Neotropical Hylid Frogs, Genus SmiliscaDuellman, William Edward
Science
Neotropical Hylid Frogs, Genus Smilisca
Duellman, William Edward
Amphibians -- Central America; Frogs; Smilisca
_Hyla phaeota cyanosticta_ Smith, Herpetologica, 8:150, Jan. 30,
1953 [Holotype.--USNM 111147 from Piedras Negras, El Peten,
Guatemala; Hobart M. Smith collector]. Shannon and Werler, Trans.
Kansas Acad. Sci., 58:386, Sept. 24, 1955. Poglayen and Smith,
Herpetologica, 14:11, April 25, 1958. Cochran, Bull. U. S. Natl.
Mus., 220:57, 1961. Smith, Illinois Biol. Mono., 32:25, May, 1964.
_Smilisca phaeota cyanosticta_, Stuart, Misc. Publ. Mus. Zool.
Univ. Michigan, 122:42, April 2, 1963. Duellman, Univ. Kansas Publ.
Mus. Nat. Hist., 15(5):229, Oct. 4, 1963.
_Diagnosis._--Size moderately large ([M] 56.0 mm., [F] 70.0 mm.); skull
as long as wide; frontoparietal fontanelle large; narrow supraorbital
flanges having irregular margins anteriorly; large squamosal not in
contact with maxillary; tarsal fold moderately wide, full length of
tarsus; inner metatarsal tubercle moderately large, low, flat,
elliptical; hind limbs relatively long; tibia usually more than 52 per
cent of snout-vent length; labial stripe silvery-white; lips lacking
vertical bars; loreal region pale green; pale bronze-colored stripe from
nostril along edge of eyelid to point above tympanum narrow, bordered
below by narrow dark brown stripe from nostril to eye, and broad dark
brown postorbital mark encompassing tympanum and terminating above
insertion of arm; flanks, dark brown with large pale blue spots;
anterior and posterior surfaces of thighs dark brown with small
pale blue spots on thighs. (Foregoing combination of characters
distinguishing _S. cyanosticta_ from any other species in genus.)
_Description and Variation._--The largest males are from Piedras Negras,
El Peten, Guatemala, and they average 52.5 mm. in snout-vent length
whereas males from Los Tuxtlas, Veracruz, average 50.6 mm. and those
from northern Oaxaca 50.3 mm. The smallest breeding male has a
snout-vent length of 44.6 mm. The average ratio of tibia length to
snout-vent length is 54.8 per cent in males from Piedras Negras,
and 56.4 and 56.3 per cent in males from Los Tuxtlas and Oaxaca,
respectively. The only other character showing noticeable geographic
variation is the size of the tympanum. The average ratio of the diameter
of the tympanum to the diameter of the eye is 76.3 per cent in males
from Piedras Negras, 71.8 from Oaxaca, and 66.9 from Los Tuxtlas.
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