Abstract
I describe two new species in the miniaturized microhylid frog genus Paedophryne from forests in southeastern Papua New Guinea. The first species is described on the basis of two specimens and exhibits female snout-vent length of 8.5–9.0 mm (no males known), whereas that of the second species, described on the basis of 12 specimens, is 8.8–9.3 mm, with males 8.1–8.9 mm. These frogs are smaller than the other two diminutive species described when the genus was recently erected, and they represent what are currently the smallest known species of tetrapods. The two species replace each other elevationally on the same mountain massif and occur in relative geographic proximity to the other named species of the genus. Females of both species contain only two enlarged ova, suggesting that they also possess clutch sizes at the extreme lower end of variation in frogs. All species of Paedophryne inhabit leaf litter, as seen for most other miniaturized anurans.
Highlights
Asterophryine frogs represent a large subfamily of the Microhylidae that contains 22 named genera, more than 240 named species, and scores of unnamed forms
Sizes vary from 10 to 100 mm snout-vent length (Zweifel 1972; Kraus 2010). Among those asterophryines of the “terrestrial” ecomorph, which solely inhabit the forest floor, I recently described from southeastern New Guinea a new genus, Paedophryne, that included two new species comprising some of the smallest frogs in the world (Kraus 2010)
Each is of a smaller size than the two species already known in the genus and stands at the lower size limit currently known for anurans (Lehr and Coloma 2008; Kraus 2010) and, tetrapods (Estrada and Hedges 1996), both are larger than the world’s smallest fish (Kottelat et al 2006)
Summary
Asterophryine frogs represent a large subfamily of the Microhylidae that contains 22 named genera, more than 240 named species, and scores of unnamed forms. Sizes vary from 10 to 100 mm snout-vent length (Zweifel 1972; Kraus 2010) Among those asterophryines of the “terrestrial” ecomorph, which solely inhabit the forest floor, I recently described from southeastern New Guinea a new genus, Paedophryne, that included two new species comprising some of the smallest frogs in the world (Kraus 2010). The two described species (P. kathismaphlox Kraus, P. oyatabu Kraus) are included among the smallest four or five species of frogs in the world; sample sizes of each were limited, making a clearer assessment of size ranking relative to other species uncertain. This is because size differs between sexes in most frog species. Each is of a smaller size than the two species already known in the genus and stands at the lower size limit currently known for anurans (Lehr and Coloma 2008; Kraus 2010) and, tetrapods (Estrada and Hedges 1996), both are larger than the world’s smallest fish (Kottelat et al 2006)
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