, 2010, Zool. Scripta, 39: 128–140, and Maciel, Collevatti, Colli, and Schwartz, 2010, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 57: 787–797, reported on the molecular phylogenetics of the Rhinella marina group, including this species. Cruz, Feio, and Caramaschi, 2009, Anf. Ibitipoca: 64–65, provided photographs and a brief account for Parque Estadual do Ibitipoca, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Silva, Santos, Alves, Sousa, and Annunziata, 2010, Sitientibus, Ser. Cienc. Biol., 7: 334–340, provided records (as Rhinella jimi) for Piauí. Jansen, Bloch, Schulze, and Pfenninger, 2011, Zool. Scripta, 40: 567–583, noted deep genetic divergences within this nominal species. Sequeira, Sodré, Ferrand de Almeida, Bernardi, Sampaio, Schneider, and Vallinoto, 2011, BMC Evol. Biol., 11(264): 1–15, reported on unidirectional hybridization with Rhinella marinaWeiler, Núñez, Airaldi, Lavilla, Peris, and Baldo, 2013, Anf. Paraguay: 44, provided a brief account (as Rhinella schneideri), image, and dot map for Paraguay. Oliveira, Weber, and Napoli, 2014, Herpetol. J., 24: 229–236, reported on larval morphology of the chondrocranium and hypobranchial apparatus. Schulze, Jansen, and Köhler, 2015, Zootaxa, 4016: 18–20, characterized the larva of Rhinella cf. schneideri from Bolivia. Lavilla and Brusquetti, 2018, Zootaxa, 4442: 161–170, discussed the nomenclatural problems surrounding the name Bufo diptychus Cope, 1862, and considered this taxon to be conspecific with, and the name senior to, Bufo schneideri Werner, 1894. Neves, Yves, Pereira Silva, Alves, Vasques, Coelho, and Silva, 2019, Herpetozoa, Wien, 32: 113–123, provided a record (as Rhinella schneideri) for western Minas Gerais, Brazil. Rossa-Feres and Nomura, 2006 "2005", Biota Neotrop., São Paulo, 6 (2: bn00706012006): 1–24, characterized and provided a key to the larvae of northwestern Sao Paulo state, Brazil, including this species (as Bufo schneideri). Tolledo and Toledo, 2010, J. Herpetol., 44: 480–483, reported on comparative larval morphology (as Rhinella jimi). Garda, São Pedro, and Lion, 2010, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 5: 151–156, reported on the calls (as Rhinella jimi). Vaz-Silva, Maciel, Nomura, Morais, Guerra Batista, Santos, Andrade, Oliveira, Brandão, and Bastos, 2020, Guia Ident. Anf. Goiás e Dist. Fed. Brasil Central: 28, provided an account (as Rhinella schneideri) for Goiás and the D.F. population, Brazil. Eterovick, Souza, and Sazima, 2020, Anf. Serra do Cipó: 1-292, provided an account, life history information, and an identification scheme for the Serra de Cipó, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Valencia-Zuleta and Maciel, 2017, Herpetol. Rev., 48: 385, provided a records (as Rhinella jimi) from Espíritu Santo and Pará, Brazil, and briefly discussed the range. Vallinoto, Cunha, Bessa-Silva, Sodré, and Sequeira, 2017, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 180: 647–660, reported on hybridization between Rhinella marina and Rhinella schneideri (now part of Rhinella diptycha). Dubeux, Silva, Nascimento, Gonçalves, and Mott, 2019, Rev. Nordestina Zool., 12: 18–52, summarized the literature of nominal Rhinella jimi on larval morphology. See Dubeux, Nascimento, Lima, Magalhães, Silva, Gonçalves, Almeida, Correia, Garda, Mesquita, Rossa-Feres, and Mott, 2020, Biota Neotrop., 20 (2: e20180718): 1–24, for characterization and identification of larvae (as Rhinella jimi) north of the Rio São Francisco in the Atlantic Forest of northeastern Brazil. Silva, Cândido, Cipriano, Vieira, Pinheiro, and Silva, 2020, Cuad. Herpetol., 34: 271-274, reported on karyotype of nominal Rhinella jimi. In the Rhinella marina clade, Rhinella marina group of Pereyra, Blotto, Baldo, Chaparro, Ron, Elias-Costa, Iglesias, Venegas, Thomé, Ospina-Sarria, Maciel, Rada, Kolenc, Borteiro, Rivera-Correa, Rojas-Runjaic, Moravec, De la Riva, Wheeler, Castroviejo-Fisher, Grant, Haddad, and Faivovich, 2021, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 447: 1–156. Reported from the Environmental Protection Area of Catolé and Fernão Velho, Alagoas, Brazil, by Dubeux, Nascimento, Gonçalves, and Mott, 2021, Pap. Avulsos Zool., São Paulo, 61 (e20216176): 1–10, who provided a key to the frogs of that region. Rivera, Prates, Firneno, Rodrigues, Caldwell, and Fujita, 2022 "2021", Mol. Ecol., 31: 978–992, reported on phylogenetics and noted that that the members of the Rhinella marina–Rhinella jimi [now part of Rhinella schneideri]–Rhinellah horribilis clade exchanged genes throughout much of their biogeographic history. Data produced in this analysis suggest that the synonymy of Rhinella schneideri with Rhinella diptycha may be in error but was not addressed specifically. Palmeira, Gonçalves, Dubeux, Lima, Lambertini, Valencia-Aguilar, Jenkinson, James, Toledo, and Mott, 2022, Cuad. Herpetol., 36: 65–75, reported on habitat in Natural Heritage Reserve Mata Estrela, Baía Formosa, Rio Grande do Norte state, Brazil. Sousa, Benício, and Fonseca, 2022, Biosphere Comun. Cient., 2: 16–22, reported on intrapopulational variation in Piauí, Brazil. di Tada and Sinsch, 2023, Salamandra, 59: 96–101, reported on geographic variation in advertisement and release calls, confirming the synonymy of Rhinella schneideri and Rhinella paracnemis, but noted that the taxonomic status of the populations at the Atlantic Coast south of the Amazonas should be re-evaluated, the deviating call features might be associated with mitochondrial introgression and hybridization between Rhinella diptycha and Rhinella marina, as indicated by molecular data (Sequeira, Sodré, Ferrand de Almeida, Bernardi, Sampaio, Schneider, and Vallinoto, 2011, BMC Evol. Biol., 11(264): 1–15, Vallinoto, Cunha, Bessa-Silva, Sodré, and Sequeira, 2017, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 180: 647–660). Santos, Feio, and Nomura, 2023, Biota Neotrop., 23 (3:e20231486): 1–43, characterized the tadpole morphology as part of an identification key to the tadpoles of the Brazilian Cerrado. Vicente-Ferreira, Nascimento, Batista, Kardush, Reyes, and Garey, 2024, Biota Neotrop., 24(1: e20231526): 1–17, provided records from the Refúgio Biológico Bela Vista, Paraná, southern Brazil (adjacent to the Paraguay border), as well as providing identification keys to these species based on larval and adult morphology.

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