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UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Volume 15, No. 3, pp. 175-181, 1 fig. March 7, 1962

A New Species of Frog from Western M?xico

ROBERT G. WEBB

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1962

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Theodore H. Eaton, Jr.

Volume 15, No. 3, pp. 175-181, 1 fig. Published March 7, 1962

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas

PRINTED BY JEAN M. NEIBARGER, STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1962

A New Species of Frog from Western M?xico.

ROBERT G. WEBB

Thirteen specimens of frogs collected in the summers of 1960 and 1961 in the Mexican states of Durango and Sinaloa represent a heretofore unnamed species. The specimens have been deposited in the Museum of Natural History of the University of Kansas and in the Museum of Michigan State University . The species may be named and described as follows:

Tomodactylus saxatilis new species

Head slightly wider than body; tip of snout rounded, slightly truncate; canthus rounded; tympanum small, less than one half diameter of eye; tympanum having posterior margin ill-defined, separated from eye by distance about equal to diameter of tympanum; diameter of eye slightly less than distance from eye to nostril; width of eyelid about two thirds interorbital width; paratoid gland indistinct; lumbar glands high, separated from insertion of leg by about one millimeter; back and sides of body having low, scarcely elevated pustules; top of head, limbs and venter smooth; few low, whitish pustules below and behind tympanum, and low on sides of body; posterior surface of thighs and anal region pustulate; one pair of whitish postanal spots; ventral disc attached near insertion of legs, lacking conspicuous transverse fold; skin loose on throat, chest and abdomen.

Digits not webbed; tips of two outer fingers truncate, having terminal transverse grooves, about twice width of narrowest part of digit; digits of first and second fingers slightly expanded; fingers from shortest to longest, 1-2-4-3, first only slightly shorter than second; three palmar tubercles; inner palmar tubercle about one third size of large median tubercle; outer tubercle about one tenth size of large median tubercle; four supernumerary palmar tubercles; tips of toes slightly wider than narrowest part of digits; toes from shortest to longest, 1-2-5-3-4, second only slightly shorter than fifth; inner metatarsal tubercle about four times size of small outer metatarsal tubercle; supernumerary tubercles on foot small; no tarsal fold; heels touching when tibiae adpressed to thighs; tibiotarsal articulation reaching eye when leg adpressed to side of body.

Contrasting marbled pattern on back and top of head; contrasting, mostly barred, pattern on limbs; ventral surfaces whitish, lacking dark marks, but having minute dark peppering; marbling of dorsal surfaces blackish and whitish in preservative.

Vomerine teeth lacking; internal choanae lateral, partly concealed by maxillaries; tongue smooth, elongate, shallowly notched distally, free for about half its length; vocal sac median; internal vocal slits large and near angle of jaw.

The pale ground color of the marbled pattern in most specimens is least extensive on the back and arms, but most extensive on the legs. The lumbar glands are slightly elevated and conspicuous, and in KU 63328 are extremely protuberant, or evident on left side but flattened and indistinct on right side. The back is rough having low, scarcely elevated pustules, but becomes less rough anteriorly and most of the top of head is smooth. The three specimens from Pueblo Nuevo, Durango, differ slightly from the other specimens examined in lacking pairs of postanal white spots, and in having smooth backs . The tibiotarsal articulation fails to reach the eye in KU 63330. The small inner palmar tubercle is continuous with the large median tubercle on the right hand of KU 63330, and lacking on both hands of KU 63329 and on the left hand of KU 63328. The tip of the tongue is entire in some specimens and in others has an irregular margin.

The terrain consists of occasional level areas, but is mostly of steep hillsides. Dominant trees are large oaks and pines; a characteristic pine is the sad or drooping-needle pine, locally called "pino triste." The vegetational cover is usually open, including grasses, small oaks and pines, broad-leaved shrubs and herbs, prickly pears, magueys, thorny acacias, bracken fern, and epiphytes in trees. Ferns occur in moist protected places, and orchids are occasional, sometimes in trees.

For financial assistance with field work I am grateful to Rollin H. Baker, and those individuals who administer the Michigan State University Development Fund and the Bache Fund of the National Academy of Sciences . I am grateful also to J. Keever Greer, Donald F. Switzenberg, and Rudolph A. Scheibner for aid in the field, to Edward H. Taylor, James R. Dixon, and William E. Duellman for profitable discussions, and to Thomas Sweringen for figure 1. The specific name alludes to the habitat .

LITERATURE CITED

LANGEBARTEL, D. A., and SHANNON, F. A. 1956. A new frog from the Sinaloan lowlands of Mexico. Herpetologica, 12:163-165, 2 figs., September 1.

SMITH, H. M., and TAYLOR, E. H. 1948. An annotated checklist and key to the Amphibia of Mexico. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 194, pp. iv + 118.

TAYLOR, E. H. 1940. Herpetological miscellany. Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 26:489-571, 10 pls., 7 figs., November 15.

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