Abstract
A new species of Music frogs, Nidiranayaoicasp. nov. is described based on a series of adult male specimens collected from Mt Dayao, Guangxi, southern China, providing valuable new information on the phylogeny, bioacoustics, and biogeography of related species within the genus Nidirana. The new species forms the sister taxon to N.daunchina from western China and together the sister taxon to N.chapaensis from northern Vietnam. Nidiranayaoicasp. nov. can be distinguished from all known congeners by a significant genetic divergence in the mitochondrial 16S and CO1 genes, the advertisement call containing 1–3 rapidly repeated regular notes, and the combination of morphological characteristics including a medium-sized body with SVL 40.4–45.9 mm in adult males; lateroventral grooves on every digit, not meeting at the tip of disk; tibio-tarsal articulation reaching the nostril; the presence of a pair of subgular vocal sacs in males; and one single developed nuptial pad on dorsal surface of first finger in males.
Highlights
The taxonomic treatment of the Music frog genus Nidirana Dubois, 1992 was controversial for a long time (Dubois 1987, 1992; Chen et al 2005; Frost et al 2006; Fei et al 2009, 2010; Chuaynkern et al 2010)
The ML and Bayesian inference (BI) analyses resulted in essentially identical topologies and were integrated in Fig. 2, in which the major nodes were sufficiently supported with the Bayesian posterior probabilities (BPP) > 0.95 and the bootstrap supports (BS) for maximum likelihood analysis > 70
The Nidirana specimens from Mt Dayao (MDY), southern China, grouped in a clade with strong supported values and small divergences, forming a sister taxon to N. daunchina from western China, together forming the sister taxon to N. chapaensis from northern Vietnam
Summary
The taxonomic treatment of the Music frog genus Nidirana Dubois, 1992 was controversial for a long time (Dubois 1987, 1992; Chen et al 2005; Frost et al 2006; Fei et al 2009, 2010; Chuaynkern et al 2010). Further detailed comprehensive analyses of molecules, bioacoustics, and morphology indicated that this frog was distinctive from all known congeners of Nidirana. We propose it as a new species based on this study
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