Abstract

A new species of Bolitoglossa is described from the Cordillera Central of central Panamá. This is a large black species, which is likely related to the B. (Eladinea) schizodactyla group of Costa Rica and Panamá. The new species, known from a single specimen, differs from other large black Bolitoglossa in having white pigmentation on the lower face and on the ventral portions of the head and chest. It also has more interdigital webbing than most members of the B. (E.) schizodactyla group.

Abstract

Several populations of large (adult standard length, 43–134 mm) black salamanders of the widespread neotropical genus Bolitoglossa (Plethodontidae) are known from the cordilleras of western Panamá and Costa Rica. These populations constitute at least seven species, including two recently described (B. anthracina, B. copia), one described long ago that remains poorly known (B. nigrescens), and three described herein as new. The long-recognized, wide-ranging B. robusta, which is distinguished by a pale, pigmented ring around the tail base and a unique combination of maxillary and vomerine tooth counts, may occur sympatrically with four of the other taxa. Differences in head and body form, adult size, cranial osteology, and maxillary and vomerine tooth counts separate all recognized taxa from one another. These results confirm and indeed increase the exceedingly high diversity of salamander species known from the Cordillera Talamanca-Barú of Costa Rica and Panamá, diversity that now rivals that found anywhere else in the tropics.

Abstract

The deep-sea ceratioid anglerfish genus Acentrophryne is revised on the basis of all known material. Two species are recognized: the type species Acentrophryne longidens, represented by two specimens collected in the Gulf of Panama and from off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica and a new species described here on the basis of three specimens, all from off Peru. The new species differs from A. longidens in having a much longer distal escal appendage, a longer illicium, a narrower head, and fewer pectoral-fin rays. Diagnoses and descriptions are given for all taxa and a key to the species is provided.

ALABAMA WILDLIFE. VOLUME ONE. A CHECKLIST OF VERTEBRATES AND SELECTED INVERTEBRATES: MOLLUSKS, FISHES, AMPHIBIANS, REPTILES, BIRDS, AND MAMMALS. Ralph E. Mirarchi (ed.). 2004. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. ISBN 0-8173-5130-2. 212 p. $19.95 (paperback).—This checklist is published by the University of Alabama Press in cooperation with the Division of Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the School of Forestry and Wildlife Science at Auburn University. It is not intended to be mainly an identification guide, although all of the groups covered are illustrated with attractive color photographs. The text mostly summarizes