The frog species Dendropsophus molitor belong to Hylidae family and is distributed in the Colombian Eastern Cordillera from Boyacá to Norte de Santander. This species is closely related to D. luddeckei, D. pelidna and D. meridensis which belong to a clade whose internal relations between lineages are controversial. We performed morphological, phylogenetic and population structure analyzes in D. molitor populations using the mitochondrial genes 12S, 16S and COI and the nuclear gene POMC to assess the legitimacy of D. luddeckei. In addition, we determined whether the changes (SNPs) in the MC1R gene fragment are correlated to color polymorphisms found in both species. We obtained two slightly differentiated internal clades that cluster populations by geography in the phylogenetic analysis. Moreover, genetic diversity and genetic differentiation statistics, morphological traits and species delimitation analysis show that D. luddeckei and D. molitor are the same species instead of independent lineages. Finally, the SNPs found in the MC1R gene do not correlate to D. molitor color polymorphisms and do not correspond to the changes previously identified in dendrobatid species.
