A new species of cascade frog (Anura: Ranidae: Amolops) from central Yunnan, China

A new species of Amolops (Amphibia, Anura, Ranidae) from Guizhou Province, China

The Torrent frogs of the genus Amolops are widely distributed in Nepal and northern India eastwards to southern China and southwards to Malaysia. The genus currently contains 84 species. Previous studies indicated underestimated species diversity in the genus. In the context, a new species occurring from the mountains in the northwestern Guizhou Province, China is found and described based on morphological comparisons and molecular phylogenetic analyses, Amolopsdafangensissp. nov. Phylogenetic analyses based on DNA sequences of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA and COI genes supported the new species as an independent lineage. The uncorrected genetic distances between the 16S rRNA and COI genes in the new species and its closest congener were 0.7% and 2.6%, respectively, which are higher than or at the same level as those among many pairs of congeners. Morphologically, the new species can be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following characters: body size moderate (SVL 43.2-46.8 mm in males); head length larger than head width slightly; tympanum distinct, oval; vocal sacs absent; vomerine teeth present; dorsolateral folds weak formed by series of glands; nuptial pads present on the base of finger I; heels overlapping when thighs are positioned at right angles to the body; tibiotarsal articulation reaching the level far beyond the tip of the snout when leg stretched forward.

A New Species of Nanorana (Anura: Dicroglossidae) from Northwestern Yunnan, China, with Comments on the Taxonomy of Nanorana arunachalensis and Allopaa

The genus Nanorana contains three subgenera, namely Nanorana, Paa, and Chaparana, and currently, there are four species known to science in Nanorana (Nanorana). In this study, we describe a new species belonging to the subgenus Nanorana from northwestern Yunnan, China. Phylogenetically, the new species, Nanorana laojunshanensissp. nov., is the sister to the clade of N. pleskei and N. ventripunctata. Morphologically, the new species can be distinguished from known congeners by the combination of following characters: present tympanum, equal fingers I and II, small body size, yellow ventral surface of limbs, distinct vomerine teeth, indistinct subarticular tubercles, head width greater than head length, slender supratympanic fold, absent dorsolateral fold, nuptial spines present on fingers I and II in adult males, absent vocal sac, and paired brown spines on the chest. Moreover, we suggest moving the genus Allopaa into Nanorana (Chaparana) and consider that N. arunachalensis is neither an Odorrana species nor a member of the subfamily Dicroglossinae (therefore Nanorana), but probably represents a distinct genus closely related to Ingerana or belongs to Ingerana, pending more data. Additionally, we consider that Nanorana minica deserves the rank of an independent subgenus, and we suggest assigning N. arnoldi, N. blanfordii, N. ercepeae, N. polunini, N. rarica, N. rostandi, N. vicina, N. xuelinensis, and N. zhaoermii into the subgenus Paa and placing N. kangxianensis, N. phrynoides, and N. sichuanensis in the subgenus Chaparana.