Anfibios De Venezuela

AMPHIBIANS OF VENEZUELA SYSTEMATIC LIST, DISTRIBUTION AND REFERENCES, AN UPDATE Rev. Ecol. Lat. Am. Recibido: 02-07-2004 Vol. 9 Nº 3 Art. 1 pp. 01-48, 2004 Aceptado: 12-09-2004 ISSN 1012-2494 Publicado: 30-12-2004 D.L. pp 83-0168 © 2004 CIRES

AMPHIBIANS OF VENEZUELA SYSTEMATIC LIST, DISTRIBUTION AND REFERENCES, AN UPDATE
César L. BARRIO AMORÓS Fundación AndígenA

ABSTRACT
A commentedcheclikst of the Venezuelan batrachofauna is presented. The last checklist was in 1998 (BarrioAmorós 1998) and counted a total of 284 species. The current number is 299 species (285 anurans, nine caecilians, and five salamanders). 32 species are added compared with the previous list, 15 species are eliminated for different reasons, and there are 20 cases of nomenclatural change. Key Words: Amphibians.Anuran. Urodela. Venezuela

ANFIBIOS DE VENEZUELA LISTA SISTEMATICA, DISTRIBUCIÓN Y REFERENCIAS, UNA APROXIMACIÓN
RESUMEN
Se presenta una lista comentada de la batracofauna de Venezuela. La última lista fue en 1998 (BarrioAmorós 1998) con un total de 284 especies. El número actual asciende a 299 (285 anuros, nueve cecilias y cinco salamandras).Se añaden 32 especies comparando con la listaprevia, 15 especies son eliminadas de la lista por diferentes razones, y 20 más cambian su nomenclatura. Palabras Clave: Anfibios. Anuros. Urodela. Batracios. Ranas. Venezuela.

INTRODUCTION
Venezuela is currently the sixth most diverse country in the world in Amphibian diversity after Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Mexico and Perú. Several checklists, more or less detailed, have been appearing sincethe first serious version by Ginés (1959), in which 89 amphibians (four caecilians, three salamanders and 74 anurans) were reported. Rivero’s (1961) catalogue of anurans continue being the most complete treatment by species, although he only reported 96 taxa. Most modernly, two general catalogues by Harding (1983) and Frost (1985) were necessary to look over the Venezuelan amphibian diversity. In1992, two lists appeared; one by Péfaur (1992) counting 199 amphibians (187 anurans, two salamanders and 10 caecilians); and another by La Marca (1992), who reported 202 species of anurans. La Marca (1995) augmented the number of anurans to 237, counting also two salamanders and 10 caecilians. La Marca (1997) reported 272 amphibians (263 anurans, two salamanders and nine caecilians). Barrio-Amorós(1998) is the last published list, with 284 species (272 anurans, 10 caecilians and two urodeles). The updated online reference (Frost 2004) is a valid source of data of all amphibians per country in the world; however, we see that it is not very precise
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in many aspects. In that checklist, looking for Venezuela, 305 species appear, but 15 have never been reported from Venezuela, and 16 taxamore needs to be updated in many aspects. Six years after the last published checklist (BarrioAmorós 1998), the panorama has changed again in many ways, with several new species described, others reported as new for the country, and some deleted from the list by synonymies or just wrong previous data. The number we recognize is 298, 284 anurans, nine caecilians and five salamanders (21 speciesmore of anurans, one caecilian less, and three more urodeles). We do not refer to undescribed species that we are working or we know somebody is, although the number of those is approximately 50. We follow Barrio-Amorós (1998) in his checklist, adding and deleting the involved taxa. We only refer for each species the Type, Type locality, Distribution only in Venezuela in general terms, adding newlocalities when necessary (see a more complete locality section in BarrioAmorós 1998), Selected relevant literature dealing only with Venezuelan taxa (but not only checklists) in alphabetic order.
FICHA: César L. BARRIO AMORÓS. AMPHIBIANS OF VENEZUELA SYSTEMATIC LIST, DISTRIBUTION AND REFERENCES, AN UPDATE Rev. Ecol. Lat. Am. 9(3):01-48.

César L. BARRIO AMORÓS

Taxonomic or biogeographic...