Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Responsive image
Issue: Vol. 5514 No. 6: 2 Oct. 2024
Type: Article
Published: 2024-10-02
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5514.6.4
Page range: 559-576
Abstract views: 123
PDF downloaded: 5

A new species of treefrog (Litoria: Pelodryadidae) from the karstic South-fold Mountains of New Guinea

Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security; Griffith University; 170 Kessels Rd; Brisbane; Queensland 4121; and Biodiversity and Geosciences Program; Queensland Museum; South Brisbane; Queensland; 4101 Australia
Flora and Fauna Division; Northern Territory Department of Environment; Parks and Water Security; Arid Zone Research Institute; south Stuart Highway; Alice Springs; NT; 0870 Australia
New Guinea Binatang Research Center; Madang; Papua New Guinea
New Guinea Binatang Research Center; Madang; Papua New Guinea
Herpetology Department; South Australian Museum; North Terrace; Adelaide; South Australia 5000; Australia and New Guinea Binatang Research Center; Madang; Papua New Guinea
Amphibia clambering adaptations Central Cordillera Gigira Ridge Melanesia mitochondrial phylogeny Papua New Guinea torrent-breeding

Abstract

Despite recent advances in the systematics and taxonomy of the relictual family Scolebythidae, the type genus Scolebythus Evans, 1963 remained monospecific for more than sixty years. Here, I describe and illustrate Scolebythus bekilyensis sp. nov. from a female specimen collected in southern Madagascar. This discovery emphasizes on the endemism of this genus, which is unique within the Scolebythidae for being restricted to one biogeographic realm, and suggests that potential new species are yet to be discovered in this megadiverse region.

 

