A new species of the Asian music frog genus Nidirana (Amphibia, Anura, Ranidae) from Southwestern China

Shize Li,Liang Fei,Jianguo Cui,Gang Wei,Ning Xu,Bin Wang,Jing Liu,Jianping Jiang

doi:10.7717/peerj.7157

Shize Li, Liang Fei + Show 6 more

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https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7157

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Abstract

The Asian music frog genus Nidirana is widely distributed in East and Southeastern Asia. Systematic profiles of the group remain on debate, and cryptic species are expected especially in the species with wide distributional range. Here, we describe a new species of the genus from Southwestern China. Phylogenetic analyses based on mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA supported the new species as an independent clade nested into the Nidirana clade and sister to N. hainanensis. Morphologically, the new species could be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following characters: a large body size in males (SVL > 49 mm); the presence of lateroventral grooves both on fingers and toes; relative finger lengths: II < IV < I < III; tibiotarsal articulation reaching the level between eye and nostril when leg stretched forward; a pair of subgular internal vocal sacs at corners of throat in males; nuptial pad present on the inner side of base of fingers I and II in males in breading season; webbing formula: I 2 –21/3 II 2 –22/3 III 31/2 –32/3 IV 32/3 –3V. The findings provided a better knowledge on phylogenetic assignments of the genus Nidirana, and indicated future deeper investigations necessarily for exploring systematic settings of the group.

Highlights

The Asian music frog genus Nidirana Dubois, 1992 is widely distributed in East and Southeast Asia, from Japan, westwards to southern China, southwards to northern Thailand and northern Vietnam and Laos (Frost, 2019)
All samples of the new taxon occurring from Leishan Mountain of Guizhou Province, China were strongly clustered into a monophyly, which was nested into the Nidirana clade and sister to the N. hainanensis clade
Two haplotypes were found for all samples of the new taxon in Tyrosinase exon 1 (Tyr1) gene and six haplotypes in CXCR4 gene, respectively, and there was no common haplotype between the new taxon and its related species (Fig. 3)

Summary

Introduction

The Asian music frog genus Nidirana Dubois, 1992 is widely distributed in East and Southeast Asia, from Japan, westwards to southern China, southwards to northern Thailand and northern Vietnam and Laos (Frost, 2019). Dubois (1992) established the subgenus Nidirana under the genus Rana, which contained six species: Rana psaltes Kuramoto, 1985, Rana adenopleura Boulenger, 1909, Rana caldwelli Schmidt, 1925, Rana chapaensis Bourret, 1937, Rana daunchina Chang, 1933 and Rana pleuraden Boulenger, 1904. Lyu et al (2017) performed a most-species-comprehensive analysis based on molecular phylogenetics, morphology and bioacoustics of Babina seusu lato, and confirmed that Nidirana was a distinct genus containing eight species: Nidirana okinavana (Boettger, 1895), Nidirana adenopleura (Boulenger, 1909), Nidirana hainanensis (Fei, Ye & Jiang, 2007), Nidirana chapaensis (Boulenger, 1909), Nidirana daunchina (Chang, 1933), Nidirana lini (Chou, 1999), Nidirana pleuraden (Boulenger, 1904) and Nidirana nankunensis Lyu et al, 2017

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