Integrative taxonomy helps to assess the extinction risk of anuran species

摘要

Clinal variation and cryptic species complexes are challenges to taxa targeted conservation. These issues are particularly problematic for the estimation of species geographic distributions, generally resulting in erroneous estimations due to unrecognized species. However, integrative taxonomy could help to solve these problems, revealing geographic and genealogical limits of species when they are not clear through morphological comparisons solely. Here we evaluated the efficiency of integrative taxonomy in identifying a new population of leaf frog from a species complex. This example was chosen because correct species identification can have an impact in the conservation assessment of a threatened species. The new population belongs to Pithecopus centralis, extending its distribution by approximately 400 km to the east of its known distribution. This identification was confirmed by the consensus between genetic, morphometric and bioacoustic evidence, even with some level of uncertainty when using each piece of evidence. We reassessed the conservation status of the species following recommendations from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), after having checked and cleaned the data used for the species categorization in the Brazilian Red List of Threatened Fauna. In spite of the distribution extension reported here, our results demonstrate that the status of the species should be revised in the national Red List, reinforcing the importance of a rigorous taxonomic approach to improve Red Lists assessments.