Dendropsophus leucophyllatus (Beireis, 1783)

Schiesari, Luis, Rossa-Feres, Denise De Cerqueira, Menin, Marcelo & Hödl, Walter, 2022, Tadpoles of Central Amazonia (Amphibia: Anura), Zootaxa 5223 (1), pp. 1-149 : 53-54

Dendropsophus leucophyllatus

External morphology. Description based on three tadpoles at Stage 39 (LCS 665, 670). Total length 26.2 ± 4.3 mm (N = 3). Body elongate oval in dorsal view and triangular/depressed in lateral view ( Fig. 26A, B ). Snout truncated in dorsal and lateral view. Eyes medium-sized, laterally positioned and directed. Nostrils small, rounded, laterally positioned near to snout, with opening anterolaterally directed, without a projection on the marginal rim. Oral disc ( Fig. 26C ) terminal, non-emarginate; marginal papillae blunt, uniseriate, with a wide dorsal gap. Submarginal papillae absent. LTRF 0/0; dermal ridges insinuated. Jaw sheaths moderately wide, both finely serrated; anterior jaw sheath arch-shaped, posterior jaw sheath U-shaped. Spiracle single, sinistral, lateroventral, conical, short and wide, posterodorsally directed, opening in the medial third of the body, with the centripetal wall fused to the body wall and longer than the external wall. Vent tube dextral, fused to the ventral fin, with a medial opening. Caudal musculature of moderate width; in lateral view gradually tapering to a pointed tip. Dorsal fin shallow, slightly convex, originating at the tail-body junction; ventral fin of moderate height, slightly convex. Lateral line visible. Tail with flagellum.

Colour. In preservative body and caudal musculature dark brown, with a broad dark longitudinal stripe from snout to eyes; fins pigmented, with translucent spots on the posterior third of the tail. In life dorsum brown to copper, venter silvery black; two broad longitudinal stripes run along the sides of the body; one black at the level of the eye and one silver just below. Posterior third to two-thirds of the tail heavily stained. Otherwise tail fin transparent. Caldwell & Araújo (2005) described the colour of newly hatched tadpoles from Pará, Brazil, as yellow-brown with a dark brown stripe on the tail bordered above by a gold stripe, clear fins, and eyes copper.

Natural history. Eggs were not observed in Central Amazonia. Clutches from Ecuador and Peru contain from 570 to 769 pigmented eggs ( Crump 1974; Duellman 2005). Eggs are deposited on the tips of leaves overhanging water. Tadpoles are found in temporary ponds in Peru ( Duellman 2005) or in the root zone of floating meadows in várzea floodplain lakes in Central Amazonia (this study). In eastern Amazonia tadpoles are found amid dense vegetation in small ponds ( Caldwell & Araújo 2005). Tadpoles are nektonic and the tail flagellum beats independently of the tail.

Comments. Tadpoles of D. leucophyllatus were described by Duellman (1978) from Ecuador, Duellman (2005) from Peru, from northen Brazil in the State of Pará by Gomes & Peixoto (1991), by Lynch & Suárez-Mayorga (2011) from Colombia, and by Schulze et al. (2015) from Bolivia. These descriptions generally agree with the tadpoles characterized herein, except that the tadpoles from Ecuador present body violin-shaped in dorsal view, snout rounded in lateral view (as those from Brazil, Gomes & Peixoto 1991), nostrils about midway between the snout and the eye, and one row of large marginal papillae laterally. However, as tadpoles herein characterized, a row of marginal papillae is present around the oral disc except for a dorsal gap in tadpoles from Peru ( Duellman 2005) and by a uniseriate row of marginal papillae anterolaterally and biseriate posteriorly in tadpoles from the state of Pará, Brazil ( Gomes & Peixoto 1991). Moreover, tadpoles from Pará, Brazil differ from those herein characterized by presenting LRTF 0/1. Tadpoles from Bolivia lowlands ( Schulze et al. 2015) differ from those herein characterized by having a violin-shaped body in dorsal view, snout sloped in lateral view, posterior jaw sheath widely V-shaped, nostrils anterolaterally positioned, spiracle sinistral and dorsally directed, vent tube dextral, and dorsal fin emerging posteriorly to border between body and tail.

Figures

FIGURE 26. Tadpole of Dendropsophus leucophyllatus (MZUSP 64335) at Stage 39: (A) lateral view, (B) dorsal view (scale = 10 mm), and (C) oral disc (scale = 1 mm).