Description

Dendropsophus reticulatus is a frog with a snout vent length range of 20 - 29.6 mm in males and 28 - 39.7 mm in females. The head is slightly wider than it is long, and the snout is rounded with the nostrils located near the tip of the snout. There’s an axillary membrane on the arm that reaches halfway to the elbow. The webbing on the fingers is basal and the toes are ¾ webbed. There’s a single palmar tubercle. The ventral surface of the body and lower parts of the thighs are coarsely granular, and the ventral side of the head and chest are smooth (Caminer et al. 2017, Andersson 1945).

Dendropsophus reticulatus differs from the three most related species to it, D. leucophyllatus, D. triangulum, and D. arndti, by its uniform dorsal coloration sometimes accompanied by rounded, brown spots. It also differs from these species in its advertisement call and smaller size. In life, the coloration of the ventral surfaces of the limbs, anterior and posterior surfaces of the thighs, and the webbing are reddish in D. reticulatus, which differentiate from the orange coloration in the same areas in D. triangulum and D. arndti. The reticulated color morph of D. reticulatus can be differentiated from other similar reticulated species by having a thicker reticulum (Caminer et al. 2017).

In life, the dorsal coloration varies from a brown to a reddish brown, white, or bright yellow. It’s also possible for there to be a varying number of dark brown marks on the dorsum. The tip of the snout, the sides of the head, the supra-cloacal region, and the flanks are dark brown, brown, or grayish. There’s a long, white, ovoid band that covers the dorsal surface of the shanks. At night, the ventral surfaces of the limbs, the anterior and posterior surfaces of the thighs, and the webbing are salmon pink, and they change to red during the day. The vocal sac and the belly are a reddish white color. The iris coloration varies from a dull bronze to a coppery bronze (Caminer et al. 2017).

This species varies in coloration and has sexual size dimorphism, with the females being larger. The dorsal coloration varies from brown, reddish brown, dark brown, white, or bright yellow. Some individuals have round, brown marks on the dorsum, and a few individuals have small black spots scattered on the dorsum. The forearm coloration can match the brown color of the dorsum, snout, sides of the head, supra-cloacal region, and flanks, but some individuals have one or two rounded white spots on the dorsal surface of the forearms. The ventral side of the body, webbing, and discs vary from a cream white to a yellowish white. The anterior and posterior surfaces of the thighs and the ventral surfaces of the limbs vary from salmon pink at night to red during the day. Some individuals also have a reticulated pattern (Caminer et al. 2017).

There are seven color morphs identified for this species based on following characters (from Duellman 1974):

1. Immaculate dorsum
2. One round mark on the occipital region
3. Two round marks with one located on the mid-dorsal region and the other on the occipital region
4. A wide dark band from the head to the mid-body
5. Three round marks with one on the head and two on the mid-body
6. One or two rows of round marks located mid-dorsally
7. Round marks over the entire dorsum, similar to the reticulated pattern

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Dendropsophus reticulatus is found in the Amazon basin of Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. It can be found at elevations of 40 - 1037 meters above sea level (Caminer et al. 2017).

Its range is most often in Amazonian Lowland Evergreen forest, a type of forest characterized by a dense upper canopy, dark open interior, tree species richness, and well-draining soil that’s rich in nutrients. It is usually found in flooded forests, swamps, next to streams, lakes, and temporary ponds (Caminer et al. 2017).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors

Dendropsophus reticulatus has most often been observed at night perching on vegetation about 20 - 100 cm off of the ground (Caminer et al. 2017).

Dendropsophus reticulatus has two calls, an advertisement and aggressive call. The advertisement call is one pulsed, trill note with a mean duration of 0.10 s and 12 - 17 pulses/note with two to four secondary notes with a mean duration of 0.039 s and 5 - 6 pulses/note. This call has an average duration of 0.35 s, an average dominant frequency of 2992.3 Hz, a mean rise time of 0.18 s, and a mean frequency bandwidth of 705.98 Hz (Caminer et al. 2017).

The aggressive call is 3 - 5 notes with a mean duration of 0.59 s and mean rise time of 0.38 s. There’s an average of about 22 pulses per call, which is less than the advertisement call. The average dominant frequency is 2832 Hz and the average frequency bandwidth is 735.46 Hz (Caminer et al. 2017).

Trends and Threats

Dendropsophus reticulatus has a large range and only a very small proportion of it has been degraded, indicating that there are few threats to this species (Caminer et al. 2017).

Comments

Based on a 2017 Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian analysis of nucDNA and 16S mtDNA, D. reticulatus was moved to the Dendropsophus genus from the Hyla genus. There were three distinct previous names for this species: H. reticulata, H. membrana, and H. laynei. They were all combined under the species name D. reticulatus in this analysis. These same analyses indicate that D. reticulatus is sister to the clade formed by D. leucophyllatus and D. arndti (Caminer et al. 2017). In a 2021 total evidence analysis of the Dendropsophus genus using previously published data as well as new samples of 12S and 16S mtDNA and nucDNA concluded that D. reticulatus is sister to D. triangulum, however the study did not include D. leucophyllatus, D. arndti, or D. vraemi in their phylogenetic analysis (Orrico et al. 2021). The discrepancies between these two analyses leave the placement of D. reticulatus unclear.

The species epithet, “reticulatus”, is in reference to the reticulated pattern that some individuals have (Jiminez 1870).

References

Andersson, L. G. (1945). Batrachians from East Ecuador, collected 1937, 1938 by Wm. Clarke-Macintyre and Rolf Blomberg. Arkiv för Zoologi. Stockholm 37A(2): 1–88.

Caminer, M. A., Milá, B., Jansen, M., Fouquet, A., Venegas, P. J., Chávez, G., Lougheed, S. C. and Ron, S. R. (2017). Systematics of the Dendropsophus leucophyllatus species complex (Anura: Hylidae): Cryptic diversity and the description of two new species. PLoS (Public Library of Science) One 12(3), e0171785 [link]

Duellman, W. E. (1974). A reassessment of the taxonomic status of some neotropical hylid frogs. Occasional Papers of the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas 27: 1–27. [link]

Jiménez de la Espada, M. (1870). Fauna neotropicalis species quaedam nondum cognitae. Jornal de Sciências, Mathemáticas, Physicas e Naturaes. Lisboa, 3, 57–65. [link]

Orrico, V. G. D., Grant, T., Faivovich, J., Rivera-Correa, M., Rada, M. A., Lyra, M. L., Cassini, C. S., Valdujo, P. H., Schargel, W. E., Machado, D. J., Wheeler, W. C., Barrio-Amorós, C., Loebmann, D., Moravec, J., Zina, J., Solé, M., Sturaro, M. J., Peloso, P. L. V., Suarez, P., and Haddad, C. F. B. (2021). The phylogeny of Dendropsophini (Anura: Hylidae: Hylinae). Cladistics, 37(1), 73 - 105. [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2023 Dendropsophus reticulatus: Reticulate Treefrog; Ranita reticulada <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/8601> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Apr 18, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 18 Apr 2024.

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