In 1928 Thomas Barbour lamented: „It seems wicked and sinful in this day and generation to describe new species of Eleutherodactylus and its ally Syrrhophus.“ After all Eleutherodactylu and its allies amounted to 126 species in Nieden's checklist published in 1923. By 1963 the number of species had grown to 320 (Gorham, 1966) and to 523 in 1992 (Duellman, 1993). Now more than 800 species are recognized (Hedges et al., 2008a), who provided the first modern comprehensive phylogeny and classification of this group of frogs that they termed „Terrarana“. All Peruvian Terrarana are members oft the family of Strabomantidae.
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About the Authors:
William E. Duellmann, PhD, is Curator Emeritus of Herpetology, Natural History Museum & Biodiversity Research Center, and Professor Emeritus, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Kansas (USA). He has written more than 300 scientific papers and several and several books, including „Hylid Frogs of Middle America“, „Cusco Amazónico: the Lives of Amphibians and Reptiles in an Amazonias Rainforest“, and „Biology of Amphibians“ (with Linda Trieb). His field studies in the neotropics began in 1951; he has spend 2 years in the field in Peru.
PD Dr. Edgar Lehr was curator of herpetology at the Senckenberg Natural Histroy Collections Dresden, and lecturer at the Department of Biology at the University Koblenz-Landau (Germany). Since fall 2009, he is Asistant Professor at the Biology Department at the Illinois Wesleyan Unviersity (USA). He is the author of more than 80 scientific publications including the book „Amphibien und Reptilien in Peru“ published by Natur und Tier - Verlag. Since 1997, he has been surveying the Peruvian herpetofauna in collaboration with members of the Museo de Historia Natural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos. He spent about 16 months in the field during 20 trips to Peru.
