Cryptic species complexes, widespread species and conservation: lessons from Amazonian frogs of the<i>Leptodactylus marmoratus</i>group (Anura: Leptodactylidae)

Abstract

Abstract Morphologically cryptic species act as a wild card when it comes to biodiversity assessments and conservation, with the capacity to dramatically alter our understanding of the biological landscape at the taxonomic, ecological, biogeographic, evolutionary, and conservation levels. We discuss the potential effects that cryptic species may have on biodiversity assessments and conservation, as well as some of the current issues involving the treatment of cryptic species both at taxonomic and conservation levels. In addition, using a combination of advertisement call and morphological data, we describe a new species of the Leptodactylus marmoratus group from the upper Amazon basin, and we assess how cryptic species can affect conservation assessments of species in the Leptodactylus marmoratus group by examining how recent findings affect our understanding of the distribution of what is assumed to be a widespread Amazonian species, Leptodactylus andreae. Key words: Adenomera advertisement callanuransconservationcryptic species complexesIUCN Red List Leptodactylus marmoratus grouptaxonomywidespread species Acknowledgements We thank the Museo de Historia Natural de San Marcos, Museo Noel Kempff Mercado and Coleccíon boliviana de fauna for the loan of type specimens. César Aguilar, Jesús Córdova, Frank Glaw, Ned Gilmore, Ross MacCulloch, Rossy Montaño and Annemarie Ohler facilitated loan of specimens under their care. IUCN kindly facilitated use of their shapefiles and allowed use of GIS software for elaboration of maps. The Man and Biosphere Program (Smithsonian Institution) and the Shell Oil Company provided logistic support, while the Instituto Nacional de Recursos Naturales (INRENA) granted appropriate research permits. Parts of the call description and call figures were first developed in AA's doctoral thesis; Leptodactylus simonstuarti is referred to as Adenomera 'Camisea I' in this work. AA is grateful to Steffen Reichle for first pointing out where to find L. simonstuarti in Bolivia, for support while in this country, and for facilitating specimen loans, and to Gonzalo Calderón and Jhonny for help in the field. We are grateful to Axel Kwet and Neil Cox for providing feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript and to Vineet Katariya for help with GIS software and maps. AA is grateful to Mike Hoffmann, Neil Cox and Marinus Hoogmoed for insightful discussions on morphologically cryptic species in the IUCN Red List. We thank two anonymous reviewers and the Associate Editor, Dr Barry Clarke, for their helpful revision of our manuscript.