Contributions to the amphibians and reptiles of Myanmar: insights from the Leonardo Fea legacy housed at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales of Madrid

Abstract

The Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN) holds a significant repository of historical specimens collected by Leonardo Fea in Myanmar from 1885 to 1889, which have remained overlooked for decades. In this work, we present a commented taxonomic catalogue of the MNCN amphibians and reptiles collected by L. Fea. Based on this material, we unveil the first documented record of Wijayarana melasma in Myanmar and identify a potential new species of Leptobrachium. Also, the collection contains several topotypes of six species: Limnonectes macrognathus, Orixalus carinensis, Chirixalus doriae, Xenophrys parva, Brachytarsophrys carinense, and Leiolepis ocellata. These findings emphasize the crucial role of scientific collections in revealing information that have gone unnoticed for more than a century, hinting at a potential underestimation of Myanmar's biodiversity.