The Hylid Frogs of Middle America
New and Expanded Edition

by William E. Duellman
illustrated by David M. Dennis
This is a product that current and future researchers will cherish. . . . No one is as knowledgeable, as attentive to organization and detail, and as thorough. . . . Throughout the entire work, high emphasis is placed on quality—accurate data, excellent photography, wonderful artistry. . . . This book has much to tell us concerning the unique amphibian fauna of the region, and will long serve as the fundamental reference source for the hylids.

— David B. Wake, from the Foreword to the New Edition.
The Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles is proud to announce the publication of a new and expanded version of a book that has long enjoyed a classic status. Professor Duellman’s Hylid Frogs was originally issued in 1970 by the Museum of Natural History of The University of Kansas. As Jay M. Savage wrote in Herpetological Review at the time, "In tropical American herpetology, it is likely to remain an unassailable model."

In 753 pages, 324 figures, and 72 plates, the original book surveyed all 115 species of hylid frogs then known from Mexico to Panama, complemented by reproductions of David M. Dennis’s highly detailed and life-like watercolors. Hobart M. Smith commented in Copeia, Hylid Frogs marks an apogee of achievement; it is the Hope Diamond of technical herpetological literature.? The book was an instant success, but it soon went out of print and copies today fetch $300 or more on the secondhand market, when they can be found at all.

During the intervening years until the present, the number of species in this region has risen by 50 to 165, most of them new species from southern Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, and all of them from the highland regions. The expanded edition consists of 1170 pages—a 55% enlargement of the original—and 20 new plates. The new edition includes a reprint of the original text plus a supplement in which each species account is revised and the new or resurrected species are treated in detail. Similarly, the numbers of figures, tables, and appendices are significantly increased. New spot distribution maps are provided for the new species and also for many others whose distributions have expanded since 1970.

For reproduction of the color pates, the original watercolors have been laser scanned—not photographically reproduced as in 1970—using the latest technologies. This has produced images that are brighter, more accurate, and much closer to the original paintings. In addition, Mr. Dennis has produced 55 new watercolors (51 in color, 4 black-and-white). The resulting plates are of the highest standard.

The species accounts are arranged as in the 1970 edition: Synonymy, Diagnosis, Description, Tadpoles, Mating Call, Natural History, Remarks, Etymology, and Distribution. There is a review of the evolutionary history of Middle America including plate tectonics, the evolution and phylogenetic relationships of hylid frogs, a chapter on distribution and diversity, and biogeographic comparisons between hylids and frogs of the genus Eleutherodactylus and with bolitoglossine salamanders, the two other large taxonomic and geographic segments of the Middle American amphibian fauna.

There is also a chapter on conservation, keys to adults, and a table of larval characteristics. Results of phylogenetic analyses are provided for most hypothesized lineages. As in the original edition, there are extensive tables showing the distribution of species within ecogeographic regions; altitudinal distribution, habitat, and reproductive sites; and an appendix listing all newly acquired museum specimens.
WILLIAM E. DUELLMAN is Curator Emeritus in the Natural History Museum and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at The University of Kansas. He has conducted active field work in the neotropics continuously since 1951. Professor Duellman is the author of numerous papers and monographs on Middle American and South American amphibians and reptiles and the author of several books, most recently of Biology of Amphibians, co-authored with Linda Trueb in 1985 (new printing in 1994) and Patterns of Distribution of Amphibians, edited by him in 1999.

DAVID M. DENNIS was head of the Biological Illustration Unit of the College of Biological Sciences at The Ohio State University for 30 years but now resides in Sarasota, Florida. He is widely recognized as one of the foremost illustrators of amphibians and reptiles. His award-winning natural history paintings have been displayed in major galleries and exhibits.
Specifications: 1170 pages, 443 figures including maps, 88 tables, 6 appendices, 92 plates (48 black-and-white, 44 in full color, color frontispiece). Format 8.5 by 11 inches (21.5 by 28 cm), clothbound with dust-jacket in 2 volumes. ISBN 0–916984–56–7.
Price: $125.00 plus shipping

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