We describe a new species of treefrog from northern Australia. Litoria bella sp. nov. is morphologically and genetically most similar to frogs in the L. gracilenta and L. chloris groups but is distinguished from all members in these groups by a combination of a moderately large male body size (34.5-41.8 mm SVL), near-immaculate green dorsum, orange venter, bright orange digits and webbing, bluish purple lateral surfaces of the thighs, no pale canthal stripe, white bones, and a highly-pulsed, single-note, male advertisement call with a pulse rate of 56-64 pulses/s and dominant frequency of 2.6-2.8 kHz. Litoria bella sp. nov. has a patchy distribution across the Cape York Peninsula, inhabiting rainforest and monsoon vine thicket in close association with watercourses. The new species' affinities lie with L. auae from southern New Guinea rather than with L. gracilenta from eastern Australia. Molecular data suggest that the L. gracilenta group should be expanded to include L. chloris and L. xanthomera, two moderately large green treefrogs from eastern Australia.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4171.1.6 | DOI Listing |
Mol Phylogenet Evol
December 2024
Florida State University, Department of Biological Science, Center for Anchored Phylogenomics, Tallahssee, FL, USA.
Dendropsophusis one of the most species-rich genera of treefrogs. Recent studies integrating Sanger-generated mitochondrial and nuclear loci with phenomic characters (SP) have advanced understanding of this clade, but questions about its internal relationships and biogeographic history persist. To address these questions, we used anchored hybrid enrichment (AHE) to combine 432 nuclear loci for 78 taxa (72 % of species) with published data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiodivers Data J
December 2024
Institute of Zoology, University of Cologne, Zülpicher Street 47b, 50674, Cologne, Germany Institute of Zoology, University of Cologne, Zülpicher Street 47b, 50674 Cologne Germany.
Background: The White-lipped Treefrog Yu, Hui, Hou, Wu, Rao & Yang, 2019 was previously confused with (Blyth, 1852). Records of from Yunnan (China), Vietnam and Thailand were recognised as a misidentification and this taxon was subsequently described as a new species, based on morphological and molecular evidence. This species is currently known from southern China, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntegr Zool
December 2024
Laboratório de Sistemática de Vertebrados, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
The frog fauna of New Guinea is exceptionally diverse but very poorly known. Here we describe a new species of pelodryadid treefrog that is currently known only from two specimens from a single site in Hela Province in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Genetic data show that the new species is closely related to the torrent-breeding species Litoria angiana (Boulenger, 1915) from which it can be readily distinguished by its more slender body and limbs, relatively long forelimbs, and aspects of body colouration and tuberculation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZootaxa
August 2024
División Herpetología; Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"-CONICET; C1405DJR; CABA; Buenos Aires; Argentina; Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental; Faculdade de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Universidad de Buenos Aires; C1428EGA; CABA; Buenos Aires; Argentina.
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