FROGS OF COLOMBIA — COCHRAN AND GOIN 185 



of all the species of Gastrotheca in the Andes south of Colombia we 

 cannot be dogmatic about this. Of the Colombian species of Gastro- 

 theca, it is surely most closely related to monticola argenteovirens. 

 However, Dr. Robert Mertens compared mertensi directly with the 

 type of monticola argenteovirens, and both he and his colleague, Dr. 

 Klemmer, state that the two specimens cannot be of the same species. 

 That they are specifically distinct is borne out also by the fact that 

 both forms occur at Moscopan and retain their distinctness there. 



All the specimens we have seen have come from Moscopan, in the 

 state of Cauca, Colombia. Moscopan, although an often-cited locality, 

 is not a town or city but a region near the paramos. It is reached by 

 taking the road from Popayan up past Purace* and across the paramo. 



Specimens Examined 

 COLOMBIA 



Cauca: Moscopan, MZUM 121024 (holotype), 121025-30, 121031 (7 juv.), 

 CJG 2305-6, USNM 152334-74 (41 young), 148567-8. 



Gastrotheca monticola argenteovirens (Boettger) 



Figure 18 



1892. Hyla argenteovirens Boettger, p. 46 (type locality, Colombia, Popayan). — 



Mertens, 1922, p. 163. 

 1933. Gastrotheca marsupiata argenteovirens. — Mertens, 1933, p. 259. — Vellard, 



1957, p. 7.— Gorham, 1963, p. 21. 



Diagnosis. — A small Gastrotheca without superciliary processes, 

 without dermal appendages on the heel, with the cranial derm free 

 from the skull, and with the intersquamosal shelf incomplete pos- 

 teriorly so that it does not form a straight margin at the rear of the 

 skull. 



This form is more similar to G. mertensi than to any other Colombian 

 Gastrotheca but it can be distinguished from that species by its small 

 size and by the fact that it tends to be mottled below rather than 

 uniformly colored. 



Description— CNHM 54811, from Guaitarilla, 2,000 meters, 

 Narifio Colombia. Vomerine teeth in two short, rounded, contiguous 

 series, lying between the small, rounded choanae; tongue two-thirds 

 as wide as mouth opening, very broadly cordiform, its posterior 

 border slightly free and shallowly notched. Snout short, rounded 

 when viewed from above, very slightly rounded in profile, the upper 

 jaw extending a little beyond lower; nostrils more lateral than superior, 

 slightly projecting, their distance from end of snout about one- third 

 that from eye, separated from each other by an interval equal to about 

 two-thirds their distance from eye. Can thus rostralis sharply defined ; 

 loreal region nearly flat and nearly vertical, the upper lip not flaring 

 out appreciably below it. Eye moderate, not particularly prominent, 



