Abstract

ABSTRACT A new rhacophorid species is described from Vietnam on the basis of nine specimens collected in Quan Ba District, Ha Giang Province, northeastern Vietnam. The new species is morphologically similar to Zhangixalus pinglongensis, Z. dorsoviridis, and Z. nigropunctatus, however, it differs from the latter by having the flank cream with large black blotches on axilla and groin. The genetic distance between the new species and Zhangixalus pinglongensis, Z. dorsoviridis and Z. nigropunctatus is >3.57% (16S mtDNA gene fragment). Zhangixalus jodiae sp. nov. can be distinguished from all other species of Zhangixalus and other small rhacophorid species from Southeast Asia by a combination of the following characters: size small (SVL 36.1–39.8 mm in males); head as long as wide; vomerine teeth present; dorsal surface of head and body green without spots; axilla cream with large black blotches, groin and front-rear parts of the thigh, ventral surface of tibia black with orange blotches; lower jaw region greyish, chest and belly cream. http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:89597718-024F-4FFC-B0AE-2005F12CF66C

Highlights

  • The family Rhacophoridae represents one of the most diverse anuran families, with 427 currently recognized species in the world (Frost 2020)

  • The interspecific uncorrected genetic distances (16S rRNA gene) between the new species from Ha Giang Province and other analyzed congeners varied from 2.51% to 11.57%, which is higher in this study than those among recognized taxa of Zhangixalus (i.e. 1.17% between Z. duboisi and Z. omeimontis (Stejneger, 1924) or 2.40% between Z. minimus and Z. puerensis)

  • Ziegler et al (2014) reported Z. feae for the first time from Ha Giang Province, northern Vietnam based a photograph which was taken at the type locality of Z. franki

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Summary

Introduction

The family Rhacophoridae represents one of the most diverse anuran families, with 427 currently recognized species in the world (Frost 2020). Representatives of the family are distributed in Subsaharan Africa and southern Asia from Sri Lanka, Nepal and India, eastwards to Japan and southwards to Indonesia and the Philippines (Frost 2020). Zhangixalus currently contains 37 species with a distribution range of from northeastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, southern China, Myanmar, northern Thailand, Laos, northern Vietnam, Taiwan and Japan, southwards to Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia (Frost 2020). During our recent field work in Ha Giang Province in 2019, we collected a series of treefrogs that morphologically resembled Z. burmanus (Andersson, 1939), a species that is known from western Yunnan of China, northern Myanmar, and northeastern India (Sengupta & Ahmed 2017). We describe the Zhangixalus from Ha Giang Province, Vietnam as a new species

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