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Issue: Vol. 5604 No. 3: 14 Mar. 2025
Type: Article
Published: 2025-03-14
DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5604.3.2
Page range: 234-254
Abstract views: 119
PDF downloaded: 6

Two new species of microhylid frogs (Cophixalus, Oreophryne) from the Purari River Basin, Papua New Guinea

Museum für Naturkunde; Herpetologie; Invalidenstr. 43; 10115 Berlin; Germany
New Guinea Binatang Research Center; Nagada; Madang; Papua New Guinea
Herpetology Department; South Australian Museum; North Terrace; Adelaide; S. A. 5000; Australia and Australian Museum Research Institute; Sydney; Australia
Amphibia Advertisement calls Asterophryinae AmphibiaAnura Gulf Province lowlands taxonomy

Abstract

We describe two new species of asterophryine microhylid frogs from the Gulf Province lowlands of south-central Papua New Guinea. Cophixalus flavopunctatus sp. nov. is a small member of the genus (SUL 13.5–15.5 mm) that is most commonly encountered on stream banks. It can be distinguished from all congeners by its small size and the presence of yellow tubercles on the dorsum. Calling activity appears to peak in the early morning and evening when males produce a train of melodious peeping notes from within litter on the forest floor. Oreophryne purari sp. nov. is a medium-sized member of the genus (SUL 24.0 mm in the only male) that calls at night from high in the forest canopy with a series of harsh honking notes. Its morphology and call structure closely resemble O. loriae (Boulenger, 1898), a species known from eastern Papua New Guinea, but it differs from that species by having a cartilaginous connection between the procoracoid and the scapula (vs. a ligamentous connection), and by several aspects of morphometrics and colouration. The discovery and description of these two species adds to an already impressive known frog diversity in the lowland forests of southern Papua New Guinea.

 

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