DOI

10.2307/1565340

Abstract

Tadpoles of Atelopus belong to the gastromyzophorous guild of exotrophic larvae (Altig and Johnston, 1989), and are characterized by the presence of a conspicuous abdominal sucker and an expanded oral disc. The larvae of several Atelopus species have been described previously: A. varius (Starrett, 1967); A. certus, A. ignescens, and A. spumarius (Duellman and Lynch, 1969); A. cruciger (Mebs, 1980); A. flavescens (Lescure, 1981); A. peruensis (Gray and Cannatella, 1985); and A. subornatus (Lynch, 1986). These represent about 15% of the known species in the genus (Frost, 1985; Duellman, 1993). Although Atelopus tricolor was originally described at the beginning of the century (Boulenger, 1902), it is a poorly known species. It has been reported from only a few localities from southern Peru (type locality: Marcapata Valley, Departamento Cuzco), to Departamento Cochabamba, Bolivia (Fugler, 1984; De la Riva, 1990; Reynolds and Foster, 1992), at elevations of 600-2100 m (Duellman, 1979). Herein we characterize and illustrate the tadpole of Ate/opus tricolor.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1997

Publisher Statement

Copyright © 1997 Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles. This article first appeared in Journal of Herpetology 31, no. 1 (1997): 121-24. doi:10.2307/1565340.

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