Cryptobatrachus

Lynch, John D., 2008, A taxonomic revision of frogs of the genus Cryptobatrachus (Anura: Hemiphractidae), Zootaxa 1883, pp. 28-68 : 59

Cryptobatrachus sp.

One does not always have an adequate sample upon which to make a taxonomic decision and the very small sample of Cryptobatrachus from the eastern face of the Sierra Nevada (Nabusimaque) serves as a case in point. I suspect, but am not willing to make the decision pending additional samples, that these frogs are not C. boulengeri but, rather, yet another species, “intermediate” between C. boulengeri and C. pedroruizi . In support of my belief are the very large ears evident in my inadequate sample of males as contrasted with those of the three populations here confidently assigned to C. boulengeri . That this difference is ambiguous for females, and my inadequate sample, lead me to be cautious and not to name this population as another species. The Nabusimaque population shares with C. boulengeri , the expansion of the anterior braincase (a derived character, as judged by the ontogenetic criterion) but also has significantly larger ears—ears so large as to suggest that this population is more closely related to C. conditus and C. pedroruizi than to C. boulengeri . If the very large ear (in males) is a synapomorphy, a contention that I suspect that the fullness of time will confirm, then we are faced with the discomfort of a pair of synapomorphies that conflict (the enlarged frontopartietal yields C. boulengeri + C. “Nabusimaque” whereas the very large ears yield C. conditus + C. pedroruizi + C. Nabusimaque ). At least one of these propositions must be in error and at this juncture, I cannot decide which—hence, my reluctance to provide a name for the Nabusimaque population—pending additional (adequate) collections.