THE HERPETOLOGICAL COLLECTION FROM BOLIVIA IN THE “ESTACIÓN BIOLÓGICA DE DOÑANA” (SPAIN)

The collection consists of 822 specimens, of which 529 are amphibians, all of them anurans (5 families, 17 genera and 51 species) and 293 specimens are reptiles (10 families, 28 genera and 49 species). The collection has around 25% of the amphibians species known to occur in Bolivia and about 19% of the reptile species. They come from 55 localities of the Bolivian Departments of Beni, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, La Paz, Potosí and Santa Cruz and represent the following bioregions: Puna, Chaco, Chiquitanian Forest, Wet Savannas, Ceja de Montaña, Yungas, Interandean Dry Valleys and Humid Lowland Forest. The specimens of Scinax chiquitanus and Phrynopus kempffi are paratypes. The record of Pleurodema borelli is the first for the Santa Cruz Department and second for Bolivia. Liolaemus dorbignyi also constitutes the second report for the country and Tropidurus melanopleurus is cited for the first time for the Beni Department.


THE HERPETOLOGICAL COLLECTION FROM BOLIVIA IN THE "ESTACIÓN BIOLÓGICA DE DOÑANA" (SPAIN) Introduction
Since the number of valid described species is supposed to represent close to 10% of the world's biodiversity and 90% of these inhabit the humid tropical forest (Stork, 1997), the study of tropical diversity has become an international priority.Consequently, taxonomy and systematics are again considered essential for biodiversity conservation (Patrick, 1997, Fjeldså, 2000).Natural history collections and museums are indispensable for the study and conservation of biodiversity but by themselves are insufficient.During the eighties, the Estación Biológica de Doñana (EBD) encouraged the study of tropical areas and numerous zoological expeditions took place in different countries: Argelia, Morocco, Gabon, Ecuatorial Guinea, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Chile, Argentina and Paraguay (Cabot, 1991) and added material to the collections of the EBD.The herpetology collection is outstanding with around 36,915 specimens belonging to more than 600 especies (De la Riva & Mateo, 1991).
Due to its exceptional geographic situation and the extraordinary high species diversity in Bolivia (Köhler, 2000), the EBD organized five expeditions to this country from 1980 to 1990: Exp.Lípez, Exp.Chaco, Exp.Chapare, Exp.Estación Biológica Beni and Exp.Serranía de Huanchaca, authorized by Centro de Desarrollo Forestal (CDF) and with the co-operation of the local and regional institutions Instituto de Fomento Lanero (INFOL), Corporación para el Desarrollo de Santa Cruz (CORDECRUZ), and Zoológico Municipal de Santa Cruz de la Sierra.Most collections were made up of birds and mammals but representative samples of amphibians and reptiles from different biogeographical regions (Puna, Chaco, Chiquitanian Forest, Wet Savannas, Ceja de Montaña, Yungas, Interandean Dry Valleys and Humid Lowland Forest) were taken.An inventory of the herpetological collection of the EBD was published by De la Riva & Mateo (1991) but it did not include the geographical origins of the specimens.
Despite of the fact that the knowledge of amphibians and reptiles from Bolivia has increased enormously in the last decade, most of the country remains unexplored by zoologists and the distributional patterns of many species are still unknown (Fugler et al., 1995;Dirksen & De la Riva, 1999;De la Riva et al., 2000;Köhler, 2000).This paper was written to call attention to the herpetological collection deposited in the EBD and to contribute to the knowledge of the distribution of the different species in the collection.

Material and methods
For the nomenclature of amphibians we followed De la Riva et al., 2000.The amphibians were identified by comparing them with specimens from other collections (museum notes of the authors) and using different bibliographical sources.For amphibians we mainly consulted Cei (1980); De la Riva et al. (2000) and Köhler (2000) and other works dealing with specific groups.For the nomenclature of reptiles we followed Fugler et al. (1995) and Dirksen & De la Riva (1999).For the identification of the reptiles we used mainly Peters & Donoso-Barros (1970), Peters & Orejas-Miranda (1970), Cei (1993), Avila-Pires (1995), Harvey & Gutberlet (1998) and others works dealing with specific groups.
The species in the list are sorted within the genus by alphabetical order and similarly the genus within families.Some juveniles, a few poorly preserved specimens, or those of unclear taxonomy could only be identified to the genus level and are cited by the genus followed by sp.(i.e., Leptodactylus sp.).Where the same genus has various unidentified species these are numbered (i.e., Eleutherodactylus sp. 1 and Eleutherodactylus sp. 2).The total number of specimens, the localitiess and catalogue number are listed (all specimens have EBD number collection).Each number corresponds to a specimen but some samples of tadpoles or froglets are referred to only by a single catalogue number which is indicated in the text.

