A new species of cryptic Bush frog (Anura, Rhacophoridae, Raorchestes) from northeastern Bangladesh

By

Al-Razi, Hassan
Maria, Marjan
Muzaffar, Sabir Bin.

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2020

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

927

Pages

127--151

Subjects

Amphibian , bush frog , DNA , herpetofauna , Raorchestes rezakhani sp. nov

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.927.48733

 

Abstract

Raorchestesis a speciose genus of bush frogs with high diversity occurring in the Western Ghats of India. Relatively fewer species have been recorded across India, through Bangladesh, southern China, into Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia. Many bush frogs are morphologically cryptic and therefore remain undescribed. Here, a new species,Raorchestes rezakhanisp. nov., is described from northeastern Bangladesh based on morphological characters, genetics, and bioacoustics. The 16S rRNA gene distinguished this species from 48 known species of this genus. Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood analyses indicated that the new species was most similar toR. tuberohumerus, a species found in the Western Ghats, and toR. gryllus, a species found in Vietnam. Bioacoustics indicated that their calls were similar in pattern to mostRaorchestesspecies, although number of pulses, duration of pulses, pulse intervals and amplitude differentiated it from a few other species. It is suggested that northeastern India, Bangladesh, northern Myanmar, and southern China represent important, relatively unexplored areas that could yield additional species ofRaorchestes. Since many remaining habitat patches in Bangladesh are under severe threat from deforestation, efforts should be made to protect these last patches from further degradation.