Description of two new sympatric species of the genus Leptolalax (Anura: Megophryidae) from western Yunnan of China

PeerJ

article

Jian-Huan Yang¹  Zhao-Chi Zeng²  Ying-Yong Wang² 

[1] Kadoorie Conservation China, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden;State Key Laboratory of Biocontrol/The Museum of Biology, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University

关键词: Amphibians;    Leaf litter toads;    Taxonomy;    Bioacoustics;    Molecular;    Yingjiang county;   

DOI  :  10.7717/peerj.4586

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Inra

【 摘 要 】

The Asian leaf litter toads of the genus Leptolalax represent a highly diverse species group and currently contain 53 recognized species. During herpetological surveys in Yingjiang County, western Yunnan of China, we collected series of Leptolalax specimens from an isolated small fragment of montane evergreen forest. Subsequent study based on acoustic, morphological and molecular data reveals that there were three different species among the specimens sampled: while one of them belongs to Leptolalax ventripunctataus, the other two species represent unknown taxa and are described herein: Leptolalax purpurus sp. nov. and Leptolalax yingjiangensis sp. nov. The two new species can be distinguished from other congeners by the molecular divergences, acoustic data, and by a combination of morphological characters including: body size, dorsal and ventral patterns, dorsal skin texture, sizes of pectoral and femoral glands, degree of webbing and fringing on the toes and fingers, dorsum coloration and iris coloration in life. Our results further reveal that species diversity of the genus Leptolalax still remains highly underestimated and warrants further attention.

【 授权许可】

CC BY