First record of Hoplobatrachus litoralis Hasan, Kuramoto, Islam, Alam, Khan & Sumida, 2012 (Anura, Dicroglossidae) from China

Abstract

We report the first record of Hoplobatrachus litoralis Hasan, Kuramoto, Islam, Alam, Khan & Sumida, 2012 from China based on seven specimens from Baoshan City, western Yunnan. Morphologically, the specimens from China mostly agree with the original description of H. litoralis and phylogenetically show a small genetic distance (1.7%) in the 16S rRNA gene with the specimens (including one paratype) of H. litoralis from its type locality in Bangladesh. Our work increased the species number of the genus Hoplobatrachus Peters, 1863 in China to two. This record is the easternmost distribution of this species at present. Furthermore, we found that the species H. salween Thongproh, Chunskul, Sringurngam, Waiprom, Makchai, Cota, Duengkae, Duangjai, Hasan, Chuaynkern & Chuaynkern, 2022 recently described from north-western Thailand is morphologically and genetically very similar to H. litoralis and, therefore, we discuss the validity of H. salween as a separate species.