Ranitomeya cyanovittata Pérez-Peña, Chávez, Twomey & Brown, 2010
| family: Dendrobatidae subfamily: Dendrobatinae genus: Ranitomeya |
Species Description: Perez-Pena PE, Chavez G, Twomey E, Brown JL 2010 Two new species of Ranitomeya (Anura: Dendrobatidae) from eastern Amazonian Peru. Zootaxa 2439:1-23 |
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Description DIAGNOSIS: Despite occurring close to many other species of the Ranitomeya genus, R. cyanovittata is easily distinguishable by its patterning and coloration. Specifically, R. cyanovittata is bicolored with a black background and turquoises-blue lines and reticulations over the whole body. This coloration and patterning distinguish R. cyanovittata from R. biolat, which has grey legs with yellow/black dorsal striping; R. uakarii, which has dorsal striping with a red to yellow gradient from the snout to the vent; R. yavaricola, which has solid-colored legs; R. flavovittata, which has a set of broken, yellow/black dorsal stripes; R. lamasi has dorsal stripes that can be green, red, yellow, or orange; R. ventrimaculata, which has non-parallel, dorsal stripes that can either be yellow, orange, or red on a black background; and R. imitator, which can have black, dorsal spots or stripes on a green, yellow, orange background (Perez-Peña et al. 2010). COLORATION: Live specimens exhibit a bicolored pattern consisting of a black background color with blue spots and stripes. Specifically, there is a blue spot on the snout and at the axilla. And there are several transverse stripes including, a pair that starts between the eyes, extend over the anterior eyelids, and end at the insertion of the thighs, and another set that extends from the upper labia to the insertion of the arm. Lastly, there is a vertebral strip that extends from the posterior of the head to the vent, however, this may merge with the spot on the snout. The legs are also bicolored, but exhibit black spotting or mottling on a blue background. The ventral side also shows a pattern similar to the legs with certain individuals having more mottled spots of black while others have more reticulated patches. Less notable are the faint patches of brownish on the ventral regions of the frog, particularly the limbs. The metacarpal, metatarsal, and some subarticular tubercles are unpigmented. The iris is black. Specimens stored in preservative have no notable difference outside of the blue regions appearing grey (Perez-Peña et al. 2010). VARIATION: As with most Ranitomeya species, individual variation in patterning is present. Individuals may have varying amounts of rust coloration on their toe pads and ventral regions. Most of the dorsal stripes run across the full body length, but certain individuals possess a central blue dorsal stripe that ends just behind the eye, leading to a lateral blue stripe just past the eyes, and a blue nose spot. Ventral pattern variation is also observed and comes in the form of either black mottling on a blue background or slight reticulation (Perez-Peña et al. 2010). Distribution and Habitat Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Peru
Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors It has been deduced that the preferred habitat is on leaf litter with generally limited plant coverage from various ferns and large, herbaceous plants (an example being Heliconia spp.). Surrounding the areas are accessible streams/rivulets, trees such as Cedrella spp. and Moronobea spp., and no nearby bromeliads (Perez-Peña et al. 2010). Trends and Threats Relation to Humans Comments PHYLOGENETIC RELATIONSHIPS: Ranitomeya cyanovittata are closely related to all other Ranitomeya based on a 2124 base pair Maximum Likelihood analysis of mitochondrial DNA. Of the various Ranitomeya species, Ranitomeya cyanovittata are likely placed within the R. vanzolinii group, which includes: R. flavovittata, R. imitator, R. vanzolinii, and R. yavaricola. This analysis further found R. cyanovittata to be sister toR. yavaricola (Perez-Peña et al. 2010) ETYMOLOGY: The species epithet, “cyanovittata” can be translated to “blue stripped” and originates from two different words. The first half, “cyanos” or “κυανοσ,” comes from an ancient Greek noun describing “a blue substance used to adorn armor.” The second half, “vittatus,” refers to a Latin adjective that translates to “banded” (Perez-Peña et al. 2010).
References
Perez-Peña, P.E., Chávez, G., Twomey, E., Brown, J. (2010) “Two new species of Ranitomeya (Anura: Dendrobatidae) from Eastern Amazonian Peru.” Zootaxa, 2439, 1-23 [link] Originally submitted by: Andrew Joonhyun Lee (2023-03-07) Description by: Andrew Joonhyun Lee (updated 2023-03-07)
Distribution by: Andrew Joonhyun Lee (updated 2023-03-07)
Life history by: Andrew Joonhyun Lee (updated 2023-03-07)
Trends and threats by: Andrew Joonhyun Lee (updated 2023-03-07)
Relation to humans by: Andrew Joonhyun Lee (updated 2023-03-07)
Comments by: Andrew Joonhyun Lee (updated 2023-03-07)
Edited by: Ann T. Chang (2023-03-07) Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2023 Ranitomeya cyanovittata <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/7488> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Sep 11, 2024.
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Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 11 Sep 2024. AmphibiaWeb's policy on data use. |