Fifty years after: A taxonomic revision of the amphibian species from the Ecuadorian biodiversity hotspot Abra de Zamora, with description of two new Pristimantis species

RESEARCH ARTICLE Fifty years after: A taxonomic revision of the amphibian species from the Ecuadorian biodiversity hotspot Abra de Zamora, with description of two new Pristimantis species Paul Sze´ kelyID1,2*, Juan Sebastia´n EguigurenID3, Leonardo Ordo´ ñez-DelgadoID2,4, Diego Armijos-Ojeda2,4, Diana Sze´kely2,5 1 Museo de Zoologı´a, Universidad Te´ cnica Particular de Loja, Loja, Ecuador, 2 Laboratorio de Ecologı´a Tropical y Servicios Ecosiste´ micos - EcoSs Lab, Departamento de Ciencias Biolo´ gicas, Universidad Te´cnica Particular de Loja, Loja, Ecuador, 3 Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC), Center for Molecular and Cellular Bioengineering (CMCB), Technische Universita¨ t Dresden (TUD), Dresden, Germany, 4 Programa de Doctorado en Conservacio´ n de Recursos Naturales, Escuela Internacional de Doctorado, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Mo´ stoles, Madrid, Spain, 5 Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Ovidius University Constanța, Constanța, Romania * jpszekely@utpl.edu.ec Abstract Abra de Zamora is an important biodiversity hotspot in southern Ecuador. Between 1938 and 2010, eleven species of frogs were described from here: Lynchius flavomaculatus, Gas- trotheca psychrophila, Pristimantis balionotus, P. colodactylus, P. cryptomelas, P. percul- tus, P. versicolor, P. vidua, Telmatobius cirrhacelis, P. andinognomus, and Atelopus podocarpus. Unfortunately, many of these species were not re-encountered after their origi- nal description, and for the majority DNA samples were not available, making their phyloge-

netic position unknown. In this study, we assess the current state of the amphibians from Abra de Zamora, by: i. redescribing the species which were first reported from the area, by contributing genetic delimitation (for L. flavomaculatus, P. balionotus, P. colodactylus, P. percultus, and P. vidua), release call (L. flavomaculatus) and advertisement call descriptions (for P. balionotus, P. vidua and P. versicolor); ii. presenting an updated amphibian species list of Abra de Zamora, with the description of two additional Pristimantis species; iii. updat- ing the distribution of these species, including data collected in similar montane habitats from surrounding areas; and iv. amending recommendations regarding their conservation status. Introduction Despite its small size, Ecuador is one of the most biodiverse countries [1], showing the highest density of species (number of species per area unit) in the case of amphibians [2] and reptiles [3], as well as a remarkable proportion of endemic species [4]. Several areas in Ecuador are recognized as genuine hotspots of amphibian diversity from where numerous species were PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238306 September 10, 2020 1 / 59 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Sze´kely P, Eguiguren JS, Ordo´ñez- Delgado L, Armijos-Ojeda D, Sze´kely D (2020) Fifty years after: A taxonomic revision of the amphibian species from the Ecuadorian biodiversity hotspot Abra de Zamora, with description of two new Pristimantis species. PLoS ONE 15(9): e0238306.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0238306 Editor: Stefan Lo¨tters, Universitat Trier, GERMANY Received: May 20, 2020 Accepted: August 12, 2020 Published: September 10, 2020 Copyright: © 2020 Sze´kely et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: DNA matrices are available in Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/ zenodo.3952997. Funding: This study was funded by the Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF), grant CEPF- 108984, through the “Amphibian Conservation in the Abra de Zamora Key Biodiversity Area of Ecuador” project. Fieldwork and research of marsupial frogs was supported by the Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, through project 172515484 "Conservation of the Ridge