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Issue: Vol. 4347 No. 3: 14 Nov. 2017
Type: Article
Published: 2017-11-14
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4347.3.9
Page range: 572–582
Abstract views: 152
PDF downloaded: 2

Yet another small brown frog from high altitude on the Marojejy Massif, northeastern Madagascar (Anura: Mantellidae)

Zoologische Staatssammlung München (ZSM-SNSB), Münchhausenstr. 21, 81247 München, Germany Zoologisches Institut, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstr. 4, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
Faculté des Sciences, Zoologie et Biodiversité Animale, Université d’Antananarivo, BP 906, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
Zoologisches Institut, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstr. 4, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany Faculté des Sciences, Zoologie et Biodiversité Animale, Université d’Antananarivo, BP 906, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, near Jersey Farm, Maruthamala PO, Vithura- 695551, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Zoologisches Institut, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstr. 4, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
Zoologische Staatssammlung München (ZSM-SNSB), Münchhausenstr. 21, 81247 München, Germany
Zoologisches Institut, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Mendelssohnstr. 4, 38106 Braunschweig, Germany
Amphibia Anura Mantellidae Gephyromantis Gephyromantis tohatra sp. nov. Gephyromantis schilfi Gephyromantis tandroka

Abstract

Madagascar hosts a high diversity of small brown frogs. In this paper, we add another one by describing Gephyromantis (Duboimantis) tohatra sp. nov. The new species is a small brown mantellid frog discovered on a recent expedition to Marojejy National Park in northeastern Madagascar. It is characterised, among other things, by its small size (snout-vent length ~33 mm), an orange to yellowish belly, two dorsolateral ridges, and a distinctive call composed of 7–10 pulsed notes. The new species occurs sympatrically with other members of the subgenus Duboimantis at high altitude (~1700 m above sea level), including its sister species G. schilfi from which it radically differs by advertisement call and by a substantial genetic divergence of 4.3% uncorrected pairwise distance in the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene. It thus joins the diverse assemblage of Gephyromantis species known from high altitudes on the mountain massifs of northern Madagascar.

 

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