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We present the description of a novel treefrog species inhabiting the Andean streams in southeastern Ecuador that has been erroneously identified as Hyloscirtus lindae for four decades. The new species is closely related to H. tapichalaca and is part of the southern clade of the H. larinopygion group, which comprises five species confined to the southeastern Andes of Ecuador to the northeastern Andes of Peru. It is diagnosed from its close relatives by a unique combination of characteristics, including hypertrophied forelimbs in males, a pronounced, curved, and protruding spine-shaped prepollex, a substantial supracloacal flap, supratympanic fold, digital discs colored in shades of orange-red or bright-red, and the concealed surfaces of limbs displaying a bluish-gray hue and dorsal spicules in males. We briefly explore the implications of this discovery for the evolution of arm morphology in the H. larinopygion group. Our findings underscore the continued importance of periodically reviewing historical specimens, leading to unexpected discoveries; once again confirming the importance of natural history museums and their custodian biological collections.

The genus Proceratophrys Miranda-Ribeiro comprises 41 species distributed in South America, especially in Brazil (Nascimento et al. 2019). Proceratophrys species have been traditionally organized into four species groups based on morphology of supraocular and postocular swellings, and presence or absence of rostral appendage (Cruz Napoli 2010). However, these groupings are not supported by molecular data (Teixeira et al. 2012; Dias et al. 2013, Mângia et al. 2018).

The Hylodidae genus Megaelosia Miranda-Ribeiro comprises seven frog species that inhabit the Atlantic Rainforest in Southeastern Brazil (Da Silva et al. 2018). Larvae and adults of Hylodidae are commonly associated with lotic streams (Giaretta et al. 1993; Silva-Soares et al. 2015). Tadpoles of all Megaelosia species but Megaelosia bocainensis Giaretta, Bokemann Haddad are formally described, even though many of these descriptions are restricted to few lines and several anatomical details were overlooked (e.g., Megaelosia lutzae; Izecksohn Gouvêa 1985). The tadpole of M. boticariana was briefly described by Giaretta Aguiar (1998) based on a single larva with no measurements or figures. Currently, M. boticariana is only known from its type locality and São Francisco Xavier, both in São Paulo state portion of the Serra da Mantiqueira, Brazil (Muscat et al. 2020). The lack of information, coupled with the rarity of the species, reinforces the importance of taxonomic and natural history data to subside works on other fields. In this context, we present a complete redescription of the external anatomy of the tadpoles of M. boticariana and comment on their natural history.

Thoropa Cope is an anuran genus of the family Cycloramphidae that comprises six species of small rock frogs peculiar for the semiterrestrial habits of their larvae, which develop on wet rock environments distributed throughout eastern and southeastern Brazil (Bokermann 1965; Frost 2019). Current knowledge on their tadpoles relies mostly on their descriptions, namely the works of Bokermann (1965) for T. lutzi Cochran and T. petropolitana (Wandolleck), Caramaschi Sazima (1984) for T. megatympanum Caramaschi Sazima, Cocroft Heyer (1988) for T. saxatilis Cocroft Heyer, and Barth (1956) and Fatorelli et al. (2018) for T. miliaris (Spix). Thoropa taophora (Miranda-Ribeiro) tadpoles were originally described by Bokermann (1965) as T. miliaris, but several features were overlooked. In addition, T. taophora was recently removed from the synonymy with T. miliaris (Feio et al. 2006). Herein, we present a complete redescription of the tadpoles of T. taophora and provide comparisons with previously published drawings and descriptions of all other species of the genus.

The taxonomic and biogeographic affinities of Strabomantis aramunha from the Campos Rupestres of Brazil are intriguing. A unique skull morphology of females suggest affinities with the broad-headed eleutherodactylines of Northwestern South America in the genus Strabomantis. Male and juvenile morphology nonetheless suggest S. aramunha could be related to members of the recently described genus Haddadus from eastern Brazil. We assess the affinities of S. aramunha using molecular phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial (12S, tRNAval, 16S, cyt b) and nuclear sequences (RAG-1and rhodopsin). Bayesian inference, likelihood, and parsimony analysis recover a highly supported clade with S. aramunha and H. binotatus as sister taxa. Accordingly, we transfer S. aramunha to Haddadus, and provide a new generic definition of the later. The distribution of species in Haddadus (highlands of the Espinhaço mountain Range and coastal eastern Brazil) is now concordant with the general pattern observed for other species in the area.