Pristimantis aff. gladiator

Figure 22

Remarks.

Five female specimens (DHMECN 14446, 14447, 14448, 14484, 14705) with body sizes of 13.58 mm up to 19.03 mm, three male specimens (DHMECN 14449-14450, 1486) with body sizes of 12.6 mm up to 15.02 mm and one specimen with undetermined sex (DHMECN14485) with a body size of 11.35 mm, were collected on the forest floor between the leaf litter and on a bromeliad leaf 30 cm from the ground, in the montane forests of the Machay Reserve at elevations between 2220 m to 3000 m. This species has been recorded in other localities, such as Cerro Candelaria Reserve, Chamana Reserve and Tungurahua Volcano; however, some preliminary phylogenetic analyses suggest that northern and southern forms correspond to distinct near-related species (Franco, in preparation). According to references and historical records, the speci-mens assigned to Pristimantis festae of the Tungurahua Volcano (Lynch and Duellman 1980) actually correspond to this new species, which, in its external morphology, is more similar to Pristimantis gladiator; however, the latter has a longer face-cloacal length and, according to osteological skull analysis, this species has other morphological differences.