References

  1. Bower, B.D.S., Lips, K.R., Schwarzkopf, L. & Georges, A. (2017) Amphibians on the brink. Science, 357, 454–456. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao0500
  2. Dahl, C., Richards, S.J., Basien, I., Mungkaje, A.J. & Novotny, V. (2023) Local and regional diversity of frog communities along an extensive rainforest elevation gradient in Papua New Guinea. Biotropica, 56, 90–97. https://doi.org/10.1111/btp.13283
  3. Edgar, R.C. (2004) MUSCLE: multiple sequence alignment with high accuracy and high throughput. Nucleic Acids Research, 32, 1792–1797. https://doi/org/10.1093/nar/gkh340
  4. Ferreira, F., Kraus, F., Richards, S.J., Oliver, P., Günther, R., Trilaksono, W., Arida, E.A., Hamidy, A., Riyanto, A., Tjaturadi, B., Thébaud, C., Gaucher, P. & Fouquet, A. (2023) Species delimitation and phylogenetic analyses of a New Guinean frog genus (Microhylidae: Hylophorbus) reveal many undescribed species and a complex diversification history driven by late Miocene events. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, zlad168. [published online] https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad168
  5. Goodman, B.A., Miles, D.B. & Schwarzkopf, L. (2008) Life on the rocks: Habitat uses drives morphological and performance evolution in lizards. Ecology, 89, 3462–3471. https://doi.org/10.1890/07-2093.1
  6. Günther, R., Dahl, C. & Richards, S.J. (2023) Another giant species of the microhylid frog genus Cophixalus Boettger, 1892 from the mountains of Papua New Guinea and first records of procoracoids in the genus. Zoosystematics and Evolution, 99, 173–183. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.99.97006
  7. Günther, R. & Richards, S.J. (2005) Three new mountain stream dwelling Litoria (Amphibia: Anura: Hylidae) from western New Guinea. Russian Journal of Herpetology, 12,195–212. https://doi.org/10.30906/1026-2296-2005-12-3-195-212
  8. Günther, R. & Richards, S.J. (2016) Description of two new species of the microhylid genus Oreophryne (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae) from southern Papua New Guinea. Vertebrate Zoology, 66, 157–168. https://doi.org/10.3897/vz.66.e31544
  9. Günther, R. & Richards, S.J. (2017) Three new species of the microhylid frog genus Choerophryne (Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae) from Papua New Guinea. Zoosystematics and Evolution, 93, 265–279. https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.93.11576
  10. Günther, R. & Richards, S.J. (2021) Three new tiny species of the microhylid frog genus Cophixalus Boettger, 1892 from central Papua New Guinea. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 34, 339–362. https://doi.org/10.2988/0006-324X-134.339
  11. Günther, R., Richards, S.J. & Dahl, C. (2014) Nine new species of microhylid frogs from the Muller Range in western Papua New Guinea (Anura, Microhylidae). Vertebrate Zoology, 64, 59–94. https://doi.org/10.3897/vz.64.e31463
  12. Kearse, M., Moir, R., Wilson, A., Stones-Havas, S., Cheung, M., Sturrock, S., Buxton, S., Cooper, A., Markowitz, S. & Duran, C. (2012) Geneious Basic: an integrated and extendable desktop software platform for the organization and analysis of sequence data. Bioinformatics, 28, 1647–1649. https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/bts199
  13. Köhler, J., Vences, M., D’Cruze, N. & Glaw, F. (2010) Giant dwarfs: discovery of a radiation of large-bodied ‘stump-toed frogs’ from karstic cave environments of northern Madagascar. Journal of Zoology, 282, 21–38. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7998.2010.00708.x
  14. Kraus, F. (2018) Taxonomy of Litoria graminea (Anura: Hylidae), with descriptions of two closely related new species. Zootaxa, 4457 (2), 264–284. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4457.2.3
  15. Löffler, E. (1977) Geomorphology of Papua New Guinea. CSIRO and Australian National University Press, Canberra, 195 pp.
  16. Menzies, J. (2006) The frogs of New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Pensoft Publishers, Sofia, 345 pp.
  17. 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. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msu300
  18. Nielsen, S.V. & Oliver, P.M. (2017) Morphological and genetic evidence for a new karst specialist lizard from New Guinea (Cyrtodactylus: Gekkonidae). Royal Society Open Science, 4, 170781. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.170781
  19. Oliver, P.M., Bower, D.S., McDonald, P.J., Kraus, F., Luedtke, J., Neam, K., Hobin, L., Chauvenet, A.L.M., Allison, A., Arida, E., Clulow, S., Günther, R., Nagombi, E., Tjaturadi, B., Travers, S.L. & Richards, S.J. (2022) Melanesia holds the world’s most diverse and intact insular amphibian fauna. Communications Biology, 5, 1182. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-04105-1