Comments
The herpetological collection from Bolivia has 822 specimens from 55 localities of the Bolivian Departments of Beni, Chuquisaca, Cochabamba, La Paz, Potosí and Santa Cruz.These records represent some of the main habitat types of Bolivia: Puna, Chaco, Chiquitanian Forest, Wet Savannas, Ceja de Montaña, Yungas, Interandean Dry Valleys and the Humid Lowland Forest (Beck et al., 1993).
The amphibians are represented by 529 specimens, all of them anurans, of 5 families, 17 genera and 51 species.The best represented family is Leptodactylidae, with 19 species, followed by Hylidae with 16.Some immature of Hyla, Eleutherodactylus and Leptodactylus and a species of Telmatobius belong to the unidentified specimens.The specimens of Scinax chiquitanus and Phrynopus kempffi represent the only type material (paratypes) of the collection.
Osteocephalus buckleyi is an amazonian species rarely founded in Bolivia (De la Riva et al., 2000).The two specimens deposited in the EBD, from Serranía de Huanchaca, constitute a new species record for the Parque Nacional Noel Kempff Mercado (Department Santa Cruz) and is the easternmost record known for this species in Bolivia.
One specimen of Pleurodema from a Chaco Montane Forest area of the Department Santa Cruz is assigned to Pleurodema borelli.De la Riva et al. (2000) tentatively considered P. borelli as a good species inhabiting the chacoan forest of Argentina and Bolivia.Pleurodema borelli was already reported by Peracca (1897) for Tarija and was suspected to occur in Department Chuquisaca by De la Riva et al. (2000).Therefore, this is the first record for Department Santa Cruz and second record for the country.
Among the specimens identified as Physalaemus biligonigerous we found a great morphological variability and some from 10 PADIAL, J.M., CASTROVIEJO-FISHER, S., MERCHÁN, M., CABOT, J. y CASTROVIEJO, J. Department Santa Cruz were similar to the specimens described by Cei (1990) as P. fuscomaculatus (Steindachnner).This species was already cited by Peracca (1897) in some localities in Tarija, although De la Riva et al. (2000) considered these records doubtful and did not include the species in their list.We tentatively assigned all specimens to Physalaemus biliginigerous until more evidence from field observation and calls is registered.The reptiles are represented by 293 specimens of 10 families, 28 genera and 49 species.Some specimens could not be identified because they required a more thorough study of their unclear taxonomic status or because they were juveniles or badly conserved specimens.Among the families, Tropiduridae is the best represented (19 species), and Liolaemus the genus with more specimens (209 specimens of 14 species).It should be noted that only 16 species of Liolaemus have been cited for Bolivia and only three of the 14 species of the EBD could be identified.Six specimens of Liolaemus dorbignyi from Department Potosí represent the second record for the country .This species was already cited by Laurent (1995) in Campamento Khastor, in the same Department (see Dirksen & De la Riva, 1999).The record of Tropidurus melanopleurus is the first for Department Beni.Another infrequent lizard founded among the collection was one specimen of Cnemidophorus lacertoides, from Cochabamba City.This species had only been found previously in Arani (Department Cochabamba) and in El Fuerte and Santiago (Department Santa Cruz) (Dirksen & De la Riva, 1999).
The Colubridae, with sixteen species, is the second family in number of species of the reptile collection.Among these, Clelia clelia constitutes a new record for the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park.The specimens of Philodryias olfersii from the Serranía de Huanchaca were already cited by Fugler et al. (1995); however it was overlooked by Harvey et al. (1998) in the list of the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park.
Micrurus pyrrhocryptus has suffered numerous taxonomic changes and for a while was considered a subespecies of M. frontalis (Da Silva & Sites, 1999).It was already cited for Bolivia as Micrurus frontalis (Fugler et al., 1995) but afterwards Da Silva & Sites (1999) stated that the distribution of this species has its occidental limit in the Cerrado formations of eastern Bolivia.According to Da Silva & Sites (1999) the specimen from the inmediate area of Santa Cruz de la Sierra are Micrurus pyrrhocryptus and these localities represent the northernmost known records for this species.
Another new record for the National Park Noel Kempff Mercado is Palaeosuchus trigonatus.Although the presence of this species was mentioned for all tributaries of the Iténez River (Medem, 1983) and in Department Beni (Fugler, 1983) until now we knew of no records for the National Park.
Among the specimens deposited in the EBD since 1980, four amphibians species (Bufo stanlaii, Colostethus mcdiarmidi, Ceratophrys cranwelli and Eleutherodactylus fraudator) and one reptile (Tropidurus etheridgei) were overlooked during the last 20 years and were originally described using specimens of other collections.Among these, the most outstanding is Bufo stanlaii Lötters & Köhler, 1999, of which there were 31 specimens from the type locality deposited in the EBD since the eighthies.The same is applicable to the 13 specimens of Colostethus macdiarmidi Reynolds & Foster, 1992, from the type region.Only two species were partially described with specimens of the EBD, Scinax chiquitanus De la Riva, 1990 andPhrynopus kempffi De la Riva, 1992.Despite the limited size of the EBD collection from Bolivia, two new species were described, five could have eventually been described and another is actually under study (De la Riva pers.comm).We do not discard the possibility of discovering more new species when the taxonomic problems of some species are resolved.New species or records, specifically from the Liolaemus genus, could be discovered after more work with the specimens from the collection.

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
To Ignacio de la Riva (MNCN-CSIC) for the identification of some specimens and a critical reading of the text and to Patricia Cuadrado for helping us in the EBD.The EBD-CSIC kindly provided a place and facilities to work with the collections.To J. Juste for correcting the English version.The work of JM Padial has been supported in part by "Mutis" scholarschip from MAE-AECI (Spain).