Beyond the species name: an analysis of publication trends and biases in taxonomic descriptions of rainfrogs (Amphibia, Strabomantidae, Pristimantis)

Abstract

The rainfrogs of the genus Pristimantis are one of the most diverse groups of vertebrates, with outstanding reproductive modes and strategies driving their success in colonizing new habitats. The rate of Pristimantis species discovered annually has increased continuously during the last 50 years, establishing the remarkable diversity found in this genus. In this paper the specifics of publications describing new species in the group are examined, including authorship, author gender, year, language, journal, scientific collections, and other details. Detailed information on the descriptions of 591 species of Pristimantis published to date (June 2022) were analyzed and extracted. John D. Lynch and William E. Duellman are the most prolific authors, yet Latin American researchers have scaled up and continued the description processes since the 1990s. The most common language used for descriptions is English, followed by Spanish. The great majority of authors have described only one species. The largest proportion of authors who have participated in the descriptions is of Ecuadorian nationality. Ecuador is the country with the highest description rate per year (3.9% growth rate). Only 20% of the contributions have included women and only 2% have featured women as principal authors. 36.8% of the species described are in the Not Evaluated or Data Deficient categories under the IUCN global red list. The importance of enhancing the descriptions in Spanish is emphasized and the inclusion based on equal access to opportunities for female researchers in Pristimantis taxonomy is encouraged. In general, if the current trends in Pristimantis descriptions continue, in ten years, a total of 770 or more species described could be expected.

Keywords: Author gender; herpetology; inclusion; language bias; new species; taxonomy.

Figure 1.

Pristimantis descriptions through time A species description over 164 years, dots and green lines represent new taxa per year, diamonds and brown lines five-year average, and triangles and purple lines ten-year average B cumulative number of species descriptions.

Figure 2.

Descriptions of Pristimantis species across countries A number of species descriptions per country B number of annual species descriptions by country C number of annual species descriptions in the four countries with the highest species richness.

Figure 3.

A Number of species described by the number of authors B number of holotypes of Pristimantis housed in the main scientific collections of natural history (an expanded list can be found in Suppl. material 1).

Figure 4.

Languages and nationalities of authors who have participated in the descriptions of Pristimantis species A main languages used in descriptions per year B main nationalities of authors involved in descriptions per year.

Figure 5.

Male and female contributions to Pristimantis descriptions A number of female and male authors that participated in descriptions per year B contributions of female and male authors to descriptions per country.

Figure 6.

Contributions in which authors have been principal author and defined as either first or corresponding author.

Figure 7.

Change in the proportion of female authors over time. Gray shadow represents the confidence intervals of the Generalized Linear Model of the total proportion of female researchers (red solid line). Solid lines depict significant GLMs.

Figure 8.

A Main scientific journals where descriptions of new Pristimantis species are published B type of descriptions per year, M = Morphological description, MP = morphological and phylogenetic description.

Figure 9.

Conservation status categories established by the IUCN Red List for Pristimantis species A number of species per category B number of species in each category per country.