Description of the Tadpole of Pseudopaludicola boliviana (Anura: Leptodactylidae)

Abstract

The genus Pseudopaludicola consists of frogs of small size 20 mm SVL [snout-vent length]) and they are distributed in the oriental region of South America, from the north of Colombia to the Province of BuenosAires in Argentina. Frost (2004) recognized 12 species of Pseudopaludicola: Pseudopaludicola boliviana, P. canga, P. ceratophryes, P. falcipes, P. llanera, P. mirandae, P. mineira, P. mystacalis, P. pusilla, P. riopiedadensis, P. saltica, and P. ternetzi. Lynch (1989) and Lobo (1994,1995, 1996) studied the systematics of the genus exhaustively. In Argentina, the species of the genus Pseudopaludicola are P. falcipes (Hensel 1867); P. mirandae (Mercada1 de Barrio y Barrio 1994): P. mystacalis (Cope 1867) and P. boliviana Parker 1927 (Lavilla and Cei 2001). The first citation of P. boliviana for Argentina was for the Province of Chaco (Lobo 1989, 1990). Pseudopaludicola boliviana belongs to the Pseudopaludicola pusilla group, in which the inc1uded species (P. boliviana, P. canga, P. ceratophyes, P. llanera, and P.pusilla) have toes with T-shaped terminal phalanges. In Argentina, P. boliviana is distributed in the provinces of Formosa, Chaco and northern Santa Fé (Lobo 1992). Recently, Duré et al. (2004) also cited this species for the Province of Corrientes, the first record east of the Paraná River. Until the present, tadpoles of species belonging to the Pseudopaludicola pusilla group have not been described. In this paper, we describe P. boliviana tadpoles from Corrientes, Argentina