Description

Diagnosis: Bolitoglossa striatula is a moderately small light-colored salamander with paired dorsal and lateral dark-colored longitudinal stripes, and completely webbed feet. Its venter is usually marked with several dark longitudinal streaks or stripes (Savage 2002). It can be distinguished from most other Honduran species of Bolitoglossa by its extensive webbing and by the toe tips free of the webbing being pointed to acutely rounded; from Honduran species with undifferentiated foot pads that resemble strongly webbed feet, B. striatula can be distinguished by the combination of moderate size (59 mm maximum SVL in males, 66 mm maximum SVL in females), relatively short limbs (limb interval 3.5-4 costal folds in males, 4-5 costal folds in females), moderate numbers of maxillary teeth (>=30 in Honduran specimens), and pale brown to yellowish-brown dorsum with usually incomplete thin brown dorsolateral longitudinal stripes running from just posterior to the head onto the tail (McCranie and Wilson 2002).

Description: Adults measure 81 to 130 mm in total length. Adult males are 37-54 mm in standard length, while adult females are 40-65 mm in standard length. The tail is long, measuring 49 to 55% of total length. Eyes are moderately-sized and do not protrude. Adults have 38-46 maxillary teeth and 22-24 vomerine teeth. No sublingual fold is present. The body has 13 costal grooves. Adpressed limbs are separated by 2 1/2 to 3 costal folds. Hands and feet are fully webbed and lack subterminal pads. Feet are wide. Head width is 14-16% of standard length. Leg length is 20-23% of standard length. It can be distinguished form the similar species B. schizodactyla by coloration; B. schizodactyla is brown to black and lacks longitudinal dark stripes (Savage 2002).

Dorsal and ventral surfaces are cream to yellow with paired brown dorsal stripes. Paired brown lateral stripes extend from the neck onto the base of the tail. On the sides, a cream longitudinal stripe borders a dark lateral stripe and is edged below by a black line. The mid-dorsal light field and lateral light area are marked with tiny brown spots. The venter has two blurry to clear ventrolateral stripes with a few indistinct dark streaks or stripes. Few individuals are immaculate (Savage 2002). The coloration is similar to that of a banana skin (Raffaëlli 2007).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua

	View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.
	View Bd and Bsal data (1 records).

Northeastern Honduras (Gracias a Dios and Olancho), eastern Nicaragua, and northeastern Costa Rica, as well as western Costa Rica and in passes between volcanoes in Río Barranca and Guanacaste (Bolaños et al. 2008). It occurs from 2-1,052 m asl (Bolaños et al. 2008) with the Honduran localities being at lower elevations (20-140 m) (McCranie and Wilson 2002; McCranie 2007). It is found primarily in lowland moist and wet forest but ranges just into premontane wet forest and rainforest, and in Honduras it has also been found in rice plantations (Bolaños et al. 2008).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
It breeds by direct development (Bolaños et al. 2008). In Honduras it has been collected on low vegetation, both along streams and away from streams (McCranie and Wilson 2002). In Costa Rica it is found on herbaceous vegetation, tall grass, and reeds near ponds (Savage 2002). It hides among dead leaves and debris during the day (Savage 2002).

Trends and Threats
Although this species is reasonably common and can be found in plantations and on grasses as well as in forest, there have been local extirpations as habitat is lost, particularly in Honduras (Bolaños et al. 2008). One of the best localities for this species (Rus-Rus, Honduras) is rapidly being deforested due to expanding human settlement, agriculture, and logging (Bolaños et al. 2008). It does occur within several protected areas (Bolaños et al. 2008), including the El Quebracho Private Wildlife Reserve in southern Nicaragua (Barquero et al. 2010) and the Reserva de la Biosfera del Sureste de Nicaragua (Sunyer et al. 2009).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss
Habitat modification from deforestation, or logging related activities
Intensified agriculture or grazing
Urbanization

Comments

First described by Noble (1918). The specific name striatula has Latin origins (stria, or stripe, and -ulus, meaning diminutive) and refers to the narrow brown stripes on the dorsal and ventral surfaces (McCranie and Wilson 2002).

The specimen from Limón Province, Costa Rica was originally ascribed to B. flaviventris by Taylor (1941).

Individuals from Volcán de Mombacho, Nicaragua, were formerly referred to B. striatula but are now considered a distinct species, Bolitoglossa mombachoensis (Köhler and McCranie 1999).

A Spanish-language species account can be found at the website of Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio).

References

Barquero, M. D., Salazar-Saavedra, M., Sandoval, L., Brenes, D., Martinez, F., and Figueroa, A. (2010). ''Composition and species richness of herpetofauna in two isolated regions of southern Nicaragua.'' Herpetology Notes, 3, 341-352.

Bolaños, F., Chaves, G., Wake, D., Köhler, G., Castañeda, F., and Kubicki, B. 2008. Bolitoglossa striatula. In: IUCN 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.4. www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on 11 March 2011.

Köhler, G. and McCranie, J. R. (1999). ''A new species of salamander from Volcan Mombacho, Nicaragua, formerly referred to Bolitoglossa striatula (Amphibia, Caudata, Plethodontidae).'' Senckenbergiana Biologica, 79, 89-93.

McCranie, J. R. (2007). ''Distribution of the amphibians of Honduras by departments.'' Herpetological Review, 38(1), 35-39.

McCranie, J. R., and Wilson, L. D. (2002). ''The Amphibians of Honduras.'' Contributions to Herpetology, Vol 19. K. Adler and T. D. Perry, eds., Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Ithaca, New York.

Noble, G. K. (1918). ''The amphibians collected by the American Museum Expedition to Nicaragua in 1916.'' Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, 38, 311-347.

Raffaëlli, J. (2007). Les Urodèles du monde. Penclen Edition, France.

Savage, J. M. (2002). The Amphibians and Reptiles of Costa Rica:a herpetofauna between two continents, between two seas. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA and London.

Sunyer, J., Páiz, G., Dehling, D. M., and Köhler, G. (2009). ''A collection of amphibians from Río San Juan, southeastern Nicaragua.'' Herpetology Notes, 2, 189-202.

Taylor, E. H. (1941). ''New amphibians from the Hobart M. Smith Mexican collections.'' University of Kansas Science Bulletin, 27, 141-167.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2011 Bolitoglossa striatula <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/4016> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 25, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 25 Nov 2024.

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