Hyla crepitans 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 : 72

Hyla crepitans Wied, 1824

Plate 50 and figure 27 (lectotype)

1824 Isis : 671 (diagnosis).

1824 Abbildungen: Lief. 8 ( fig. 1 of composite pl.). 1825 Beitra¨ge: 525.

PRESENT STATUS: Hyla crepitans Wied, 1824 .

REMARKS: In 1824, this species was diagnosed in the Isis of 1824 and portrayed in the Abbildungen; a single specimen was subsequently described in the Beitra ¨ge, preceded by the diagnosis copied from the Isis . Although several localities were mentioned (see below), there is nothing written to indicate that Wied actually preserved more than one specimen, although it seems probable that he did. It is species no. 300 in Wied’s 1860 manuscript catalog, represented by one specimen in the collection, AMNH A-785 .

Duellman (1977: 48) assumed that there originally had been more than one specimen and cited AMNH A-785 as a syntype, which was accepted by Kluge (1979: 10), who subsequently designated it as lectotype. In the absence of a known type series, this specimen might also have been regarded as holotype, but we accept the lectotype designation on practical grounds.

The specimen ( fig. 27 ) is in poor condition, very soft, with the rear of the body nearly separated and with the limbs detached or nearly so. Reasonably accurate measuring of such a flabby, broken specimen is now impossible, but, in 2003, Myers measured the specimen at ‘‘ roughly 62 mm SVL,’’ prior to converting Wied’s measurement to a close 61.1 mm. 38 There is faint indication of

38 Kluge (1979: 10) had much earlier measured this specimen at 66.0 mm SVL, which could be repeated today depending on how the calipers are handled and how much the specimen is stretched or compressed. There are no standards in this process. But Kluge’s conversion of Wied’s 2 Zoll 6 Linien to ‘‘about 64 mm’’ [63.5 mm precisely] was based on the modern foot.

a broken dark median line from the snout onto the anterior body; the body is sparsely but conspicuously marked with dark dots. The rear of thigh and flank have dark vertical bars, which on close inspection are seen to be doubled as seen in Wied’s 1824 illustration (see pl. 50). The plate shows an overall coloring of light and darker gray, with an interrupted dark median line and with narrow double black bars on the flank and posterior thighs, and a reddish suffusion on the flank and parts of the hind limbs.

In the Beitra¨ge, Wied said that he had found this ‘‘wide-jumping fast leafsticker’’ (weitspringende schnelle Laubkleber) in the vicinity of the old fazenda Tamburil [Tamboril] in the backcountry of Bahia. It seems most likely that Wied would have kept his first specimen, and, since only one specimen (the ‘‘lectotype’’) is definitely known to have been preserved, Tamboril (14 ° 589S, 41 ° 259W) can be assumed to be the actual type locality, as believed by Bokermann (1966a: 48). Wied also found the species in March in the marshes and pools between Arrayal da Conquista and Jiboya. He described the call as a loud Knaken similar to the breaking of a piece of wood.

As indicated by Kluge (1979: 11), the frogs being called ‘‘ Hyla crepitans ’’ in Panama and Colombia probably are not conspecific with Prince Maximilian’s Brazilian species.

Figures

Fig. 27. Lectotype of Hyla crepitans Wied, 1824 (AMNH A-785).

Fig. 1. Paulo E. Vanzolini. On Serra Tapeque´m (a tepui remnant), Roraima, NE Brazil (July 14,