  20. Oliver, P.M., Iskandar, D.T. & Richards, S.J. (2023) A new species of torrent-breeding treefrog (Pelodryadidae: Litoria) from the mountains of Papua, Indonesia, with new records and observations of Litoria dorsivena (Tyler, 1968). Vertebrate Zoology, 73, 127–139. https://doi.org/10.3897/vz.73.e91111
  21. Oliver, P.M. & Richards, S.J. (2007) A new species of montane stream-dwelling Litoria from Papua, Indonesia (Anura: Hylidae). Hamadryad, 31, 299–303.
  22. Oliver, P.M., Richards, S.J. & Donnellan, S.C. (2019) Two new species of treefrog (Pelodrydidae: Litoria) from southern New Guinea elucidated by DNA barcoding. Zootaxa, 4609 (3), 469–484. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4609.3.4
  23. Oliver, P.M., Richards, S.J. & Tjaturadi, B. (2012) Two new species of Callulops (Anura: Microhylidae) from montane forests in New Guinea. Zootaxa, 3178 (1), 33–44. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3178.1.3
  24. Reynaga, C.M., Astley, H.C. & Azizi, E. (2018) Morphological and kinematic specializations of walking frogs. Ecological and Integrative Physiology, 329, 87–98. https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.2182
  25. Richards, S.J. (2001) A new species of torrent-dwelling frog (Anura: Hylidae: Litoria) from the mountains of Indonesian New Guinea (West Papua). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, 46, 733–739. https://doi.org/10.3105/1345-5834(2006)25[57:ANSOTF]2.0.CO;2
  26. Richards, S.J. & Armstrong, K.N. (2017) Frogs. In: Richards, S.J. (Ed.), Biodiversity Assessment of the PNG LNG Upstream Project Area, Southern Highlands and Hela Province, Papua New Guinea. ExxonMobil PNG Limited, Port Moresby, pp. 53–81.
  27. Richards, S.J. & Bickford, D. (2023) A new species of small green treefrog (Pelodryadidae: Litoria) from the Lakekamu Basin in Southern Papua New Guinea. Current Herpetology, 42, 43–54. https://doi.org/10.5358/hsj.42.43
  28. Richards, S.J. & Donnellan, S.C. (2020) Litoria aplini sp. nov., a new species of treefrog (Pelodryadidae) from Papua New Guinea. Records of the Australian Museum, 72, 323–335. https://doi.org/10.3853/j.2201-4349.72.2020.1729
  29. Richards, S.J., Donnellan, S.C. & Oliver, P.M. (2023) Five new species of the pelodryadid genus Litoria from southern Papua New Guinea with observations on the diversification of reproductive strategies in Melanesian treefrogs. Zootaxa, 5263 (2), 151–190. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5263.2.1
  30. Richards, S.J. & Gamui, B. (2011) Rapid biological assessments of the Nakanai Mountains and the upper Strickland Basin: surveying the biodiversity of Papua New Guinea’s sublime karst environments. Conservation International, Arlington, 258 pp. https://doi.org/10.1896/978-1-934151-45-7
  31. Richards, S.J. & Günther, R. (2019) Three new scansorial species of microhylid frogs (Anura: Cophixalus, Oreophryne) from Papua New Guinea. Salamandra, 55, 55–72.
  32. Richards, S.J. & Iskandar, D.T. (2006) A new species of Torrent-Dwelling Frog (Hylidae, Litoria) from the Mountains of New Guinea. Current Herpetology, 25, 57–63. https://doi.org/10.3105/1345-5834(2006)25[57:ANSOTF]2.0.CO;2
  33. Richards, S.J. & Oliver, P.M. (2006) A new species of Litoria (Anura: Hylidae) from the Kikori Integrated Conservation and Development Project area, Papua New Guinea. Salamandra, 42, 231–237. https://doi.org/10.3105/1345-5834(2006)25[57:ANSOTF]2.0.CO;2
  34. Richards, S.J. & Oliver, P.M. (2010) A New Scansorial Species of Cophixalus (Anura: Microhylidae) from the Kikori River Basin, Papua New Guinea. Journal of Herpetology, 44, 555–562. https://doi.org/10.1670/09-044.1
  35. Richards, S.J., Tjaturadi, B., Krey, K. & Donnellan, S.C. (2021) A new stream-dwelling frog of the genus Litoria Tschudi, 1838 (Anura: Pelodryadidae) from Salawati Island, Indonesia. In: Telnov, D., Barclay, M.V.L. & Pauwels, O.S., Biodiversity, biogeography and nature conservation in Wallacea and New Guinea. The Entomological Society of Latvia, Rīga, pp. 19–33. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.150137
  36. Slavenko, A., Richards, S.J., Donnellan, S.C., Allison, A. & Oliver, P.M. (2024) Gold in the mountains: Striking new species of Papuascincus (Sphenomorphini: Scincidae) from New Guinea. Vertebrate Zoology, 74, 133–149 https://doi.org/10.3897/vz.74.e112782
  37. Tamura, K., Stecher, G. & Kumar, S. (2021) MEGA11: Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis version 11. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 38, 3022–3027. https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msab120
  38. Tyler, M.J. (1968) Papuan Hylid Frogs of the Genus Hyla. Zoologische Verhandelingen, 96, 1–203.
  39. Tyler, M. & Davies, M. (1978) Species-groups within the Australopapuan hylid frog Litoria Tschudi. Australian Journal of Zoology, Supplementary Series, 26, 1–47. https://doi.org/10.1071/zo9780619