Heterophrynus cervinus Pocock, 1894 b

Heterophrynus cervinus Pocock, 1894 b View in CoL

Figs 5 A – H View Figure 5 , 15 View Figure 15

Material examined.

Colombia • ♀; Boyaca Department; Caverna Las Cocas ; 5°45'84"N, 74°2'21"W; altitude 2000 m a. s. l. Carlos A. Lasso leg. ( IAvH -I-7876 ) (New departamental record) .

Records.

Colombia: Putumayo, Cavernas de San Carlos ( Armas et al. 2015 b); Boyaca, Caverna Las Cocas; Tolima, Cunday caves, Tobón; Vereda La Camelia, El Edén cave (Chirivi et al. 2020).

Remarks.

The precise type locality of H. cervinus remains unknown, and access to the type specimens was unavailable to us. Armas et al. (2015 b) reported this species from the Department of Putumayo, and our examination of a single female specimen from a cave in Boyacá reveals morphological concordance with the individuals illustrated by Armas et al. (2015 b). However, we observed slight differences, particularly in the gonopod claw, which is more sharply pointed in our specimen, and a more pronounced expansion of the internal lobe — features subtler in the H. cervinus illustrated by Armas et al. (2015 b). These traits are shared with H. silviae , though the latter exhibits clearly curved claws (medially opposed and blunt-tipped). Given these considerations — (1) the lack of access to the type specimens of H. cervinus , (2) the uncertainty surrounding the precise type locality, (3) the notable geographical gap between the known Colombian locality for this species and our new record, which approaches the distribution range of H. silviae , (4) the absence of male specimens in our material preventing more comprehensive comparisons and (5) the apparent conspecificity between our specimen and those documented by Armas et al. (2015 b) — we have tentatively identified our population as H. cervinus based on the aforementioned work.