SPHENOPHRYNE - American Museum of Natural History
SPHENOPHRYNE - American Museum of Natural History
SPHENOPHRYNE - American Museum of Natural History
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2000 ZWEIFEL: PARTITION OF <strong>SPHENOPHRYNE</strong><br />
35<br />
males range from 37.2 to 43.3 mm SVL, five<br />
adult females from 40.9 to 43.8 mm.<br />
There is little variation in color pattern in<br />
the paratypes. One has dorsal spotting encroaching<br />
on the undersides <strong>of</strong> the thighs. In<br />
another, the smallest male, the dorsal pattern<br />
<strong>of</strong> spots is much denser, almost reticulate,<br />
and the anterior and posterior surfaces <strong>of</strong> the<br />
thighs are similarly marked. The snout tip is<br />
slightly paler than the rest <strong>of</strong> the head in<br />
some but not all males, but not in two calling<br />
males.<br />
As seen in color transparencies, one individual<br />
has a gray ground color with dark<br />
gray to black spotting, the other has a tan<br />
ground color and dark brown to black spotting.<br />
ILLUSTRATIONS: Hand and foot, fig. 55B.<br />
CALL: Through the courtesy <strong>of</strong> Stephen<br />
Richards and Allen Allison, I have tape recordings<br />
<strong>of</strong> the calls <strong>of</strong> two individuals <strong>of</strong><br />
this species, QM J67256 and BPBM 13157.<br />
The call is a prolonged series <strong>of</strong> brief, harsh<br />
notes given at a rate <strong>of</strong> about 7 per sec at<br />
24.2 and 26.4C (fig. 79C, table 5). The<br />
mean note duration is 0.048 sec in two calls<br />
(range 0.040–0.052, dominant frequency<br />
2050–2200 Hz). Each note typically has six<br />
or seven pulses about equal in length or with<br />
the last longer, although one or two weak additional<br />
pulses may sometimes be detected<br />
(figs. 79C, 80B, see Vocalizations). Two peculiarities<br />
<strong>of</strong> this species’ call are its duration<br />
and infrequency <strong>of</strong> utterance. A nearly complete<br />
sequence—S. Richards estimated (personal<br />
commun.) that it lacks the initial 3–8<br />
seconds—lasts 1 min 22 sec. Even more<br />
striking is the second call, the recording <strong>of</strong><br />
which lasts 2 min 37 sec and lacks an estimated<br />
10–15 sec (Allen Allison, personal<br />
commun.) S. Richards reported that his recorded<br />
individual called only three or four<br />
times in an hour.<br />
COMPARISONS WITH OTHER SPECIES: The<br />
features noted in the Diagnosis render guttata<br />
a rather distinctive species. A. archboldi,<br />
probably a smaller species, resembles guttata<br />
in relative eye size and leg length but has a<br />
wider internarial span, smaller hands and finger<br />
discs, and a dorsal pattern <strong>of</strong> finer dark<br />
markings. The other most similar species—<br />
derongo and hooglandi—differ in critical ratios<br />
(table 2), and the latter has a distinctive<br />
color pattern. A. guttata and A. derongo occur<br />
in sympatry at Uraru, Gulf Prov., Papua<br />
New Guinea.<br />
HABITAT AND HABITS: Two <strong>of</strong> the localities<br />
for the species are in areas mapped by Paijmans<br />
(1975) as Medium Crowned Lowland<br />
Hill Forest, whereas the type locality appears<br />
to be in ‘‘small crowned forest on plains and<br />
fans.’’ Stephen Richards reports (personal<br />
commun.) that a specimen he tape-recorded<br />
and collected was ‘‘calling from under litter<br />
at the base <strong>of</strong> a small shrub. . . . The forest<br />
here is lowland alluvial rainforest.’’ Allen<br />
Allison (personal commun.) described the<br />
calling site <strong>of</strong> another individual: ‘‘. ..on<br />
the ground in a small, apparently natural<br />
‘shelter’ approx. 10 cm wide, 10 cm deep<br />
and 15 cm high formed by a few leaves that<br />
had fallen around a clump <strong>of</strong> grass.’’<br />
DISTRIBUTION: The species is known from<br />
localities around the head <strong>of</strong> the Gulf <strong>of</strong> Papua<br />
(fig. 19), two in Gulf Province and two in<br />
Simbu Province; see Holotype and Paratypes<br />
for specifics. Three known elevations <strong>of</strong> capture<br />
are 90, 120, and 360 m, and the fourth<br />
is likely within or below this range.<br />
Austrochaperina hooglandi<br />
(Zweifel), new combination<br />
Figure 20<br />
Sphenophryne hooglandi Zweifel, 1967a: 2 (type<br />
locality, ‘‘Mt. Hunstein, Sepik District, Territory<br />
<strong>of</strong> New Guinea [West Sepik Province, Papua<br />
New Guinea], at an elevation <strong>of</strong> 4000 feet’’<br />
[1220 m]; holotype, AMNH A77597, collected<br />
by R. D. Hoogland on August 13, 1966).<br />
DIAGNOSIS: A relatively large Austrochaperina,<br />
with males and females reaching 43–<br />
44 mm SVL, a size otherwise attained in the<br />
hooglandi species group only by guttata.<br />
Among other Austrochaperina, this size is attained<br />
or exceeded only in some populations<br />
<strong>of</strong> palmipes and rivularis. The color pattern<br />
<strong>of</strong> hooglandi is distinctive, with the dark<br />
middorsal region abruptly differentiated from<br />
paler lateral areas and with reddish shades<br />
prominent, especially laterally and on the<br />
groin and thighs.<br />
MORPHOLOGY: The holotype, a male, is described<br />
in detail in Zweifel (1967a). Its measurements<br />
and proportions are: SVL 40.1,<br />
HW 14.5, TL 17.6, EY 3.8, EN 3.1, IN 4.1,