A new species of Gracixalus (Anura, Rhacophoridae) from Guangxi, China, with comments on the taxonomy of Orixalus

By

Luo, Jiaqi
Zhang, Ben’an
Pan, Yuanqiang
Yu, Guohua

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2025-2-21

Original Publication

Zoosystematics and evolution

Volume

101

Series / Issue

Issue: 1

Pages

369--388

Subjects

Gracixalus jinxiuensis , Species diversity , taxonomy , treefrog

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.101.135742

 

Abstract

A new treefrog of the genus Gracixalus, Gracixalus huapingsp. nov., is described based on the specimens collected from Huaping National Natural Reserve, Guangxi, China. Both maximum likelihood analysis and Bayesian inference found that the Huaping population formed a distinct lineage as sister to Gracixalus jinxiuensis. It was strongly supported that Gracixalus consists of four distinct clades. Morphological analysis suggested that the new species can be distinguished from other known congeners by a combination of the following morphological characters: size small, SVL 26.6–28.8 mm in males and 29.8–32.8 mm in females; vomerine teeth absent; dorsal surface yellowish brown; internal vocal sac and linea masculina present in males; vocal sac opening oval and rim of the opening dark brown; throat smooth; iris golden brown; flanks granular with white blotch. In addition, we agree that the genus Orixalus is a junior subjective synonym of Gracixalus and consider that more studies are needed to investigate the species diversity and taxonomy of genus Gracixalus.