46 
MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 
A RE-EXAMINATION OF MACLEAY’S 
NEW GUINEA AND QUEENSLAND 
FROG TYPES. 
By Dene B. Fry, 
Australian Museum, Sydney. 
The present short paper is primarily the result of an inquiry from the 
Queensland Museum as to the frog described by Macleay as Hylophorlnis rufescens. 
It deals briefly with the status of the five frogs taken by the “ Chevert ” expedition 
in 1875, four of which were collected in British New Guinea and one at Cape 
York. These were characterised and named by Sir William Macleay in the 
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales for the year 1878. 
So short and inadequate were his descriptions that, in the absence of any subse- 
quent examination of the types, the true systematic position of his species has 
been up till the present one of surmise. They have thus remained a stumbling- 
block to systematists, and, as a direct result, have either dropped out of recent 
literature cr remain shrouded with doubt, to be referred to only in footnotes and 
appendices. 
One of Macleay ’s species, Hylarana nebulosa, was recognised by Dr. 
Boulenger as a synonym of liana papua , Lesson. Another, constituting a new 
genus and species, namely, Ranaster convexiuscuhis, was placed doubtfully in 
the family Pelobatuhe, where it has remained, its true position never having 
even been suggested. The other three — a new genus and species, 71 ylophorbus 
rufescens , and two new tree-frogs, Litoria guttata and L. dorsalis — are not 
mentioned in recent literature on Papuan Batrachia. Two of these species are 
synonymous with previously described forms, and two antedate more recently 
characterised frogs, while L. dorsalis is unidentifiable. Briefly, this may be 
stated as follows: — 
Hamster convexiusculiis , Macleay, antedates Phanerotis novce-guinece, 
van Kampen. 
Hylophorbus rufescens, Macleay, antedates Mantophryne lateralis, 
Boulenger. 
Hylarana nebulosa , Macleay, is synonymous with liana papua, Lesson. 
Litoria guttata, Macleay, is synonymous with Hyla infrafrenata, Gunther. 
Litoria dorsalis, Macleay, is obviously not a Litoria, but cannot be identified 
as the type is lost. 
Nothing would be gained by figuring the more or less dilapidated type 
specimens, for those which will stand as valid species have since been well figured 
