Oophaga sp. Escudo de Veraguas?

[MELLOWROO421]

The new Bri Bri magazine that has just been put out has an article that says the Oophaga pumilio "Escudo de Veraguas" is actually an Oophaga species that has been previously undescribed, thus technically no longer making it a pumilio. I was wondering if this study has been published somewhere else, and if there is anyone who can link me to it.
Thanks,

[jubjub47]

Seems like i've seen escudo seperated somewhere else recently.

[jubjub47]

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Here's a bit more

[Julio]

i thought this was done about 2 years ago? not recent

[thedude]

i had heard about this too. also, all of the blue jean morphs are actually oophaga sp. typographica. i saw that on a european site. apparently there are way more than just 1 blue jean morph.

[skylsdale]

From what I understand, genetic testing on the Escudo population has been done (via Haggemann), but the results/paper have not yet been published.

Whether or not this is a seperate species remains to be seen (and probably the subject of much continuing debate). Escudo de Veraguas is a small island off the coast of the mainland, and on the side of the Valiente Peninsula facing Escudo, there is a population of almost identical frogs. This was most likely a single population however many thousand years ago a land bridge existed there...until sea levels rose, creating the island and creating a rift within the population. Perhaps the frogs on Escudo are on their way to becoming a seperate species...but are they there yet? It's hard to say...at which point does hot become cold?

Given island biogeography, I'm sure changes are taking place (I believe it generally has a slightly smaller body size and higher pitch call than it's mainland "brethren"), which seems to fit the trends of insular evolution. But whether it's something other than Oophaga pumilio at this point?

[MonarchzMan]

Hagemann and Prohl published a pumilio phylogeny in 2007 based on mitochondrial data and they ended up wanting to split Escudo into one species, Bocas pumilio into another species, and the Costa Rica/Nicaraguan pumilio into a third species. The Europeans have generally accepted this and now consider the Escudos to be a separate species (I am unsure if they also consider the northern pumilio to be a separate species).

Personally, I'm not convinced for a number of reasons. First, the paper in question did not look at all at the Valiente Peninsula, which is the closest populations to Escudo (and presumably the most closely related). Second, as far as I can tell, they are behaviorally the same, and the calls seem to be very similar. Third, they found that Escudos are most closely related to Speciosus than other pumilio (which for those who don't know, Speciosus is a good distance away; they also found that Costa Rican pumilio are more closely related to Arboreus than other pumilio and if you don't know, Arboreus is closer to Escudo than CR pumilio). Fourth, new phylogenies have come out and they don't really coincide with what Hagemann and Prohl came up with. Wang and Shaffer came out with a phylogeny in 2008 that had Escudos most closely related to some Costa Rican frogs.

Escudo de Veraguas has a couple of endemic species (the Pygmy Sloth and Escudo Hummingbird, for example), and in talking to a sloth guy and an ornithologist, it sounds like there's the same criticism about those species and both of the people that I spoke with were skeptical of those species designations for many of the same reasons.

Unless more compelling evidence comes forward to support Hagemann and Prohl's suggestion, I would still consider Escudo frogs to be pumilio.

[MonarchzMan]

Originally Posted by skylsdale

Given island biogeography, I'm sure changes are taking place (I believe it generally has a slightly smaller body size and higher pitch call than it's mainland "brethren"), which seems to fit the trends of insular evolution. But whether it's something other than Oophaga pumilio at this point?

Actually, from my morphological data Escudo males are (n=14) on average 15.611mm in length. Escudo females (n=26) are on average 15.443mm. The Valiente population, which is closest, males (n=20) are 15.751mm and females (n=20) are 15.418mm. Overall averages are 15.585mm and 15.502mm for Valiente and Escudo, respectively. So if you consider the 0.08mm to be significantly smaller, than yeah, the Escudos are smaller, but personally, I'd say that they're the same size

And by comparison, Popa Norths (n=40) average 15.520mm.

[skylsdale]

Originally Posted by MonarchzMan

Actually, from my morphological data Escudo males are (n=14) on average 15.611mm in length. Escudo females (n=26) are on average 15.443mm. The Valiente population, which is closest, males (n=20) are 15.751mm and females (n=20) are 15.418mm. Overall averages are 15.585mm and 15.502mm for Valiente and Escudo, respectively. So if you consider the 0.08mm to be significantly smaller, than yeah, the Escudos are smaller, but personally, I'd say that they're the same size

And by comparison, Popa Norths (n=40) average 15.520mm.

Ah, thanks for the details JP! I had heard the size comment via someone else...and coupled with Justin mentioning that the call was different than he was accustomed to hearing from other pumilio spp, seem to have wrongfully put 2 and 2 together.

Good to know.

[MonarchzMan]

I don't have empirical data to support calls being similar or not. I'm just basing that on what I've heard. I would guess the comparison comes from comparing 15mm frogs (Escudos) to 20mm frogs like Bastimentos. Due to the size, the smaller frogs will have a faster, higher call, but if it diverges on the sonograms, I don't know, though if I had to guess, I would say no.

I was under the same impression when I went to Escudo that they were significantly smaller than other pumilio, so I was surprised when they turned out not to be. I think I heard that they were around 12-13mm. While the stats still are in the process of being done, I think this is an additional nail in the coffin of Escudo being a separate species.