Monday, March 20, 2017

[Herpetology • 2017] Leptolalax petrops • A New Species of Leptolalax (Anura: Megophryidae) from northern Vietnam


 Leptolalax petrops 
Rowley, Dau, Hoang, Le, Cutajar & Nguyen, 2017  

Abstract

We describe a new, medium-sized Leptolalax species from Vietnam. Leptolalax petrops sp. nov. is distinguished from its congeners by a combination of having a medium-sized body (23.6–27.6 mm in 21 adult males, 30.3–47.0 mm in 17 adult females), immaculate white chest and belly, no distinct black markings on the head, highly tuberculate skin texture, toes lacking webbing and with narrow lateral fringes, and a call consisting of an average of four notes and a dominant frequency of 5.6–6.4 kHz (at 24.5–25.3 °C). Uncorrected sequence divergences between L. petrops sp. nov. and all homologous DNA sequences available for the 16S rRNA gene are >8%.

Keywords: Amphibia, Acoustics, Anura, L. petrops sp. nov., Southeast Asia, Vietnam

Leptolalax petrops sp. nov. in life, VNMN 2016 A.16

Leptolalax petrops sp. nov. in life, Male holotype VNMN 2016 A.06 in situ,  from Tuyen Quang Province 



Etymology: The specific epithet derives from the Latin petra, meaning rock, and –ops, meaning having the appearance of, in reference to both the stone-like appearance of the frog and the limestone karst in which the species was found in Lai Chau Province.


Rowley, Jodi J. L., Vinh Q. Dau, Duc H. Hoang, Duong T. T. Le, Timothy P. Cutajar & Tao T. Nguyen. 2017. A New Species of Leptolalax (Anura: Megophryidae) from northern Vietnam. Zootaxa. 4243(3); 544–564.  DOI:  10.11646/zootaxa.4243.3.7