Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2019-08-14
Page range: 545–571
Abstract views: 109
PDF downloaded: 3

Discovery of the westernmost population of the genus Ansonia Stoliczka (Anura, Bufonidae) with the description of a new species from the Shan Plateau of eastern Myanmar

School of Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Minden, Penang, Malaysia. Herpetology Laboratory, Department of Biology, La Sierra University, 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside, California 92515, USA.
Herpetology Laboratory, Department of Biology, La Sierra University, 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside, California 92515, USA.
Department of Biological Sciences & Museum of Natural History, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA
Myanmar Environment Sustainable Conservation, Yangon, Myanmar.
Department of Biological Sciences & Museum of Natural History, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama 36849, USA
Fauna and Flora International, No(35), 3rd Floor, Shan Gone Condo, Myay Ni Gone Market Street, Sanchaung Township, Yangon, Myanmar.
Amphibia Burma endemism amphibian phylogenetics systematics montane Ayeyarwady Basin Salween Basin

Abstract

A new species of Ansonia is described from the Shan Plateau of Myanmar based on an integrative taxonomic analysis that differentiates it from all other congeners. Molecular phylogenetic analyses based on the mitochondrial genes 12S and 16S rRNA and tRNA-val recover A. kyaiktiyoensis sp. nov. as the sister species to A. inthanon from Thailand but differs from it and other congeners by at least a 5.0% sequence divergence. It is further differentiated by the following combination of morphological characters: (1) maximum SVL 24 mm in males and females; (2) first finger shorter than second; (3) absence of interorbital and tarsal ridges; (4) presence of light-coloured interscapular spot; (5) presence of yellow rictal tubercle; (6) absence of wide, light-coloured patch below eye; (7) presence of large, discrete, bright-yellow submandibular spots along the underside of lower jaw; (8) iris yellow-gold; (9) presence of markings on the snout consisting of streaks below the eye to the lip, and on the canthus rostralis to the nostril; (10) dorsum grey-brown with orange-beige spots, a dark-brown X-shaped marking on the back surrounding the interscapular spot, and dark-coloured markings on rump; (11) fore- and hind limbs with orange-beige cross-bars; and (12) venter light-gray with yellow spotting, especially near flanks and underside of hind limbs. Ansonia kyaiktiyoensis sp. nov. is the westernmost known record for the genus and the only species west of the Salween Basin. Its discovery echoes the increasing number of herpetological discoveries being made in upland regions fringing the Ayeyarwady and Salween Basins.

 

References

  1. Alcala, A.C. & Brown, W.C. (1998) Philippine Amphibians, an Illustrated Field Guide. Bookmark, Makati City, 116 pp.

    Bauer, A.M. (2003) Descriptions of seven new Cyrtodactylus (Squamata: Gekkonidae) with a key to the species of Myanmar (Burma). Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 54, 463–498.

    Biju, S.D., Van Bocxlaer, I., Giri, V.B., Loader, S.P. & Bossuyt, F. (2009) Two new endemic genera and a new species of toad (Anura: Bufonidae) from the Western Ghats of India. BMC Research Notes, 2 (1), 241.

    https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-2-241

    Carbonnel, J.P. (1965) Essai d’interpretation morphotectonique ´de la cuvette Cambodgienne. Revue de Geographie Phisique et de Geologie Dynamique, 7, 277–281.

    Chan, K.O., Wood, Jr., P.L., Anuar, S., Muin, M.A., Quah, E.S.H., Sumarli, A.X.Y. & Grismer, L.L. (2014) A new species of upland Stream Toad of the genus Ansonia Stoliczka, 1870 (Anura: Bufonidae) from northeastern Peninsular Malaysia. Zootaxa, 3764 (4), 427–440.

    http://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3764.4.3

    Darst, C.R. & Cannetella, D.C. (2004). Novel relationships among hyloid frogs inferred from 12S and 16S mitochondrial DNA sequences. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 31, 462–475.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2003.09.003

    Davis, H.R., Grismer, L.L., Klabacka, R.L., Muin, M.A.M., Quah, E.S.H., Anuar, S., Wood, Jr., P.L. & Sites, Jr., J.W. (2016) The phylogenetic relationships of a new Stream Toad of the genus Ansonia Stoliczka, 1870 (Anura: Bufonidae) from a montane region in Peninsular Malaysia. Zootaxa, 4103 (2), 137–153.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4103.2.4

