A new species of Amolops (Anura: Ranidae) from China, with taxonomic comments on A. liangshanensis and Chinese populations of A. marmoratus

Abstract

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.

The complete mitogenome of the Amolops jinjiangensis (Anura: Ranidae)

“…Bayesian analyses were conducted using MrBayes 3.2.7 with the Marko chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) for 20,000,000 generations and 1000 sampled generations (Ronquist et al 2012). The phylogenetic tree indicated that the mitogenome of A. jinjiangensis and A. loloensis clustered together, which supported the phylogenetic inferences estimated by Lyu et al (2019) and Zeng et al (2020) with samples also from Deqin County in Yunnan Province, but conflicted with those from Zhongdian County in Yunnan Province (Lu et al 2014). Furthermore, our analyses recovered a sister taxa relationship between A. jinjiangensis þ A. loloensis and A. mantzorum þ A. tuberodepressus.…”

“…The phylogenetic tree indicated that the mitogenome of A. jinjiangensis and A. loloensis clustered together, which supported the phylogenetic inferences estimated by Lyu et al. ( 2019 ) and Zeng et al. ( 2020 ) with samples also from Deqin County in Yunnan Province, but conflicted with those from Zhongdian County in Yunnan Province (Lu et al.…”

“…The previous studies had phylogenetic inferences based on the partial mitochondrial sequences, i.e. COI and Cyt-b, but the phylogenetic relationship and position of A. jinjiangensis were remaining controversial (Lu et al 2014;Lyu et al 2019;Zeng et al 2020). In this study, we identified complete mitochondrial genomes of the A. jinjiangensis by using restriction siteassociated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq) to gain additional molecular information and contribute to better understanding of the evolutionary aspects of this frog taxon.…”

Description of a new Megophrys Kuhl & Van Hasselt, 1822 (Anura, Megophryidae) from Guizhou Province, China

“…Guizhou Province, China is an important part of southwestern China, especially concerning the particular environments of karst rocky desertification, and knowledge of biodiversity levels and/or patterns are still seriously lacking in this region. Recently, a series of new amphibian species were described from Guizhou Province (Zhang et al 2017;Li et al 2018aLi et al , b, 2019aLyu et al 2019;Wang et al 2019c;Luo et al 2020;Liu et al 2020;Wei et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2020, highlighting the underestimation of the species diversity of this province. For the genus Megophrys, molecular phylogenetic differences still suggested some cryptic species in or near this region (Liu et al 2018), but Megophrys anlongensis sp.…”

Description of a new horned toad of Megophrys Kuhl & Van Hasselt, 1822 (Amphibia, Megophryidae) from Zhejiang Province, China

“…M. feae Boulenger, 1887 Boulenger 1887 M. feii Yang et al 2018 M. flavipunctata Mahony, Kamei, Teeling & Biju, 2018Mahony et al 2018 (Ohler, 2003) Ohler 2003 M. gigantica Liu, Hu & Yang, 1960Liu et al 1960 M. glandulosa Fei, Ye & Huang, 1990Fei et al 1990 (Ohler, 2003) Ohler 2003 M. himalayana Mahony, Kamei, Teeling & Biju, 2018Mahony et al 2018 M. hoanglienensis Tapley, Cutajar, Mahony, Nguyen, Dau, Luong, Le, Nguyen, Nguyen, Portway, Luong & Rowley, 2018Tapley et al 2018 M. huangshanensis Fei & Ye, 2005 Fei and Ye 2005 M. insularis (Wang, Liu, Lyu, Zeng & Wang, 2017) Wang et al 2017a M. intermedia Smith, 1921Smith 1921 M. jiangi Liu, Li, Wei, Xu, Cheng, Wang & Wu, 2020 Liu et al 2020 M. jingdongensis Fei & Ye, 1983Fei et al 1983 (Wang, 2012) Wang et al 2012 M. jiulianensis Wang, Zeng, Lyu & Wang, 2019 Wang et al 2019b M. kalimantanensis Munir, Hamidy, Matsui, Iskandar, Sidik & Shimada, 2019Munir et al 2019 M. kobayashii Malkmus & Matsui, 1997Malkmus and Matsui 1997 M. koui Mahony, Foley, Biju & Teeling, 2017Mahony et al 2017 M. kuatunensis Pope, 1929Pope 1929 M. lancip Munir, Hamidy, Farajallah & Smith, 2018Munir et al 2018 M. leishanensis Li, Xu, Liu, Jiang, Wei & Wang, 2018 Li et al 2018 M. lekaguli Stuart, Chuaynkern, Chan-ard & Inger, 2006Stuart et al 2006 (Zhang, Li, Xiao, Li, Pan, Wang, Zhang & Zhou, 2017) Zhang et al 2017 M. ligayae Taylor, 1920 Taylor 1920…”