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| Quasipaa taoi Pham, Hoang, Phan, Nguyen & Ziegler, 2022 |
Abstract
A new species of Quasipaa is described from Ngoc Linh Mountain of the Kon Tum Massif in central Vietnam. The new species is morphologically distinguishable from its congeners on the basis of a combination of the following diagnostic characters: SVL 79.6–84.3 mm in males and 64.6–69.9 mm in females; head broader than long; vomerine teeth present; external vocal sacs absent; tympanum slightly visible; dorsum with lines of thick ridges and small round tubercles; flanks covered by oval and round tubercles; supratympanic fold present; dorsolateral fold absent; ventrolateral sides, ventral surface of arms, and all fingers with spines in males; the absence of spines on chest and belly in males; toes fully webbed to distal portion of terminal phalanx; in life, dorsum dark brown, chest and belly immaculate white. Phylogenetic analyses found that the genetic divergence of the new species and its congeners ranged from 4.2–5.1% (compared with Quasipaa boulengeri) to 7.6–8.1% (compared with Q. shini) in the 16S gene.
Keywords: Kon Tum Province, molecular phylogeny, Quasipaa taoi sp. nov., taxonomy
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| Quasipaa taoi sp. nov., holotype (IEBR A.4997, male) in life A dorsolateral view B ventral view. |
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| Quasipaa taoi sp. nov., holotype (IEBR A.4997, male) A upper right hand B lower right hand C lower right foot. |
Quasipaa taoi sp. nov.
Diagnosis: Both morphological characters (body very stout, skin rough with dermal ridges and tubercles, forelimbs of males strongly enlarged, with inner side of arms or fingers or chest and belly with black spines (see Fei et al. 2009) and molecular data revealed the new species to be nested within Quasipaa. Quasipaa taoi sp. nov. is distinguishable from its congeners by a combination of the following morphological characters: (1) SVL 79.6–84.3 mm in males, 64.6–69.9 mm in females; (2) head broader than long (HL/HW 0.90 in males, 0.92 in females); (3) vomerine teeth present; (4) external vocal sacs absent; (5) tympanum slightly visible; (6) dorsum with lines of thick ridges and small round tubercles; (7) flanks covered by oval and round tubercles; (8) supratympanic fold present; (9) dorsolateral fold absent; (10) ventrolateral sides, ventral surface of arms, and all fingers with spines in males; (11) the absence of spines on chest and belly in males; (12) toes fully webbed to distal end of terminal phalanx; (13) in life, dorsum dark brown, chest and belly immaculate white.
Etymology: The new species is named in honor of our colleague and friend, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tao Thien Nguyen from the Institute of Genome Research, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, in recognition of his numerous scientific contributions towards a better understanding of the amphibians of Vietnam.
We recommend “Tao’s Spiny Frog” as the common English name of the new species and the common name in Vietnamese as “Ếch gai sần tạo”.
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| Habitat of Quasipaa taoi sp. nov. in Ngoc Linh Nature Reserve, Kon Tum Province, Viet Nam A evergreen forest B microhabitat. |
Distribution: Quasipaa taoi sp. nov. is currently known from Ngoc Linh Mountain of the Central Highlands in Vietnam (Fig. 6). Data obtained from GenBank show that this species was also recorded from Xekong Province, Lao PDR (Yan et al. 2021; see Discussion below).
Cuong The Pham, Chung Van Hoang, Tien Quang Phan, Truong Quang Nguyen and Thomas Ziegler. 2022. Hidden in the jungle of Vietnam: A New Species of Quasipaa (Amphibia, Anura, Dicroglossidae) from Ngoc Linh Mountain. ZooKeys. 1124: 23-42. DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1124.89282
