Rana macrocephala Wied, 1824

Vanzolini, Paulo E. & Myers, Charles W., 2015, The Herpetological Collection Of Maximilian, Prince Of Wied (1782 - 1867), With Special Reference To Brazilian Materials, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2015 (395), pp. 1-155 : 76

Rana macrocephala Wied, 1824

1824 Isis : 671 (diagnosis).

1825 Beitra¨ge: 544.

PRESENT STATUS: Possibly Ceratophrys aurita (Raddi) fide Ronald Heyer (personal commun.).

REMARKS: Bokermann (1966a: 89) suggested that it ‘‘5? Leptodactylus acolytes .’’ The name is not listed in Wied’s manuscript catalog and there are no specimens in the collection. In response to a query from Heyer, Vanzolini used his method (described herein) for converting Wied’s measurements to mm, after which Heyer (in e-mail to Myers, July 12, 2002)

plotted the head length against SVL for a few C.

aurita specimens, including a single 66 mm

juvenile. The data point for the 44 mm SVL R.

macrocephala falls right on the line for head

length measured as length from tip of snout to

the head-body joint mid-dorsally. Good enough

to satisfy my curiosity as Wied’s name appeared

a year later than Raddi’s Bufo auitus .

The type locality is Lagoa da Arara on the lower Rio Mucuri. See under Agama picta for a discussion of this important locality.