The relationships of four small Hispaniolan Elutherodactylus (Leptodactylidae)

Abstract

Perhaps the most confusing group of the genus Eleutherodactylus in the West Indies is that composed of the small to minute frogs of Hispaniola, none of which has a snout-vent length in excess of 25 mm. To this assemblage belong E. minutus Noble 1923, E. abbotti Cochran 1923, E. audanti Cochran 1934, and E. haitianus Barbour 1942 (= E. intermedius Cochran 1941, preoccupied). E. abbotti was described from Laguna, Samaná Province, República Dominicana, E. audanti from Peak La Selle (= Mont La Selle), Dept. de l'Ouest, Haiti. The remaining two forms were described from the interior uplands of the Cordillera Central in La Vega Province (República Dominicana), minutus from near Paso Bajito, Jarabacoa-Constanza Trail, and haitianus from Loma Rucilla, 8,000 to 10,000 feet. Although minutus and haitianus are still known only from various localities in the Cordillera, abbotti has been reported from many localities in the República Dominicana and Haiti. E. audanti is here reported for the first time from outside of the Massif de la Selle....