{"title":"A new Leptobrachella species (Anura, Megophryidae) from South China, with comments on the taxonomic status of L. chishuiensis and L. purpurus","authors":"Jian Wang, Shuo Qi, KE-YUAN Dai, Zhi-Tong Lyu, Zhao-Chi Zeng, HONG-HUI Chen, Yuan‐qiu Li, Yongxiang Zhao, Yunjia Wang, YING-YONG Wang","doi":"10.3897/zse.98.73162","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"A new species of Leaf Litter Toad, Leptobrachella shimentainasp. nov., is described from the Shimentai and Luokeng nature reserves of northern Guangdong Province, southern China. The new taxon can be distinguished from all recognized congeners by a combination of discrete morphological character state differences relating to its small body size (SVL 26.4–28.9 mm in six adult males, 30.1 and 30.7 mm in two adult females); a number of apparently fixed color pattern character differences (including eye coloration and color pattern features from dorsal, ventral, and dorsolateral surfaces of its head, body, limbs, and ventrum); the morphological and discrete characteristics of the external phenotype (the skin texture of dorsum and ventrum, the presence of supra-axillary and ventrolateral glands, the wide dermal fringes and rudimentary webbing on toes, and the uninterrupted longitudinal ridges under toes). Two samples of this new species previously were proposed as representing a new, unnamed species. We now substantiate this claim by providing diagnostic comparisons of discrete character differences. In addition, we also discuss taxonomic uncertainty surrounding the identity of two congeners, L. chishuiensis and L. purpurus, which we interpret as indicative of taxonomic inflation in the species-rich subfamily Megophryidae.","PeriodicalId":48677,"journal":{"name":"Zoosystematics and Evolution","volume":"48 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2022-06-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Zoosystematics and Evolution","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.98.73162","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ZOOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3
Abstract
A new species of Leaf Litter Toad, Leptobrachella shimentainasp. nov., is described from the Shimentai and Luokeng nature reserves of northern Guangdong Province, southern China. The new taxon can be distinguished from all recognized congeners by a combination of discrete morphological character state differences relating to its small body size (SVL 26.4–28.9 mm in six adult males, 30.1 and 30.7 mm in two adult females); a number of apparently fixed color pattern character differences (including eye coloration and color pattern features from dorsal, ventral, and dorsolateral surfaces of its head, body, limbs, and ventrum); the morphological and discrete characteristics of the external phenotype (the skin texture of dorsum and ventrum, the presence of supra-axillary and ventrolateral glands, the wide dermal fringes and rudimentary webbing on toes, and the uninterrupted longitudinal ridges under toes). Two samples of this new species previously were proposed as representing a new, unnamed species. We now substantiate this claim by providing diagnostic comparisons of discrete character differences. In addition, we also discuss taxonomic uncertainty surrounding the identity of two congeners, L. chishuiensis and L. purpurus, which we interpret as indicative of taxonomic inflation in the species-rich subfamily Megophryidae.
期刊介绍:
Zoosystematics and Evolution, formerly Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin, is an international, open access, peer-reviewed life science journal devoted to whole-organism biology. It publishes original research and review articles in the field of Metazoan taxonomy, biosystematics, evolution, morphology, development and biogeography at all taxonomic levels. The journal''s scope encompasses primary information from collection-related research, taxonomic descriptions and discoveries, revisions, annotated type catalogues, aspects of the history of science, and contributions on new methods and principles of systematics. Articles whose main topic is ecology, functional anatomy, physiology, or ethology are only acceptable when of systematic or evolutionary relevance and perspective.