Abstract
A new, montane species of Ansonia is described from the state of Pahang in central, peninsular Malaysia on the basis of having a unique combination of head, body, digit, and color pattern characteristics. This new species is similar to A. malayana, to which it is closest geographically, but differs greatly in aspects of head morphology and body tuberculation. A review of Ansonia from the Malay Peninsula demonstrates that the population of A. malayana from Tasan, Chumphon Province, Thailand is A. kraensis and A. penangensis from Ulu Tahan, Pahang in peninsular Malaysia is not conspecific with A. penangensis from Pulau Penang but an additional, undescribed species ranging throughout northwestern, peninsular Malaysia.
Key words: Bufonidae; Ansonia; Malaysia; Thailand; new species
Ansonia latirostra sp. n.
Holotype. ZRC 1.11559 (Fig. 2), an adult female from the Sungai Lembing logging camp (3° 52.26” N, 103° 3’.13” E), Pahang, Malaysia collected at 255 m elevation on 1 August 2002 by J. A. McGuire, J. L. Grismer, R. Escobar, P. L. Wood, Norsham, S. Y., and T. M. Youmans
Etymology. The specific epithet is in reference to this species’ wide snout.
Natural history. All individuals were collected during the evening from the same, small, rocky stream which runs through a closed-canopy portion of hill dipterocarp forest. All were perched no higher than two meters above the ground on leaves overhanging the streambed or on the tops of large rocks along the edge of the stream. No calling males were heard nor were any tadpoles observed.
FIGURE 1. Distribution of Ansonia on the Malay Peninsula and adjacent islands.
Grismer, L.L. 2006. A new species of Ansonia Stoliczka 1872 (Anura: Bufonidae) from central Peninsular Malaysia and a revised taxonomy for Ansonia from the Malay Peninsula. Zootaxa. 1327: 1-21.
Lee Grismer 2008. Ansonia latirostra. In: IUCN 2011. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2011.2. <iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 23 February 2012.
