Abstract
Based on morphological and bioacoustic traits, two new species of the microhylid genus Cophixalus Boettger, 1892 are described from the Raja Ampat Islands off the western tip of New Guinea. Both are small (SUL < 23 mm), slender, scansorial species that are morphologically most similar to Cophixalus tetzlaffi Günther and C. monosyllabus Günther, two congeners also known only from far western New Guinea. Their description brings the total number of Cophixalus known from New Guinea and surrounding islands to 46, and the total number from western New Guinea (Papua and West Papua Provinces including the Raja Ampat Islands) to 10. One Cophixalus specimen from Salawati Island is considered a hermaphrodite because it has a well-developed vocal sac and vocal slits, but also has an ovary containing eggs in an advanced developmental stage. This frog uttered advertisement calls that did not differ from calls of conspecific males. The first evidence of the genus Cophixalus from Misool Island is also documented.
Highlights
The frog genus Cophixalus comprises 63 recognised species (Frost 2014)
19 occur in north-eastern Australia, 35 are known only from Papua New Guinea (many of them described in recent years; for example from Kraus and Allison (2009) and Kraus (2012)), five are known only from western New Guinea (Papua and West Papua Provinces of Indonesia), three are recorded from both Papua New Guinea and Indonesian New Guinea, and one species seems to be endemic to the island of Halmahera about 300 km off the western tip of New Guinea
Museum Zoologicum Bogoriense (MZB) Amph.12094; adult male collected at unnamed camp near Urbinasopen Village, Waigeo Island, Raja Ampat Islands, West Papua Province, Indonesia (00°20.231’S, 131°15.528’E) (Fig. 1) on 12/06/2005 by S
Summary
The frog genus Cophixalus comprises 63 recognised species (Frost 2014). Of these, 19 occur in north-eastern Australia, 35 are known only from Papua New Guinea (many of them described in recent years; for example from Kraus and Allison (2009) and Kraus (2012)), five are known only from western New Guinea (Papua and West Papua Provinces of Indonesia), three are recorded from both Papua New Guinea and Indonesian New Guinea, and one species seems to be endemic to the island of Halmahera about 300 km off the western tip of New Guinea. With an SVL of 15.7 mm the only known specimen of Cophixalus pictus Kraus is smaller than C. rajampatensis but its description was based on a rather poorly preserved (and presumed immature) male from the Bomberai Peninsula of West Papua Province (Kraus 2012) and, if immature, this distinction could disappear once adult material has been documented.
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