Los renacuajos de los anuros (Amphibia) altoandinos de Venezuela: Morfología externa y claves

Abstract

A Iiterature re view and examination of several lots of tadpoles re pre se ntative of the high Venezuelan Andes species (at le as! one species pe r ge nus) allowed ide ntificatiol1 of 41 use ful characte rs . These are presented (wIth some illustrations ) in ade tailed description of the i r e x te rnal morphology. Angle me as ureme nts ( re lated to bod y longitud inal axis) are rec omme nded to desc ribe tail tip s hape and location of oral apparatuses. Add itionally, nincteen meristic d ata were used to asse rt morpholog ic al proportions. The ide ntification kcy is based e xc l usi ve ly on e xte rnal morphology ( prescnce/abse nce, size , shapc, numbe r, loc ation, e tc. ), that re mains mostly unmod ified in larval em ly and intermediate de ve lopment. T he ke y allows ide ntification to ge nus for frogs and toad s that occ ur in ( he reg i ol1 (s ix families, II ge ne ra). As a mode l of this proposal, the tad pole 01' Hyla pelidnLl is de sc ríbed and illustrated r or lhe first time; it t1 ts the larval c harac te ristic s o f the H. labia lis g roup ( ke ratod ont rows fo rJll ula 1/201' 21 2, marg inal papillae in multiple rows, rostral g ap prese nt, de xtral c loac al opcning abd om inal [ se parated from lhe ventral fi n ] , c aud al fins wide st than c audal musc ulature at tail m id le ngth, narial o pening with l1eshy, Slllooth, not protuberant rim). This is a fi rs l effo rt to e stablis h un ,m uran l arval te rminolog y in Spanish