A new arboreal frog of the genus Guibemantis from the southeast of Madagascar (Anura: Mantellidae)

Abstract

We describe a new species of arboreal frog of the genus Guibemantis, subgenus Guibemantis, from low altitude rainforest in Manombo Special Reserve, south-eastern Madagascar. Previously published phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequences have placed Guibemantis diphonus sp. nov. sister to G. timidus. The new species is distinguished from G. timidus and all other species in the subgenus by a substantial genetic differentiation (≥ 4.4% uncorrected p-distance in the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene), strongly divergent advertisement call, and some limited morphological differences. It is the smallest known species in the subgenus, with 34-36 mm snout-vent length in adult males. Its advertisement call is unique among other species in the subgenus in being composed of two distinctly different note types (only one note type in the other species).

Descriptive skeletal anatomy of Blommersia transmarina (Amphibia: Anura: Mantellidae) from the Comoro Islands

“…However, despite the fact that osteological and anatomical data have been at the core of species descriptions in the classical literature, for most species we currently only rely on data of their external morphology (Vences et al, 2002;. This is the case in the hyperdiverse family Mantellidae, where the majority of the recently described species mostly integrate external morphology, genetic data, and bioacoustics (Vieites et al, 2009;Vences et al, 2010Vences et al, , 2015Scherz et al, 2017b), with few examples including internal structures such as the presence or absence of vomerine teeth in the skull or bone structures in hands or feet (Manzano et al, 2007;Kamermans & Vences, 2009).…”