344 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 88 



the collectors, and no one person has collected many examples of the 

 named species. Of the 17 species of phyllomedusids described from 

 the northern half of western South America, the recent monographer 

 of the group saw type material of only four. So far we have seen type 

 material of eleven and are not yet ready to assign more than relatively 

 few of the names with any degree of confidence. 



The two specimens here called edentula have been directly compared 

 with the type of that species and the three seem to be conspecific. 

 It is true that the type was described as toothless, but there are two 

 low ridges of the same size and position as the tooth ridges in the two 

 specimens at hand. In these the female has teeth in both ridges but 

 the male has them in the left ridge only. 



It somewhat disturbs our sense of zoogeography to assign speci- 

 mens that were collected practically on the Darien border of Colombia 

 to a species described from the eastern side of Ecuador, but for the 

 present we see no alternative. 



The two specimens for which we are using the name P. edentula 

 are certainly closely related to P. nicefori and to P. orcesi, if in fact 

 the latter two are really distinct. The specimens of edentula differ 

 most conspicuously from those of the latter two species in their larger 

 size and in lacking two light spots below the vent. 



The two Choco specimen were in amplexus when taken. 



Specimens Examined 

 COLOMBIA 



Choc6: Sautata, CNHM 74906-7. 

 ECUADOR: Rfo Pastaza watershed (type), NR collection. 



Phyllomedusa species 



Figure 40 



A single specimen of Phyllomedusa from Serrania de La Macarena in 

 Meta, Colombia, cannot be assigned to any species we now know. 

 This individual (CNHM 81338) is an adult female measuring 62.5 

 millimeters in head-body length. 



This frog seems most like P. edentula, but she differs from that 

 species in her much smaller size (62.5 as compared to 91.5 and 96.7 

 mm. for our two Colombian specimens of edentula), in having low but 

 distinct triangular dermal appendages on the heels, and in the fact 

 that along her sides the dorsal and ventral ground colors are separated 

 by a nearly complete, distinct white line. On both sides this line is 

 interrupted in the region of the groin to form a short row of elongated 

 pale spots. This specimen has been directly compared with the type of 

 edentula and differs from it in the same respects, although the type is 

 slightly smaller (83.6 mm. in head-body length) than the two Colom- 

 bian specimens. 



