A new species of the genus Leptobrachella Smith 1925 (Amphibia, Anura, Megophryidae) from Guangxi, China

By

Chen, Weicai
Peng, Wanxiao
Li, Peng
Yu, Gui-Dong

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2023

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1178

Pages

1--16

Subjects

bioacoustics , molecular analyses , morphological characters , sympatric species , taxonomy

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1178.106038

 

Abstract

A new species of Leptobrachella, L. wumingensissp. nov., was described from the Damingshan National Nature Reserve, Wuming District, Nanning City, Guangxi, China based on morphological, molecular and bioacoustic data. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S mtDNA fragments revealed that the new species is closely related to L. damingshanensis. Uncorrected p-distances between the new species and all homologous DNA sequences available for the 16S gene of Leptobrachella are greater than 7.1%. Morphologically, L. wumingensissp. nov. differs from its congeners in several ways, including a medium body size (SVL 26.0–26.7 mm in males, 30.6–34.8 mm in females), lack of toe webbing and lateral fringes, shagreened and granular dorsal surface, pale brown dorsum with darker brown markings, iris bicolored, with the upper half copper and fading to silver in the lower half, and the presence of small irregular black spots and tangerine tubercles on the flanks. Furthermore, we found the new species to have two types of advertisement calls and relatively high dominant frequencies, making it distinct from its congeners.