The tadpole of Atelognathus salai Cei, 1984 (Leptodactylidae: Telmatobiinae)

Abstract

The genus Atelognathus is currently represented by eight species with narrow distribution areas restricted to Patagonia, southern Argentina and Chile (Basso, 1998). Four of the Atelognathus species live in extra-Andean basaltic tablelands (A. patagonicus, A. praebasalticus,A. reverberii and A. solitarius), while the other four species inhabit the austral temperate forests (A. nitoi and A. grandisonae) or its ecotone with the Patagonian steppe Of tlie eight species in the genus, so far only the larvae of Atelognathus patagonicus (Cei, 1965), Atelognathus reverberii (Cei, 1969) and Atelognathus nitoi (Basso and Ubed a , 1997) have been described. This paper describes the Atelognathus salai larva based on specimens from the type locality, and discusses its similarities to and differences from the other three known larvae in the genus.