A new species of the genus Gracixalus (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from Southern Guangxi, China

Abstract

A new species of the genus Gracixalus is described from Nonggang National Nature Reserve, based on eleven specimens from evergreen karst forests in Sino-Vietnamese border region of southern China. The new species, Gracixalus nonggan-gensis sp. nov., is medium sized species of Gracixalus that can be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following characters: SVL ranging from 29.9-35.3 mm in males and 33.6-38.0 mm in females; vomerine teeth absent; distinct tympanum as wide as the disc of finger III; the lower part of the tympanum with many small tubercles; tibiotarsal articulation reaching the tip of the snout; dorsum smooth yellowish-olive in life with a wide, dark-green irregular mark; throat, chest and belly white with light grey-blue tint and brown marbling; broad, dark olive, transverse stripes on limbs; finger webbing absent, toes one-third webbed; male with internal subgular vocal sac. Based on a 16S ribosomal RNA mitochondrial gene fragment, G. nonggangensis sp. nov. forms a monophyletic group embedded within the genus Gracixalus.

A new species of Gracixalus (Anura, Rhacophoridae) from Yunnan, China

“…The genus Gracixalus Delorme, Dubois, Grosjean & Ohler, 2005 is known from southern and southwestern China, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar and contains 16 species including G.ananjevae (Matsui & Orlov, 2004), G.carinensis (Boulenger, 1893), G.gracilipes (Bourret, 1937), G.guangdongensis Wang, Zeng, Liu & Wang, 2018, G.jinggangensis Zeng, Zhao, Chen, Chen, Zhang & Wang, 2017, G.jinxiuensis (Hu, in Hu et al 1978), G.lumarius Rowley, Le, Dau, Hoang & Cao, 2014, G.medogensis (Ye & Hu, 1984), G.nonggangensis Mo, Zhang, Luo, Zhou & Chen, 2013, G.quangi , Rowley, Dau, Nguyen, Cao & Nguyen, 2011, G.quyeti (Nguyen, Hendrix, Bohme, Vu & Ziegler, 2008), G.sapaensis Matsui, Ohler, Eto & Nguyen, 2017, G.seesom Matsui, Khonsue, Panha & Eto, 2015, G.supercornutus (Orlov, Ho & Nguyen, 2004), G.tianlinensis Chen, Bei, Liao, Zhou & Mo, 2018, and G.waza Nguyen, Le, Pham, Nguyen, Bonkowski & Ziegler, 2013 (Frost 2018). Of the 16 members of Gracixalus , ten were discovered in last decade (Nguyen et al 2008, Rowley et al 2011, Mo et al 2013, Nguyen et al 2013, Rowley et al 2014, Matsui et al 2015, Matsui et al 2017, Zeng et al 2017, Chen et al 2018, Wang et al 2018), indicating that species diversity of Gracixalus was very poorly understood in the past. Moreover, recent phylogenetic analyses (Matsui et al 2017, Chen et al 2018) showed that there are still several unnamed distinct lineages in the group of G.jinxiuensis , indicating that species richness of Gracixalus remains underestimated.…”

“…Of the 16 members of Gracixalus , ten were discovered in last decade (Nguyen et al 2008, Rowley et al 2011, Mo et al 2013, Nguyen et al 2013, Rowley et al 2014, Matsui et al 2015, Matsui et al 2017, Zeng et al 2017, Chen et al 2018, Wang et al 2018), indicating that species diversity of Gracixalus was very poorly understood in the past. Moreover, recent phylogenetic analyses (Matsui et al 2017, Chen et al 2018) showed that there are still several unnamed distinct lineages in the group of G.jinxiuensis , indicating that species richness of Gracixalus remains underestimated.…”

“…During recent fieldworks in Yunnan, China, we collected some specimens of a small-sized tree frog, which morphologically can be assigned to the genus Gracixalus by the presence of intercalary cartilage between terminal and penultimate phalanges of digits, tips of digits enlarged to discs bearing circummarginal grooves, vomerine teeth absent, inner (first and second) and outer (third and fourth) fingers non-opposable, and an inversed Y-shaped dark brown marking on dorsum (Fei 1999, Rowley et al 2011, Chen et al 2018), but morphologically and genetically can be distinguished from all recognized species of genus Gracixalus . Thus, we describe these specimens as a new species of Gracixalus .…”

A new species of the genus Zhangixalus (Amphibia: Rhacophoridae) from Vietnam

“…We compared morphological characters of the new species with congeners from Vietnam and China based on specimen examination (see Appendix) and data obtained from the literature (e.g., Stejneger 1907;Bourret 1937;Liu 1950;Liang & Wang 1978;Maeda & Matsui 1990;Lue et al 1995;Ohler et al 2000;Orlov et al 2001;Harvey et al 2002;Wilkinson 2003;Bain & Nguyen 2004;Goris & Maeda 2004;Wilkinson & Rao 2004;Rao et al 2006;Bordoloi et al 2007;Chou et al 2007;Ohler 2009;Fei et al 2010;Li et al 2012a;Ziegler et al 2014;Jiang et al 2016;Mo et al 2016;Liu et al 2017;Pan et al 2017;Chen et al 2018;Yu et al 2019).…”

“…Zhangixalus franki sp. nov can be distinguished from the following 29 species in the genus Zhangixalus by having a larger size in males (SVL 77.9-85.8) versus Z. achantharrhena at 36.52-40.56 mm (Harvey (Wilkinson 2003); Z. arvalis at 39-46.4 mm (Lue et al 1995); Z. aurantiventris at 48-54 mm (Lue et al 1994); Z. chenfui at 33-41 mm (Fei et al 2010); Z. dorsoviridis (Bourret, 1937) at 31.31-2.43 mm (Orlov et al 2001); Z. dugritei at 31.65-47 mm (Liu 1950;Orlov et al 2001;Fei et al 2010); Z. dulitensis at 38.39-39.66 mm (Harvey et al 2002); Z. hongchibaensis at 46.5-49.7 mm (Li et al 2012a); Z. hungfuensis at 31-37 mm (Fei et al 2010) Z. jarujini at 33.7-40 mm (Fei et al 2010); Z. leucofasciatus at 35-48 mm (Fei et al 2010); Z. lishuiensis at 34.2-35.8 mm (Liu et al 2017); Z. minimus at 21.3-33.0 mm (Rao et al 2006); Z. moltrechti at 33-46 mm (Fei et al 2010); Z. nigropunctatus at 32-37 mm (Fei et al 2010); Z. owstoni at 42-51 mm (Maeda & Matsui 1990); Z. pinglongensis at 32.0-38.5 mm (Mo et al 2016); Z. prasinatus at 49-56 mm (Fei et al 2010); Z. prominanus at 50.46-51.26 mm (Harvey et al 2002); Z. puerensis at 35.5-41 mm (Bain & Nguyen 2004); Z. schlegelii at 49 mm (Stejneger 1907); Z. suffry at 38.5-52.9 mm (Bordoloi et al 2007); Z. taipeianus at 30.7-36.7 mm (Liang & Wang 1978); Z. viridis at 45-56 mm (Goris & Maeda 2004); Z. wui at 35.2-38.2 mm (Li et al 2012a); Z. yaoshanensis at 31.6-36.4 mm (Chen et al 2018); Z. yinggelingensis at 43-43.4 mm (Chou et al 2007); Z. zhoukaiyae at 27.9-36.88 mm (Pan et al 2017).…”