Blommersia sp.

Vences, Miguel, Multzsch, Malte, Köhler, Jörn, Crottini, Angelica, Andreone, Franco, Rakotoarison, Andolalao, Scherz, Mark D. & Glaw, Frank, 2023, Integrative revision of the Blommersia wittei complex, with description of a new species of frog from western and north-western Madagascar, Zootaxa 5319 (2), pp. 178-198 : 194

Blommersia sp. Ca12

Identity. This candidate species name refers to a new lineage discovered in the course of this study and found only at two sites along the Sambirano river (Maevatanana and Antsirasira).

Morphology. Unknown. One voucher specimen from Antsirasira (ZSM 589/2001; see Table 1 ) could not be genotyped as no tissue sample for molecular analysis was taken in the field from this specimen. This specimen is an adult male with rather indistinct femoral glands and weakly expressed vomerine teeth. Photos in life are not available.

Vocalizations: Advertisement calls were recorded on 31 January 2001 at Antsirasira (air temperature 26°C), but call vouchers were not collected and calls are therefore not assignable to B. sp. Ca12 with full reliability. These calls consist of a single, short, pulsed note repeated in call series at slightly irregular intervals within series ( Fig. 7 ). Calls (= notes) generally exhibit a pulse structure, although some pulses are not clearly separated but rather largely fused, resulting in an irregular pulse pattern and varying number of countable pulses. Numerical parameters of 10 analyzed calls of one male are as follows: call duration (= note duration) 34–66 ms (47.8 ± 10.8 ms); inter-call intervals within regular call series 48–72 ms (61.4 ± 10.2 ms); pulses/note 3–10 (6.9 ± 2.3); duration of regular call series 1434 and 995 ms (n = 2); call rate within call series varied between 500–580 calls/minute; dominant frequency 5316–5598 Hz (5440 ± 145 Hz); second frequency peak around 2850 Hz; prevalent bandwidth 2200–9000 Hz.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Audiospectrograms and corresponding oscillograms of advertisement calls of Blommersia populations of taxonomically uncertain status (each showing several calls of a call series). The recording from Antsirasira may refer to B. sp. Ca12, but the recorded specimen has not been collected or genotyped. The call from Sambava is from a specimen of B. wittei that belongs to a weakly divergent mitochondrial phylogroup and may also differ in some morphological features, but is here assigned to B. wittei preliminarily.