Sphaenorhynchus Tschudi, 1838

FAIVOVICH, JULIÁN, HADDAD, CÉLIO F. B., GARCIA, PAULO C. A., FROST, DARREL R., CAMPBELL, JONATHAN A. & WHEELER, WARD C., 2005, Systematic Review Of The Frog Family Hylidae, With Special Reference To Hylinae: Phylogenetic Analysis And Taxonomic Revision, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 2005 (294), pp. 1-240 : 97-98

Sphaenorhynchus Tschudi, 1838

TYPE SPECIES: Hyla lactea Daudin, 1801 ,

by original designation.

Dryomelictes Fitzinger, 1843 . Type species: Hyla lactea Daudin, 1802 , by original designation.

Dryomelictes Cope, 1865 . Type species: Hyla aurantiaca Daudin, 1802 , by original designation. Junior homonym of Dryomelictes Fitzinger, 1843 .

Hylopsis Werner, 1894 . Type species: Hylopsis platycephalus Werner, 1894 , by monotypy.

Sphoenohyla Lutz and Lutz, 1938 . Substitute name (explicit subgenus of Hyla ) for Sphaenorhynchus thought erroneously to be preoccupied by Sphenorhynchus Lichtenstein, 1823 .

DIAGNOSIS: This genus is diagnosed by 157 transformations in nuclear and mitochondrial protein and ribosomal genes. See appendix 5 for a complete list of these molecular synapomorphies. Duellman and Wiens (1992) proposed the following synapomorphies for Sphaenorhynchus : posterior ramus of pterygoid absent; zygomatic ramus of squamosal absent or reduced to a small knob; pars facialis of maxilla and alary process of premaxilla reduced; postorbital process of maxilla reduced, not in contact with quadratojugal; neopalatine reduced to a sliver or absent; pars externa plectri entering tympanic ring posteriorly (rather than dorsally); pars externa plectri round; hyale curved medially; coracoids and clavicle elongated; and prepollex ossified, bladelike. Other likely synapomorphies include the differentiation of the m. intermandibularis into a small apical supplementary element, and the extreme development of the m. interhyoideus (Tyler, 1971).

COMMENTS: Duellman and Wiens (1992) considered that the transverse process of presacral vertebra IV elongate, oriented posteriorly is a synapomorphy of Sphaenorhynchus . The presence of this character state in Xenohyla (Izecksohn, 1996) suggests that in the context of our topology, its optimization is ambiguous. There are also some larval features that could be considered synapomorphies of at least some species of Sphaenorhynchus , such as the morphology and position of the nostrils and the presence of some notably large marginal papillae (see Kenny, 1969; Bokermann, 1973; Cruz, 1973; Cruz and Peixoto, 1980; Suarez­Mayorga and Lynch, 2001b). The presence of a white peritoneum in five species ( S. carneus , S. lacteus , S. planicola , S. prasinus , and S. surdus ; Haddad and Faivovich, personal obs.) may be another synapomorphy of this genus (with several instances of homoplasy within Hylinae ). Observations on six species ( S. carneus , S. dorisae , S. lacteus , S. planicola , S. prasinus , and S. surdus ) suggest that they are ant specialists (Duellman, 1978; Rodriguez and Duellman, 1994; Parmalee, 1999; Haddad, personal obs.), another likely synapomorphy whose taxonomic distribution within the group deserves additional study.

CONTENTS: Eleven species. Sphaenorhynchus bromelicola Bokermann, 1966 ; Sphaenorhynchus carneus (Cope, 1868) ; Sphaenorhynchus dorisae (Goin, 1967) ; Sphaenorhynchus lacteus (Daudin, 1801) ; Sphaenorhynchus orophilus (A. Lutz and B. Lutz, 1938) ; Sphaenorhynchus palustris Bokermann, 1966 ; Sphaenorhynchus pauloalvini Bokermann, 1973 ; Sphaenorhynchus planicola (A. Lutz and B. Lutz, 1938) ; Sphaenorhynchus platycephalus (Werner, 1894) ; Sphaenorhynchus prasinu s Bokermann, 1973; Sphaenorhynchus surdus (Cochran, 1953) .