Abstract
A new species of the genus Kurixalus (Anura: Rhacophoridae) is described from Yunnan, China based on morphological and molecular evidence. The new species, Kurixalus lenquanensis sp. n., is distinguished from other congeneric species by a combination of (1) smaller body size (SVL in males ranges from 25.0 to 28.9 mm), (2) obtusely pointed snout with no prominence on tip, (3) rough and brown dorsum with darker mark, (4) absence of large dark spots on ventral surface, (5) brownish clouded chin, (6) granular throat, chest, and belly, (7) presence of vomerine teeth, (8) serrated dermal fringes along outer edge of limbs, (9) slight nuptial pad, (10) golden brown iris, and (11) single internal vocal sac. The new species is known only from montane scrub vegetation at the type locality (Lenquan Village, Mengzi City, Yunnan Province) and Yangjiatian Village, Gejiu City, Yunnan Province. Genetically, the new species is nested within a clade of Taiwanese Kurixalus and recovered as the sister taxon to Kurixalus idiootocus with strong support values, indicating that the ancestor of this new species might have come from Taiwan Island or the ancestor of this new species may have been widespread in southern China and the descendent species in between Taiwan and Yunnan has become extinct.
Highlights
The genus Kurixalus Ye, Fei, & Dubois in Fei 1999 has a wide distribution including eastern India, Indochina, Sunda islands, Philippine archipelago, montane southern China, and adjacent continental islands (Hainan, Taiwan, and Ryukyu Islands); currently 14 species are recognized in this genus (Frost 2017)
The obtained sequence alignment is 870 bp in length. Both Bayesian and maximum likelihood analyses strongly supported that Kurixalus lenquanensis sp. n. is in the genus Kurixalus and is the sister taxon to K. idiootocus (Fig. 2)
Inner and outer fingers are opposable in all species of Feihyla and Chiromantis (Fei 1999, Fei et al 2010). This assignment is supported by the molecular data, which indicates that K. lenquanensis sp. n. is nested in the genus Kurixalus with strong support values
Summary
The genus Kurixalus Ye, Fei, & Dubois in Fei 1999 has a wide distribution including eastern India, Indochina, Sunda islands, Philippine archipelago, montane southern China, and adjacent continental islands (Hainan, Taiwan, and Ryukyu Islands); currently 14 species are recognized in this genus (Frost 2017). Based on evidence from molecular data, Yu et al (2010) proposed that K. odontotarsus, K. bisacculus, and K. verrucosus should be treated as three independent species and suggested placing K. odontotarsus from Tibet and K. hainanus in K. verrucosus and K. bisacculus, respectively. Currently three species of Kurixalus (K. odontotarsus, K. bisacculus, and K. verrucosus) are recognized in mainland China and two of them (K. odontotarsus and K. bisacculus) exist in Yunnan according to Yu et al (2010)
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