A new species of Leptolalax (Anura: Megophryidae) from the western Langbian Plateau, southern Vietnam

Abstract

We describe a new species of megophryid frog from Loc Bac forest in the western part of the Langbian Plateau in the southern Annamite Mountains, Vietnam. Leptolalax pyrrhops sp. nov. is distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following morphological attributes: (1) presence of distinct dark brown/black dorsolateral markings, including blackish spots on flanks and dark canthal and/or temporal streaks; (2) rudimentary webbing on toes; (3) tympanum externally distinct; (4) dorsal skin finely shagreened with numerous small tubercles and pustules; (5) medium size for the genus (30.3-33.9 mm in 2 adult males, 30.8-34.3 mm in 7 females); (6) grey-pinkish to dark brownish-violet chest and belly with numerous whitish speckles, also covering the lateral sides of body; (7) ventrolateral glands small, indistinct, do not form a distinct line; (8) pectoral glands comparatively small, comprising 1-3% of adult SVL; (10) iris bicolored, typically bright orange-red in upper two-thirds, fading to silvery green in lower third. The male advertisement call of the new species is also unique among those Leptolalax species for which calls are known, with a single long 'introductory' note, consisting of 5-12 pulses, followed by of 4-5 predominantly single-pulsed notes, and an average dominant frequency of 1.91-2.23 kHz. From the morphologically similar L. applebyi, L. melicus and L. bidoupensis, Leptolalax pyrrhops sp. nov. can be further distinguished by 13.5%, 13.7% and 10.3% sequence divergence at the 16S rRNA mtDNA gene. At present, the new species is known from montane evergreen forest between 800-1100 m elevation. We suggest the species should be considered as Data Deficient following IUCN's Red List categories. To date our finding represents the southernmost known record of the genus Leptolalax from Vietnam.

Molecular, morphological and acoustic assessment of the genus Ophryophryne (Anura, Megophryidae) from Langbian Plateau, southern Vietnam, with description of a new species

“…n. partial sequences for the 16S rRNA gene and all homologous sequences available on GenBank included in the analysis (see Table 1) varied from 8.2% (with O. gerti s. stricto , clade A) to 10.0% (with O. hansi and O. synoria , clade C) (see Table 2). This degree of pairwise divergence in the 16S rRNA gene is greater than that usually representing differentiation at the species level in anura (Vences et al 2005a, 2005b, Vieites et al 2009, Poyarkov et al 2015a, 2015b). Intraspecific variation in this gene fragment for Ophryophryne elfina sp.…”

“…460–500 bp fragment of the 16S rRNA gene was sequenced for molecular identification purposes. 16S rRNA is a molecular marker widely applied for biodiversity surveys in amphibians (Vences et al 2005a, 2005b, Vieites et al 2009), and has proven to be particularly useful in studies of megophryid diversity (Matsui et al 2010, 2014, Ohler et al 2011, Stuart et al 2011, 2012, Hamidy et al 2012, Rowley et al 2010a, 2011a, 2012, Jiang et al 2013, Poyarkov et al 2015a and references therein). Amplification was performed in 25 μl reactions using either ca.…”

A new species of the genus Leptolalax (Anura: Megophryidae) from Mt. Gaoligongshan of western Yunnan Province, China

“…Sex was determined by direct observation of calling in life and the presence of internal vocal sac openings, and the presence of eggs in abdomen. Comparative morphological data of Leptolalax species were obtained from examination of museum specimens (see Appendix) and from the literature: L. aereus (Rowley et al 2010c), L. alpinus (Fei et al 2009), L. applebyi (Rowley & Cao 2009), L. arayai (Matsui 1997), L. bourreti (Ohler et al 2011), L. bidoupensis (Rowley et al 2011), L. botsfordi (Rowley et al 2013); L. croceus (Rowley et al 2010a), L. dringi (Inger et al 1995;Matsui & Dehling 2012) , L. lateralis (Anderson 1871;Humtsoe et al 2008), L. laui (Sung et al 2014), L. liui (Fei et al 2009, Sung et al 2014, L. marmoratus (Matsui et al 2014b), L. maurus (Inger et al 1997), L. melanoleucus (Matsui 2006), L. melicus (Rowley et al 2010b), L. minimus (Taylor 1962;Ohler et al 2011), L. nahangensis (Lathrop et al 1998), L. nokrekensis (Mathew & Sen 2010), L. nyx (Ohler et al 2011), L. oshanensis (Fei et al 2009), L. pelodytoides (Boulenger 1893;Ohler et al 2011), L. pictus (Malkmus 1992), L. platycephalus (Dehling 2012a), L. pluvialis (Ohler et al 2000(Ohler et al , 2011, L. pyrrhops (Poyarkov et al 2015), L. sabahmontanus…”

A new species ofLeptobrachium(Anura, Megophryidae) from western Thailand

“…We used the primers 16SL-1 and 16SH-1 from Hedges (1994) to amplify ∼537 base pairs of the 16S rRNA mtDNA gene for the new species. For PCR conditions and primer sequences see Poyarkov et al (2015), Nguyen et al (2018) and Duong et al (2018). PCR products were sent to Evrogen (Moscow, Russia) for subsequent purification and sequencing in both directions.…”

“…Due to the high unrecognized diversity and morphological similarity of many species within the family, molecular phylogenetic tools are crucial for studies of the group’s taxonomy, which currently remains in a constant state of flux (Matsui et al, 2010; Matsui, 2013; Poyarkov et al, 2015; Poyarkov et al, 2017; Chen et al, 2017; Chen et al, 2018). …”