A new species of puddle frog from an unexplored mountain in southwestern Ethiopia (Anura, Phrynobatrachidae, Phrynobatrachus)

By

Goutte, Sandra
Reyes-Velasco, Jacobo
Boissinot, Stéphane

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2019

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

824

Pages

53-70

Subjects

Bibita Mountain , Ethiopia , Morphology , Phrynobatrachus bibita sp. n , phylogenetic relationships , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.824.31570

 

Abstract

A new species of Phrynobatrachus is described from the unexplored and isolated Bibita Mountain, southwestern Ethiopia, based on morphological characters and sequences of the mitochondrial rRNA16s. The new species can be distinguished from all its congeners by a small size (SVL = 16.8 ± 0.1 mm for males, 20.3 ± 0.9 mm for females), a slender body with long legs and elongated fingers and toes, a golden coloration, a completely hidden tympanum, and a marked canthus rostralis. The phylogenetic hypothesis based on 16s sequences places the new species as sister to the species group that includes P.natalensis, although it is morphologically more similar to other dwarf Phrynobatrachus species, such as the Ethiopian P.minutus.