Physalaemus olfersii

Physalaemus olfersii type locality

One of the Physalaemus olfersii syntypes is located at the Zoological Museum of Berlin (ZMB 3375, defined here as the lectotype). There are no register on documents of that museum on whereabouts of the second specimen (Rainer Günther, pers. comm.). The syntypes were collected by Ignaz Maria Franz von Olfers, date of collection not available on data of that Museum (Rainer Günther, pers. comm.)

Ignaz Maria Franz Olfers (1793–1871), German naturalist, traveled to Brazil in 1816 as a diplomatic; in the year of 1818 he traveled with Frederich Sellow (1789–1831?) during one year along his expedition through Brazil (Papavero 1971; Straube & Scherer–Netto 2001). During this time, they collected in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and São Paulo (Fig. 2).

Three morphological units defined by us are distributed within the area traveled through by Olfers and Sellow (“Serra do Espinhaço”, “Serra da Mantiqueira”, and “Serra do Mar” morphological units). Since we could verify from the photographs that the lectotype of P. olfersii presents tarsal tubercle weakly developed; absence of tarsal fold; lateral black stripe well defined on flanks; white line on dorsolateral fold well defined; and annulus of tympanum indistinct, we can associate it with the populations of the "Serra do Mar" morphological unit. Thus, these correspond to P. olfersii and the species’ type locality should be the intersection of its geographic distribution within the area traveled by Olfers and Sellow, which is the Serra do Mar mountain range, from the states of Rio de Janeiro to São Paulo.