Five new, microendemic Asian Leaf-litter Frogs (Leptolalax) from the southern Annamite mountains, Vietnam

Abstract

The Leptolalax applebyi group of Asian leaf-litter frogs currently comprises four species of particularly small-bodied (<40 mm SVL) species distributed in the Central Highlands of Vietnam and northeastern Cambodia. In addition to their small size, the group is characterized by their morphological and genetic similarities, as well as their breeding habitat at headwaters of small mountain streams and seeps. A recent study suggested that at least two-thirds of the diversity of the group remained hidden within morphologically cryptic lineages. We expand upon the molecular, morphometric, and acoustic data and formally delineate and describe five of these lineages as distinct species: Leptolalax ardens sp. nov., Leptolalax kalonensis sp. nov., Leptolalax pallidus sp. nov., Leptolalax maculosus sp. nov., and Leptolalax tadungensis sp. nov. Due to habitat loss, the current ranges of these species are likely to be a fraction of their historical extent and under continued threat from deforestation.

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

“…Our data support the hypothesis that eastern Indochina, including the central and southern parts of the Truong Son Mountains (known also as Tay Nguyen Plateau), host the highest diversity of Ophryophryne , and was the center of radiation for this genus (Orlov and Ananjeva 2007, Mahony et al 2017). Similar patterns of geographic structuring of mtDNA lineages were reported for the genus Leptolalax , another megophryid genus inhabiting the Truong Son Mountains (Poyarkov et al 2015a, Rowley et al 2016). …”

“…It is probably not surprising that advertisement calls of the three occasionally sympatric Ophryophryne species show significant differences both in call structure and frequency parameters (see Table 4, Fig. 5), and the three studied species are characterized by relatively high values of the frequency parameters (as compared to several other Megophryidae species studied acoustically, especially of the genera Leptolalax , see review in Rowley et al 2016, and Leptobrachium , see e.g. Stuart et al 2010).…”

Morphology and molecular genetics reveal two new Leptobrachella species in southern China (Anura, Megophryidae)

“…Their results also rejected the hypothesis that Leptolalax consists of two subgenera as proposed by Delorme et al (2006) and Dubois et al (2010). At present, the genus Leptobrachella contains sixty-six species, widely distributed from southern China west to northeastern India and Myanmar, through mainland Indochina to peninsular Malaysia and the island of Borneo (Frost 2017; Nguyen et al 2018; Rowley et al 2016, 2017; Yang et al 2016; Yuan et al 2017). They are commonly known as Asian leaf litter frogs.…”

“…With the evidence of both morphological and phylogenetic analyses, 15 cryptic species of the genus Leptobrachella have been discovered and described since 2010 (Frost 2017; Rowley et al 2016, 2017; Yang et al 2016; Yuan et al 2017). With the description of L.yunkaiensis sp.…”

“…Comparative morphological data of Leptobrachella species were obtained from examination of museum specimens (see Appendix 1) and from the references listed in Table 2. Due to the high likelihood of undiagnosed diversity within the genus (Rowley et al 2016; Yang et al 2016), where available, we relied on examination of topotypic material and/or original species descriptions.…”