A new species of the Asian music frog genus Nidirana (Amphibia, Anura, Ranidae) from Southwestern China

Abstract

The Asian music frog genus Nidirana is widely distributed in East and Southeastern Asia. Systematic profiles of the group remain on debate, and cryptic species are expected especially in the species with wide distributional range. Here, we describe a new species of the genus from Southwestern China. Phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA supported the new species as an independent clade nested into the Nidirana clade and sister to N. hainanensis. Morphologically, the new species could be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following characters: a large body size in males (SVL > 49 mm); the presence of lateroventral grooves both on fingers and toes; relative finger lengths: II < IV < I < III; tibiotarsal articulation reaching the level between eye and nostril when leg stretched forward; a pair of subgular internal vocal sacs at corners of throat in males; nuptial pad present on the inner side of base of fingers I and II in males in breading season; webbing formula: I 2 –21/3 II 2 –22/3 III 31/2 –32/3 IV 32/3 –3V. The findings provided a better knowledge on phylogenetic assignments of the genus Nidirana, and indicated future deeper investigations necessarily for exploring systematic settings of the group.

Comprehensive approaches reveal three cryptic species of genus Nidirana (Anura, Ranidae) from China

“…Mean p-distance among all in-group and out-group species used in this study are given in Table 2. In the phylogenetic result, all samples of genus Nidirana formed a monophyletic group, which can be further divided into four highly supported clades A, B, C, and D (the names of clades follow Lyu et al (2017)). This result is consistent with the phylogenic relationship in previous studies (Lyu et al 2017(Lyu et al , 2019Li et al 2019). However, the relationship among clades B, C, and D remains unresolved due to the insignificant supported values among these clades.…”

“…The following measurements were taken for each call: call duration (the time between onset of the first note and offset of the last note in a call), note duration (the time between onset and offset of a note), note rise time (the time between onset and max amplitude of a note), and note interval (the time between adjacent notes in a call). Comparison bioacoustics descriptions of known congeners were obtained from the literature (Matsui and Utsunomiya 1983;Chou 1999;Fei et al 2007Fei et al , 2009Chuaynkern et al 2010;Lyu et al 2017Lyu et al , 2019Li et al 2019).…”

“…Comparison characters of all known congeners were obtained from the literature (Boettger 1895;Boulenger 1904Boulenger , 1909Schmidt 1925;Chang and Hsu 1932;Bourret 1937;Kuramoto 1985;Chou 1999;Fei et al 2007Fei et al , 2009Matsui 2007;Chuaynkern et al 2010;Lyu et al 2017Lyu et al , 2019Li et al 2019) and 74 examined museum specimens of seven species which are listed in the Appendix. All specimens were fixed in 10% buffered formalin and later transferred to 70% ethanol, and deposited in the Museum of Biology, Sun Yat-sen University (SYS), Institute of Herpetology, Shenyang Normal University (SYNU), Natural History Museum of Guangxi (NHMG), and Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CIB), China.…”

“…In the previous study (Lyu et al 2017), the populations from Taiwan, northern Fujian, Jingning County of Zhejiang, and Mt Jinggang of Jiangxi were confirmed as the same species, which also synonymized N. caldwelli Schmidt, 1925 with N. adenopleura. Besides, it is worth noting that the frogs previously considered as N. adenopleura from Mt Dayao of Guangxi and Mt Leigong of Guizhou were respectively revealed as two new species, N. yaoica and N. leishanensis, most recently (Lyu et al 2019;Li et al 2019). Nevertheless, the exact taxonomic statuses of other N. adenopleura populations from China have not yet be tested.…”

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.…”