Gastrotheca turnerorum Carvajal-Endara, Coloma, Morales-Mite, Guayasamin, Szekely & Duellman 2019

Gastrotheca turnerorum Carvajal-Endara et al. 2019: 48 Figures: 8, 9, 10 New material. PERU — Cajamarca, Jaén province, Sallique district, Sallique, 5.621°S 79.246°W, 3357 m, adult female, CORBIDI 16625, adult male CORBIDI 16627, collected on December 7, 2015 by I. Wong and L.Y. Echevarría;— Piura, Huancabamba province, Carmen de la Frontera district, Chicuate, 5.017°S 79.441°W, 3007 m, adult male CORBIDI 26720, adult female CORBIDI 26721–22, collected on November 4, 2023 by G. Chávez, I. Wong, W. Aznaran, and K. Victoriano; Ayabaca province, Ayabaca district, Laguna Prieto de Samanga, 4.740°S 79.456°W, 3515 m, adult male CORBIDI 27412, collected on July 7, 2024 by G. Chávez, I. Wong, W. Aznaran, and K. Victoriano. New relevant variation. Four of six specimens of Gastrotheca turnerorum from Piura and Cajamarca departments of northwestern Peru differ in coloration patterns relative to specimens from Ecuador and two localities from Peru. Male CORBIDI 27412 from Laguna Prieto de Samanga at the boundary between Peru and Ecuador possesses the same general coloration of G. turnerorum from Ecuador, but differs by having the lips speckled by white little blotches (Fig. 8A), whereas the new specimens from Chicuate and Sallique have a white labial stripe with few or abundant black flecks (Fig. 8C–D). Dorsal background coloration in these new specimens is highly variable, from green (Fig. 9A) to tan, and tan suffused with green (Fig. 9D) with or without darker paravertebral stripes (paravertebral stripes are absent in Ecuadorian populations). The green specimen (CORBIDI 26722) has a cream dorsolateral stripe and flanks green bearing dirty cream dots and black dots along ventrolateral region (Fig. 9B), while tan specimens (CORBIDI 16627 and 26720) possess contrasted dark brown flanks with or without black reticulations and cream dots (see Fig. 9D). Specimen CORBIDI 26721 possesses the dorsum and flanks tan densely flecked by cream and dark brown spots and scattered groups of green spots; and a fine dark brown reticulation on flanks (Fig. 9G). Coloration of the hidden surfaces such as groins, anterior and posterior surfaces of thighs, and ventral surface of shanks varies from light green bearing black and tan flecks to bluish green with black and yellowish tan flecks or bluish black with cream flecks (Fig. 9E). Coloration of ventral surfaces varies from cream to tan with dark brown or black dots (Fig. 9C), or brown with uniformly distributed whitish cream spots (Fig. 9F, H). Updated distribution and natural history. Before this study, Gastrotheca turnerorum was known only from three localities in the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes in southern Ecuador, at elevations from 3073 to 3406 m, inhabiting mainly paramos and a few forests in the Evergreen Shrub and Herbazal of Paramo, and the Evergreen Montane Forest of Catamayo-Alamor (Carvajal-Endara et al. 2019). Our new records are three localities in humid grasslands (paramos) (Fig. 7): Laguna Prieto de Samanga and Chicuate in Departamento Piura, and Sallique in Departamento Cajamarca, at elevations of 3007 and 3357 m. According to CDC-UNALM (2006), these localities lie in the Cordillera Central Paramo ecoregion. In Laguna Prieto de Samanga, an adult male specimen was collected hiding in a bromeliad during the day. In Chicuate the three specimens were collected active at night between 20:00 and 21:00 h in humid grasslands. One adult male (CORBIDI 26720) was found calling from a branch in a shrub to 150 cm of height. This specimen at the time of capture secreted a bluish white, milky substance from the back of the dorsum (Fig. 10). While the two other specimens, adult females, one perched on a branch of a fallen tree at 50 cm of height was collected in the edge of a patch of elfin forest, and a gravid female (CORBIDI 26721) was collected in the edge of a pond in a humid grassland. Finally, the two specimens from Sallique were found under moss in a swampy area during morning hours.