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The taxonomy of Babina sensu lato was controversial in the past decades. In this study, the phylogeny of genus Babina sensu lato was re-constructed based on genetic analysis, morphological comparison and advertisement call analysis. We found that Babina sensu stricto and previous subgenus Nidirana should be two distinct genera in the family Ranidae. N. caldwelli is confirmed to be a synonym of N. adenopleura because of the small genetic divergence and the lack of distinct morphological differences. A new species, Nidirana nankunensis sp. nov. is described based on a series of specimens collected from Mt. Nankun, Guangdong Province, China, which can be distinguished from other known congeners by having a behavior of nest construction, distinctive advertisement calls, significant divergence in the mitochondrial genes, and a combination of morphological characters. Currently, the genus Babina contains two species and the genus Nidirana contains eight species.

The diversity of the subgenus Panophrys within the genus Megophrys has been revealed to be extremely underestimated from southeastern China. Herpetological surveys coupled with extensive sampling in a longitudinal mountain belt located in southeastern China resulted in the discoveries of six new species of the subgenus Panophrys. Furthermore, the new discoveries support the findings of “micro-endemism”, “sympatric phenomenon” and “sympatric but distant phylogenetically” which appear to be common among Panophrys species, and also indicates that the Asian horned toads would be good candidates for studies on speciation and biogeography, and additionally emphasizes the conservation difficulties of these toads.

A new species of tree frog, G. guangdongensis sp nov., is described based on a series of specimens collected from Dawuling Forest Station, Mount Nankun and Nanling Nature Reserve of Guangdong Province, southeastern China. The new species is distinguished from all known congeners by a significant genetic divergence at the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene fragment examined (p-distance ≥ 4.6%) and the following combination of morphological characters: relatively small body size (SVL 26.1–34.7 mm in adult males, 34.9–35.4 mm in adult females); upper eyelid and dorsum lacking spines; supratympanic fold and tympanum distinct; dorsal and lateral surface rough, sparsely scattered with tubercles; ventral skin granular; tibiotarsal projection absent; toe-webbing moderately developed, finger webbing rudimentary; heels slightly overlapping when flexed hindlimbs are held at right angles to the body axis; brown to beige above, with an inverse Y-shaped dark brown marking extendeing from the interorbital region to the centre of the dorsum; males with a single subgular vocal sac and protruding nuptial pads with minute granules on the dorsal surface of the base of first finger. The discovery and description of Gracixalus guangdongensis sp. nov. represents the 14th species known in this genus.

Amolops shuichengicus sp. nov., a new species of the A. mantzorum group is described from Guizhou, southwest China, on the basis of significant molecular divergences in 16S + CO1 genes and the combination of morphological characteristics: small body size, SVL 34.6–39.6 mm in adult males and 48.5–55.5 mm in adult females; dorsal skin relatively smooth; presence of vomerine teeth; presence of cream maxillary gland from lower edge of eye to the anterior of supratympanic fold; presence of supratympanic folds and glandular dorsolateral folds; tympanum indistinct; absence of a circummarginal groove on the disk of the first finger; presence of supernumerary tubercles below the base of fingers III and IV; absence of outer metatarsal tubercle and tarsal glands; males without vocal sacs. In addition, evidenced by the phylogenetic analyses in this study and literature data, we suggest that A. liangshanensis should be synonymized with A. loloensis and the records of A. marmoratus in Yunnan, China should be referred to A. afghanus. Following our proposal, the genus Amolops contains 57 species, with 32 recorded from China.

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The diversity of Asian horned toads is considered highly underestimated and to contain a large number of undescribed cryptic species. In this work, we describe three new species of Boulenophrys from south China, namely, Boulenophrys yaoshanensis sp. nov. from central Guangxi, Boulenophrys yingdeensis sp. nov. from northern Guangdong, and Boulenophrys yunkaiensis sp. nov. from western Guangdong. These three new species can be distinguished from all recognized congeners by a combination of morphological characteristics and significant genetic divergences. These descriptions increase the number of recognized species of Boulenophrys to 61. In addition, an updated checklist of the Asian horned toads of the subfamily Megophryinae is provided in this study.

Based on morphological and phylogenetic analyses (16S rRNA mtDNA), two new species of the genus Leptobrachella are described from southern China, namely L.yunkaiensis Wang, Li, Lyu & Wang, sp. n. from Dawuling Forest Station of Guangdong Province and L.wuhuangmontis Wang, Yang & Wang, sp. n. from Mt. Wuhuang of Guangxi Province. To date, the genus Leptobrachella contains 68 species, among which 13 species are known from China. The descriptions of the two new species further emphasize that the species diversity of the genus Leptobrachella from China is still highly underestimated and requires further investigations.