    De Queiroz, K. (2007) Species concepts and species delimitation. Systematic Biology, 56, 879–886.

    http://doi.org/10.1080/10635150701701083

    Frost, D.R. (2019) Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. Electronic Database. American Museum of Natural History, New York, USA. Available from: http://research.amnh.org/herpetology/amphibia/index.html
    (accessed 23 March 2019)

    Frost, D.R., Grant, T., Faivovich, J., Bain, R.H., Haas, A., Haddad, C.F.B., de Sá, R.O., Channing, A., Wilkinson, M., Donnellan, S.C., Raxworthy, C.J., Campbell, J.A., Blotto, B.L., Moler, P., Drewes, R.C., Nussbaum, R.A., Lynch, J.D., Green, D.M. & Wheeler, W.C. (2006) The amphibian tree of life. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 297, 1–291.

    Fu, J. (2000) Toward the phylogeny of family Lacertidae: why 4708 base pairs of mtDNA sequences cannot draw the picture. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 71, 203–217.

    http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1095-8312.2000.tb01254.x

    Fuchs, J., Ericson, P.G.P. & Pasquet, E. (2008) Mitochondrial phylogeographic structure of the white-browed piculet (Sasia ochracea): cryptic genetic differentiation and endemism in Indochina. Journal of Biogeography, 35, 565–575.
    https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2007.01811.x

    Grismer, L.L. (2006a) A new species of Ansonia Stoliczka 1872 (sic) (Anura: Bufonidae) from Central Peninsular Malaysia and a revised taxonomy for Ansonia from the Malay Peninsula. Zootaxa, 1327, 1–21.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.1327.1.1

    Grismer, L.L. (2006b) A new species of Ansonia Stoliczka, 1870 (Anura: Bufonidae) from lowland rainforest in Southern Peninsular Malaysia. Herpetologica, 62, 466–475.

    Grismer, L.L., Wood, Jr., P.L., Aowphol, A., Cota, M., Grismer, M.S., Murdoch, M., Aguilar, C. & Grismer, J.L. (2016) Out of Borneo, again and again: biogeography of the Stream Toad genus Ansonia Stoliczka (Anura: Bufonidae) and the discovery of the first limestone cave-dwelling species. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 120, 371–395.

    https://doi.org/10.1111/bij.12886

    Grismer, L.L., Wood, Jr., P.L., Myint, K.T., Nay, M.W., Grismer, M.S., Trueblood, L.A. & Quah, E.S.H. (2018a) A re-description of Cyrtodactylus chrysopylos Bauer (Squamata: Gekkonidae) with comments on the adaptive significance of bright orange coloration in hatchlings and descriptions of two new species from eastern Myanmar (Burma). Zootaxa, 4527, 151–185.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4527.2.1

    Grismer, L.L., Wood Jr.,P.L., Myint, K.T., Quah, E.S.H., Grismer, M.S., Murdoch, M.L., Espinoza, R.E. & Aung, L. (2018b) A new Cyrtodactylus Gray (Squamata, Gekkonidae) from the Shan Hills and the biogeography of Bent-toed Geckos from eastern Myanmar. Zootaxa, 4446, 477–500.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4446.4.4

    Grismer, L.L., Wood, Jr.,P.L., Myint, K.T., Thaw, Z., Quah, E.S.H., Murdoch, M.L., Grismer, M.S., Aung, L., Htet, K. & Ngwe, L. (2018c) Twelve new species of Cyrtodactylus Gray (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from isolated limestone habitats in east-central and southern Myanmar demonstrate high localized diversity and unprecedented microendemism. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 182, 862–959.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx057

    Grismer, L.L., Wood, Jr.,P.L., Myint, K.T., Thaw, Z., Quah, E.S.H., Murdoch, M.L., Grismer, M.S., Aung, L., Htet, K. & Ngwe, L. (2017) Phylogenetic taxonomy of Hemiphyllodactylus Bleeker, 1860 (Squamata: Gekkonidae) with descriptions of three new species from Myanmar. Journal of Natural History, 52, 881–915.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2017.1367045

