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A new species of Bolitoglossa is described from the Cordillera Central of central Panamá. This is a large black species, which is likely related to the B. (Eladinea) schizodactyla group of Costa Rica and Panamá. The new species, known from a single specimen, differs from other large black Bolitoglossa in having white pigmentation on the lower face and on the ventral portions of the head and chest. It also has more interdigital webbing than most members of the B. (E.) schizodactyla group.

Se describe una especie nueva de Bolitoglossa de Ia Cordillera Central en el centro de Panamá. Esta especie es grande y negra, aparentemente relacionada con el grupo B. (Eladinea) schizodactyla de Costa Rica y Panamá. La nueva especie, conocida solamente a partir de un espécimen, difiere de los otros miembros del grupo por poseer pigmentación blanca en la parte inferior del rostro y en las porciones ventrales de la cabeza y del pecho. Esta especie tambien posee membranas interdigitales mas desarrolladas que la mayoría de los miembros del grupo de B. (E.) schizodactyla.

IN much of Central America and south into Colombia one encounters large black salamanders of the genus BolilogLossa. These species are confusingly similar, and while some of them may be close relatives, as a group they clo not form a clade. They range geographically and structurally from slightly webbed species, such as B. meliana from Guatemala (which is so deeply differentiated genetically that, it is almost certainly a multispecies complex; Wake and Lynch, 1982), to the extensively webbed B. capitana from Colombia (Brame and Wake, 1963). In between these extremes are a number of species showing intermediate amounts of webbing. The best known of these is B. robusta, of Costa Rica and Panamá, but there are several other species whose distinctiveness has been recognized only recently (Hanken et al., 2005). Now another species has made its appearance, farther east than any large black salamander previously known from Panamá. The new species may be a close relative of the recently described B. anthracina, from western Panamá (Brame et al., 2001), but it differs from B. anthraana'm several important respects.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Measurements were made using digital or dial calipers or a dissecting microscope fitted with an ocular micrometer; standard...

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