Two new species of terrestrial-breeding frogs

The genus Pristimantis of terrestrial-breeding frogs is the most species-rich genus of frogs, with over 570 species named to date. In the last lab collaboration with Pablo Venegas and Luis Garcia Ayachi from the Centro de Ornitologia y Biodiversidad (CORBIDI), we describe two new species of Pristimantis from the Amazonas department in northern Peru: Pristimantis kiruhampatu and P. paulpittmani ​(see photo above by A. Marchelie). The genus is exceptionally diverse in the Tropical Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Since 2010, researchers have named 138 species of Pristimantis, among them 20 of the 142 species known to occur in Peru. These numbers suggest that we are far from reaching saturation in terms of the number of species of Pristimantis in Peru, and more generally for the genus across the Tropical Andes. As for other terrestrial-breeding frogs in the Andes, many species of Pristimantis are endemic to small montane valleys, many of which remain poorly explored.
The name kiruhampatu (see photo below)is composed of two Quechua nouns, kiru meaning “tooth”, and hampatu meaning “frog”. The specific name refers to the tubercles along the snout that looks like teeth. The second species is a patronym for Paul Edward Pittman, an American biochemist (1955–2017) who was deeply concerned about climate change’s effects on the biological diversity of tropical forests in the Americas. The name honors his deep concern for and commitment to the conservation of this region’s biodiversity.

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Venegas, P.J., L.A. Garcia-Ayachi, A. Catenazzi. 2021. Two new species of Pristimantis (Anura: Strabomantidae) from Amazonas Department in northeastern Peru. Taxonomy 2: 20-40. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/taxonomy2010002