    Grismer, L.L., Wood, Jr., P.L., Quah, E.S.H. & Myint, K.T. (2019a) Origin, diversity, and conservation of karst-associated Bent-toed Geckos (Genus Cyrtodactylus) in Myanmar (Burma). Raffles Bulletin on Zoology, [in press]

    Grismer, L.L., Wood, Jr., P.L., Quah, E.S.H., Myint, K.T., Espinoza, R.E., Grismer, M.S., Murdoch, M.L. & Lin, A. (2018d) A new species of Crocodile Newt Tylototriton (Caudata: Salamandridae) from Shan State, Myanmar (Burma). Zootaxa, 4500 (4), 553–573.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4500.4.5

    Grismer, L.L., Wood, Jr., P.L., Quah, E.S.H., Myint, K.T., Espinoza, R.E. & Murdoch, M.L. (2019b). A new species of crocodile newt Tylototriton (Caudata: Salamandridae) from northern Myanmar (Burma). Journal of Natural History, 53(7–8), 475–495.

    https://doi.org/10.1080/00222933.2019.1587534

    Grismer, L.L., Wood, Jr., P.L., Quah, E.S.H., Myint, K.T,, Oaks, J.R. & Lin, A. (2019c) A new species of Bent-toed Gecko (Squamata, Gekkonidae, Cyrtodactylus) from the Shan Plateau in eastern Myanmar (Burma). Zootaxa, 4624 (3), 301–321.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4624.3.1

    Grismer, L.L., Wood, Jr.,P.L., Zug, G.R., Myint, K.T., Grismer, M.S., Murdoch, M.L., Quah, E.S.H. & Aung, L. (2018e) Two more new species of Hemiphyllodactylus Bleeker (Squamata: Gekkonidae) from the Shan Hills of eastern Myanmar (Burma). Zootaxa, 4483, 295–316.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4483.2.4

    Hoang, D.T., Chernomor, O., Von Haeseler, A., Minh, B.Q. & Vinh, L.S. (2017) UFBoot2: improving the ultrafast bootstrap approximation. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 35 (2), 518–522.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msx281

    Hedges, S.B. & Maxson, L.R. (1993) A molecular perspective on lissamphibian phylogeny. Herpetological Monograph, 7, 27–42.

    https://doi.org/10.2307/1466949

    Hertwig, S.T., Min, P.Y., Haas, A. & Das, I. (2014) Dressed in black. A new Ansonia Stoliczka, 1870 (Lissamphibia: Anura: Bufonidae) from Gunung Murud, Sarawak, East Malaysia (Borneo). Zootaxa, 3814 (3), 419–431.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3814.3.9

    Huelsenbeck, J. & Ronquist, F. (2001) MRBAYES: Bayesian inference of phylogeny. Bioinformatics, 17, 754–755.
    http://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/17.8.754

    Hutchinson, C.S. (1989) Geological Evolution of South-east Asia. Clarendon Press, Oxford, England, 368 pp.

    Inger, R.F. (1960) A review of the oriental toads of the genus Ansonia Stoliczka. Fieldiana. Zoology, 39, 473–503.
    http://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.2697

    Inger, R.F. (1966) The systematics and zoogeography of the Amphibia of Borneo. Fieldiana. Zoology, 52, 1–402.

    https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.3147

    Inger, R.F. (1992) Variation of apomorphic characters in stream-dwelling tadpoles of the bufonid genus Ansonia (Amphibia: Anura). Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society, 105, 225–237.

    http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.1992.tb01230.x

    Inger, R.F., Stuebing, R.B., Grafe, T.U. & Dehling, J.M. (2017) A Field Guide to the Frogs of Borneo. 3rd Edition. Natural History Publications (Borneo) Sdn Bhd. Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, 228 pp.

    Iskandar, D.T. & Mumpuni. (2004) A new toad of the genus Ansonia (Amphibia, Anura, Bufonidae) from Sumatra, Indonesia. Hamadryad, 28, 59–65.

