Dendropsophus anceps ( Lutz , 1929 ) : filling gap , geographic distribution map and vocalization

Dendropsophus anceps was described by A. Lutz (1929) as Hyla anceps from specimens collected at Estrella, now district of Imbariê, municipality of Duque de Caxias (22o39' S, 43o13' W), Rio de Janeiro state. Bertha Lutz (1973) proposed a complex of species, including H. leucophyllata, H. l. sarayacuensis (bifurca) and H. ebraccata, besides the close species H. zernyi, H. mimetica, H. luteo-ocellata, and H. reticulate. They were all grouped by their morphology and live coloration as "species with patagium and vivid flash colors" (B. Lutz 1973).

Until the 1980s, the distribution of D. anceps was known only around the type locality.Haddad et al. (1995)  Until the 1990s all the records were restricted to Southeast Brazil, except for the state of São Paulo.Argôlo (2000) expanded the occurrence of D. anceps for the state of Bahia, municipality of Pau Brasil, Água Santa farm (15°27' S, 39°37' W).With this record, the distribution of the species was expanded for the northeast of Brazil.Machado and Haddad (2001) registered specimens of D. anceps in the state of Paraná, at Monte Alegre farm (24°04'01" S, 50°41'10" W), municipality of Telêmaco Borba, expanding the distribution to South Brazil.The current distribution of the species is restricted to the coast of Brazil, through the Atlantic Forest.They were observed calling on taboa vegetation (Typhaceae, Typha sp.), occupying perches at the interior edges and more central to the swamp, forming chorus of about 100 individuals.Bertha Lutz (1973), Argôlo (2000), and Machado and Haddad (2001) mentioned the occurrence of D. anceps in the same habitat type and vocalization site as reported here.Eight individuals of D. anceps were collected and showed a mean SVL of 35.05 ± 1.9 mm (33.2 -38.8 mm).The advertisement call of six specimens and the territorial call of four individuals were recorded.
Our specimens of Dendropsophus anceps presented two types of vocalizations: the advertisement call (sensu Wells 1977) (Figure 3) and the territorial call (sensu Littlejohn 2001) (Figure 4).Both were formed by long and multipulsed introductory notes followed by a series of secondary notes of smaller duration (Figures 3 and 4).The number of secondary notes varied from 2 to 10 in the advertisement call and from 4 to 11 in territorial call.The advertisement call, composed by the introductory and secondary notes, presents average duration of 0.95 s (0.44 -1.4 s).The territorial call presents average duration of 1.3 s. (0.78 -1.87 s).The characteristics of the secondary notes were the same for the two call types.The introductory and secondary notes showed two frequency bands and formed two harmonics (H1 and H2).
The introductory note of the territorial call exhibited a light ascendant modulation of frequency and in some cases showed up to four harmonics, with the H3 and H4 showing smaller intensities (Figure 4B).The difference between the two call types consisted of the temporal and spectral structure of the introductory notes.The introductory note of the advertisement call presents average duration of 120 ms, each note having 10 to 18 pulses, with frequency band ranging from 1552 to 3937 Hz, dominant frequency around 3244 Hz.The introductory note of the territorial call presents average duration of 240.8 ms, formed by long and multipulsed note, with frequency band ranging from 1406 to 3559 Hz, dominant frequency around 3163 Hz.The spectral and temporal characteristics of the introductory and secondary notes of the advertisement and territorial calls are presented in table 1. Bokermann (1967) described the call of D. anceps recorded in the municipality of Itaguaí, Rio de Janeiro state (now municipality of Seropédica).However, the sonogram presented in his work referred to the territorial call of the species, easily identified by the introductory note.The call reported by Bokermann (1967) presented an introductory note with duration of ca.400 ms and dominant frequency of 1500 Hz in the introductory and secondary notes.The duration and dominant frequency of the introductory and secondary notes of the territorial call presented by Bokermann (1967) differ from those described in this paper (table1).

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Distribution of Dendropsophus anceps; asterisk: type locality; circle: records in other Brazilian states; square: area of the new record.Recently, Dendropsophus anceps was reallocated to the D. leucophyllatus group, which is composed by D. anceps, D. bifurcus, D. ebraccatus, D. elegans, D. leucophyllatus, D. rossalleni, D. sarayacuensis, and D. triangulum, which share 35 transformations in the mitochondrial ribosomal genes(Faivovich et al. 2005).Herein, we report a new locality for Dendropsophus anceps, filling out the gap distribution in the state of São Paulo (Figure1), and describe the advertisement (sensuWells 1977) and territorial call (sensuLittlejohn 2001) for the species in this region.

Table 1 .
Bioacoustic parameters measured for the introductory and secondary notes of the advertisement and territorial calls of Dendropsophus anceps from Caçapava, São Paulo state.Mean ± standard deviation (range).