Abstract
Asian leaf-litter toads of the genus Leptobrachella represent charismatic anuran diversification with 80 species, of which 25 are from China. Recent new discoveries suggest that the diversity of this genus is underestimated. Here, we describe a new species of Leptobrachella, Leptobrachella bashaensissp. nov. from the Basha Nature Reserve, Congjiang County, Guizhou Province, China. The new species is distinguished from its congeners by the following suite of morphological traits: small body size (SVL 22.9–25.6 mm in six adult males and 27.1 mm in one adult female); head longer than wide; dorsal skin slightly shagreened with small tubercles; creamy-white chest and belly with irregular black spots; distinct ventrolateral glands forming a white line; finger webbing and fringes absent; toe webbing rudimentary and lateral fringes narrow; iris bicolored with bright orange in upper half and silver in lower half; dorsal surface of tadpole head dark brown with small, brown, irregular spot, air sac-shaped bulges on both sides of body. The new species differs from all known congeners by an uncorrected p-distance of >5.3% of the 16S rRNA gene fragment examined, and the phylogenetic analysis clusters the new species with L. maoershanensis and L. laui. At present, the new species is only known from a small range of montane evergreen secondary forests in Basha Nature Reserve approximately 900 m elevation. Its natural history and conservation status are discussed.
Highlights
At present, the megophryid genus Leptobrachella Smith, 1925 comprises 80 nominal species that are widely distributed from southwestern China to northeastern India, Southeast Asia and Myanmar, through mainland Indochina to peninsular Malaysia and the island of Borneo (Chen et al 2018; Frost 2020)
The observed interspecific uncorrected p-distances between the new population from Basha and all species from clade A based on the study of Chen et al (2018) varied from 5.3% (L. maoershanensis) to 15.7% (L. firthi) (Table 2)
The samples from Basha formed a lineage that clustered with L. maoershanensis, but with low support (BPP < 95% and BS < 70%)
Summary
The megophryid genus Leptobrachella Smith, 1925 comprises 80 nominal species that are widely distributed from southwestern China to northeastern India, Southeast Asia and Myanmar, through mainland Indochina to peninsular Malaysia and the island of Borneo (Chen et al 2018; Frost 2020). From 2016 to 2020, a total of 28 species were described (Eto et al 2016, 2018; Rowley et al 2016, 2017a, b; Yang et al 2016, 2018; Yuan et al 2017; Duong et al 2018; Hou et al 2018; Nguyen et al 2018; Wang et al 2018, 2019; Chen et al 2019, 2020; Hoang et al 2019; Li et al 2020; Luo et al 2020) The discovery of these species indicates that the species diversity of the genus is underestimated, and there still may be a large number of undiscovered cryptic species. More than half of the species of this genus were described in last three years, with more potential new species suggested by previous studies (Chen et al 2018)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