    Kalyaanamoorthy, S., Minh, B.Q., Wong, T.K.F., von Haeseler, A. & Jermiin, L.S. (2017) ModelFinder: fast model selection for accurate phylogenetic estimates. Nature methods, 14(6), 587–589.

    https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.4285

    Katoh, K., Misawa, K., Kuma, K. & Miyata, T. (2002) MAFTT: a novel method for rapid sequence alignment based on fast Fourier transform. Nucleic Acids Research, 30, 3059–3066.

    http://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkf436

    Kearse, M., Moir, R., Wilson, A., Stones-Havas, S., Cheung, M., Sturrock, S., Buxton, S., Cooper, A., Markowitz, S., Duran, C., Thierer, T., Ashton, B., Meintjes, P. & Drummond, A. (2012) Geneious Basic: an integrated and extendable desktop software platform for the organization and analysis of sequence data. Bioinformatics, 28, 1647–1649.

    http://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bts199

    Kӧhler, G., Mogk, L., Khaing, K.P.P. & Than, N.L. (2019) The genera Fejervarya and Minervarya in Myanmar: Description of a new species, new country records, and taxonomic notes (Amphibia, Anura, Dicroglossidae). Vertebrate Zoology, 69 (2), 183–226.

    Malkmus, R., Manthey, U., Vogel, G., Hoffmann, P. & Kosuch, J. (2002) Amphibians and Reptiles of Mount Kinabalu (North Borneo). A.R.G. Ganter Verlag Kommanditgesellschaft, Ruggel, 424 pp.

    Matsui, M., Khonsue, W. & Nabhitabhata, J. (2005) A new Ansonia from the Isthmus of Kra, Thailand (Amphibia, Anura, Bufonidae). Zoological Science, 22, 809–814.

    http://doi.org/10.2108/zsj.22.809

    Matsui, M., Khonsue, W. & Panha, S. (2018) Two New Species of Ansonia from Thailand (Anura: Bufonidae). Zoological Science, 35 (1), 39–48.

    https://doi.org/10.2108/zs170120

    Matsui, M., Nabhitabhata, J. & Panha, S. (1998) A new Ansonia from northern Thailand (Anura, Bufonidae). Herpetologica, 54, 448–454.

    Matsui, M., Nishikawa, K., Yeo, S.T. & Eto, K. (2012) Notes on a rare Bornean Bufonid Ansonia latidisca Inger, 1966, with special reference to its phylogenetic position. Current Herpetology, 31 (2), 87–96.

    https://doi.org/10.5358/hsj.31.87

    Matsui, M., Panha, S., Khonsue, W. & Kuraishi, N. (2010a) Two new species of the ‘‘kuhlii’’ complex of the genus Limnonectes from Thailand (Anura: Dicroglossidae). Zootaxa 2615, 1–22.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2615.1.1

    Matsui, M., Tominaga, A., Liu, W., Khonsue, W., Grismer, L.L., Diesmos, A.C., Das, I., Sudin, A., Yambun, P., Yong, H., Sukumaran, J. & Brown, R.M. (2010b) Phylogenetic relationships of Ansonia from Southeast Asia inferred from mitochondrial DNA sequences: Systematic and biogeographic implications (Anura: Bufonidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 54, 561–570.

    http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2009.08.003

    Matsui, M., Yambun, P. & Sudin, A. (2007) Taxonomic relationships of Ansonia anotis Inger, Tan, and Yambun, 2001 and Pedostibes maculatus (Mocquard, 1890), with a description of a new genus (Amphibia, Bufonidae). Zoological Science, 24,
    1159–1166.

    https://doi.org/10.2108/zsj.24.1159

    Miller, M.A., Pfeiffer, W. & Schwartz, T. (2010) Creating the CIPRES Science Gateway for inference of large phylogenetic trees. In: Proceedings of the Gateway Computing Environments Workshop (GCE), New Orleans, LA, 14 November 2010, pp. 1–8.

    https://doi.org/10.1109/GCE.2010.5676129

    Minh, B.Q., Nguyen, M.A.T. & Haeseler, A. (2013) Ultrafast approximation for phylogenetic bootstrap. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 30, 1188–1195.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst024

    Nguyen, L.T., Schmidt, H.A., von Haeseler, A. & Minh, B.Q. (2015) IQ-TREE: A fast and effective stochastic algorithm for estimating maximum likelihood phylogenies. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 32, 268–274.
    http://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msu300

    Nishikawa, K., Matsui, M. & Rao, D. (2014) A new species of Tylototriton (Amphibia: Urodela: Salamandridae) from central Myanmar. Natural History Bulletin of the Siam Society, 60, 9–22.

