Taxonomic Review of South American Butter Frogs: Phylogeny, Geographic Patterns, and Species Delimitation in the Leptodactylus latrans Species Group (Anura: Leptodactylidae)

MAGALHÃES, FELIPE DE M.; BALDO, DIEGO; COLLI, GUARINO R.; HADDAD, CÉLIO F.B.; NAPOLI, MARCELO F.; GARDA, ADRIAN A.; LYRA, MARIANA L.; BRUSQUETTI, FRANCISCO; GEHARA, MARCELO C.; LANGONE, JOSÉ A.; SANTANA, DIEGO J.; DE CARVALHO, THIAGO R.; BURELLA, PAMELA; GIARETTA, ARIOVALDO A.; LÓPEZ, JAVIER A.; DE SÁ, RAFAEL O.

HERPETOLOGICAL MONOGRAPHS

HERPETOLOGISTS LEAGUE

Lugar: Lawrence; Año: 2020 vol. 34 p. 131 - 177

0733-1347

TheLeptodactylus latrans species group currently comprises eight medium- to large-sizedfrog species with a convoluted taxonomic history, particularly related to thespecific limits of the L. latrans complex, and the species pair Leptodactylus chaquensis?Leptodactylus macrosternum. Their homogeneous external morphology and continentalgeographic distribution in South America have posed severe limitations to acomprehensive review, such that taxonomic consensus and species limits remainuncertain. This is further worsened by the presence of chromatic polymorphismamong coexisting species that can hardly be distinguished by externalmorphology. Based on a large-scale geographic sampling including multilocus DNAanalyses, and acoustic and morphological data, we provide a comprehensiveevaluation of the taxonomic status and species limits of the L. latrans group,focusing on the resolution of the L.latrans complex and the species pair L. chaquensis?L. macrosternum.We gathered 728 mitochondrial sequences from 429 localities, encompassing theentire geographic distribution of the group. Both generalized mixed Yulecoalescent and automatic barcode gap discovery species delimitation methodsrecovered four major mitochondrial evolutionary lineages within the L. latrans complex,also supported by distribution patterns, multilocus molecular, morphologicaland/or bioacoustic data. One lineage is linked to nominal L. latrans, onerevalidated as Leptodactylus luctator, and the other two are formally named and described. Anotherlineage encompasses all specimens previously assigned to the species pair L. chaquensis?L. macrosternum,clustered as a single evolutionary entity and is now regarded as L. macrosternum.We provide a revised diagnosis for these species based on acoustic data,morphological/chromatic variation, and phylogenetic relationships of allspecies currently included in the L.latrans group. Our findings reinforce theview that Neotropical diversity is highly underestimated and stress thatappropriate geographic sampling in an integrative framework is crucial for theestablishment of specific limits among broadly distributed and morphologicallycryptic Neotropical frogs.