Hyloscirtus Peters, 1882

Hyloscirtus Peters, 1882 . Type species: Hyloscirtus bogotensis Peters, 1862, by original designation.

Definition. Medium-sized frogs (SVL less than 50 mm); dorsum green (Figs. 12 C and D); white parietal peritoneum present; mental gland present in males; cloacal region not swollen. Stream-dwelling tadpoles with large oral discs directed ventrally and having one or two complete rows of marginal papillae; LTRF 4–8/5–15. Chromosome complement unknown.

Content. Eighteen species: Hyloscirtus albopunctulatus * (Boulenger), alytolylax (Duellman), bogotensis * (Peters), callipeza * (Duellman), colymba (Dunn), denticulentus * (Duellman), estevesi * (Rivero), jahni* (Rivero), lascinius (Rivero), lynchi * (Ruiz-Carranza & Ardila-Robayo), mashpi* Guayasamin, Rivera-Correa, Arteaga- Navarro, Culebras, Bustamente, Pyron, Peñafiel, Morochz & Hutter, palmeri (Boulenger), phyllognathus (Melin), piceigularis * (Ruiz-Carranza & Lynch), platydactylus * (Boulenger), sarampiona * (Ruiz-Carranza & Lynch), simmonsi (Duellman), and torrenticola * (Duellman & Altig).

Distribution. Cloud forest and lower montane rainforest from central Costa Rica to central Ecuador on the Pacific slopes of the Andes, western Mérida Andes in Venezuela, southward on Amazonian slopes of the Andes to central Peru.

Etymology. The generic name is derived from Hylas in Greek mythology and the Greek scirtao verb meaning to leap.

Remarks. Hyloscirtus as recognized here is the Hyla bogotensis Group originally defined by Duellman (1972b) and further recognized by Duellman et al. (1997) and Faivovich et al. (2005). Investigation of tadpole morphology by Sánchez (2010) resulted in defining two groups of species; no molecular data are available for one group ( H. bogotensis, callipeza, lynchi, platydactylus, and sp. Huila). See remarks under Colomascirtus .