    Poyarkov, Jr., N.A., Gorin, V.A., Zaw, T., Kretova, V.D., Gogoleva, S.S., Pawangkhanant, P. & Che, J. (2019) On the road to Mandalay: contribution to the Microhyla Tschudi, 1838 (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae) fauna of Myanmar with description of two new species. Zoological Research, 40(4), 244–276.

    http://doi:10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2019.044

    Quah, E.S.H., Grismer, L.L., Muin, M.A. & Shahrul A.M.S. (2011) Re-discovery and redescription of Ansonia penangensis Stoliczka, 1870 (Anura: Bufonidae) from Penang Island, Malaysia. Zootaxa, 2807, 57–64.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.2807.1.4

    Rambaut, A., Suchard, M.A., Xie, D. & Drummond, A.J. (2014) Tracer. Version 1.6. Available from: http://tree.bio.ed.ac.uk/software/tracer/ (accessed 26 March 2019)

    Ronquist, F., Teslenko, M., van der Mark, P., Ayres, D.L., Darling, A., Höhna, S., Larget, B., Liu, L., Suchard, M.A. & Huelsenbeck, J.P. (2012) MrBayes 3.2: efficient Bayesian Phylogenetic inference and model choice across a Large model space. Systematic Biology, 61, 539–542.

    http://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/sys029

    Sabaj, M.H. (2016) Standard symbolic codes for institutional resource collections in herpetology and ichthyology: an Online Reference. Version 6.5. Available from: http://www.asih.org/, American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists, Washington, DC. (accessed 23 March 2019)

    Sanguila, M.B., Siler, C.D., Diesmos, A.C., Nuñeza, O. & Brown, R.M. (2011) Phylogeography, geographic structure, genetic variation, and potential species boundaries in Philippine slender toads. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 61 (2), 333–350.

    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2011.06.019

    Savage, J.M. & Heyer, W.R. (1997) Digital webbing formulae for Anurans: a refinement. Herpetological Review, 28, 131.

    Schwarz, G. (1978) Estimating the Dimension of a Model. The Annals of Statistics, 6 (2), 461–464.

    https://doi.org/10.1214/aos/1176344136

    Stoliczka, F. (1870) Observations on some Indian and Malayan amphibia and reptiles. Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 39, 134–228.

    Tamura, K., Stretcher, G., Peterson, D., Filipski, A. & Kumar, S. (2013) MEGA6: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis version 6.0. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 30, 2725–2729.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/mst197

    Tominaga, A., Matsui, M., Nishikawa, K. & Tanabe, S. (2006) Phylogenetic relationships of Hynobius naevius (Amphibia: Caudata) as revealed by mitochondrial 12S and 16S rRNA genes. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 38, 677–684. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2005.10.014

    Trifinopoulos, J., Nguyen, L.T., von Haeseler, A. & Minh, B.Q. (2016) W-IQ-TREE: a fast online phylogenetic tool for maximum likelihood analysis. Nucleic acids research, 44 (W1), W232–W235.

    https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkw256

    Waser, L.E., Schweizer, M., Haas, A., Das, I., Jankowski, A., Min, P.Y. & Hertwig, S.T. (2017) From a lost world: an integrative phylogenetic analysis of Ansonia Stoliczka, 1870 (Lissamphibia: Anura: Bufonidae), with the description of a new species. Organisms Diversity & Evolution, 17 (1), 287–303.

    https://doi.org/10.1007/s13127-016-0294-2

    Wilkinson, J.A., Sellas A.B. & Vindum, J. (2012) A new species of Ansonia (Anura: Bufonidae) from northern Tanintharyi Division, Myanmar. Zootaxa, 3163, 54–68.

    https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3163.1.3

    Wood, Jr., P.L., Grismer, L.L., Norhayati A. & Juliana S. (2008) Two new species of torrent-dwelling toads Ansonia Stoliczka, 1870 (Anura: Bufonidae) from Peninsular Malaysia. Herpetologica, 64, 321–340.

    https://doi.org/10.1655/07-065.1

    Zaw, T., Lay, P., Pawangkhanant, P., Gorin, V.A. & Poyarkov, Jr., N.A. (2019) A new species of Crocodile Newt, genus Tylototriton (Amphibia, Caudata, Salamandridae) from the mountains of Kachin State, northern Myanmar. Zoological research, 40 (3), 151–174.

    https://doi.10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2019.043