Phyllomedusa tarsius

Barrio-Amorós, César L., 2006, A new species of Phyllomedusa (Anura: Hylidae: Phyllomedusinae) from northwestern Venezuela, Zootaxa 1309, pp. 55-68 : 64

Phyllomedusa tarsius group

De la Riva (1999) comments on the poorly defined tarsius group, which to him consisted in the following species: Phyllomedusa boliviana , P. camba , P. coelestis , P. tarsius , P. trinitatis and P. venusta . Faivovich et al. (2005) only tested (based on 5100 base pairs from four mithochondrial and five nuclear genes) P. t a r s i u s of the group. Creating a new Hylidae taxonomy, they included P. sauvagii in the same group with P. tarsius , P. boliviana and P. c a m b a. However, P. boliviana and P. c a m b a (which are definitely very similar to each other) differs considerably from P. coelestis , P. tarsius , P. trinitatis and P. venusta , especially in appearance of the eye (see below), and P. sauvagii is clearly not assignable to this group (it is one of the most distinctive Phyllomedusa , and probably it deserves its own species group, Cannatella 1980; De la Riva 1999).

I propose the following definition of the P. tarsius group (osteological and larval characters not considered: the larvae of P. coelestis , P. neildi , and P. v e n u s t a are unknown): moderate to large phyllomedusines with sexual dimorphism in size (males from 53.3 to 97 mm ­smallest measurement corresponding to P. coelestis , the biggest to P. t a r s i u s from Ecuador­; females from 63 to 111.8 mm –smallest measurement corresponding to P. n e i l d i, the biggest to P. t a r s i u s ­): (1) Foot and hands without webbing; (2) parotoid glands indistinct (in P. neildi , P. tarsius from Venezuela and some P. trinitatis ), moderately developed ( P. coelestis , P. trinitatis ) to well developed (some P. t a r s i u s and P. venusta ); (3) dorsal skin smooth with fine and scattered small tubercles ( P. neildi , P. trinitatis ), pustules ( P. venusta ), shagreen ( P. tarsius ), or posteriorly tuberculate ( P. coelestis ); (4) males with vocal slits ( P. coelestis ) or without (P. n e i l d i, P. tarsius , P. trinitatis ); (5) Toe I longer than II; (6) iris golden, orange or reddish, with black fine reticulations ( P. coelestis , P. neildi , P. tarsius , P. trinitatis , P. venusta ); (7) vomerine processes present.

I propose to exclude P. boliviana and P. c a m b a (included in the group by De la Riva 1999) and P. sauvagii (included in the group by Faivovich et al. 2005) because they do not share the most striking character (herein considered as a synapomorphy) of the group, the golden iris with black reticulations.