Amolops mengyangensis

Amolops mengyangensis is a species of frog in the family Ranidae. It is known with certainty only from its type locality, the eponymous Mengyang in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, southern Yunnan province of China.[2][3] However, if Amolops daorum is its junior synonym, distribution of Amolops mengyangensis would be considerably wider, including the vicinity of Sa Pa in northern Vietnam near the Chinese border, Hong Kong, and Houaphanh Province in eastern Laos, and presumably also including the intervening areas.[2] This more inclusive species circumscription was taken in the latest assessment of this species for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species from 2008.[1]

Amolops mengyangensis
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Amphibia
Order: Anura
Family: Ranidae
Genus: Amolops
Species:
A. mengyangensis
Binomial name
Amolops mengyangensis
Wu and Tian, 1995
Amolops mengyangensis is known with certainty only known from southern Yunnan, China

Taxonomy

Amolops mengyangensis was described in 1995 based on two males and one female collected in 1957 from Yunnan.[4] The specimens had previously been reported as Amolops chunganensis,[5] and this view was maintained by some later authors.[2] Rana daorum was described in 1995 based on specimens from northern Vietnam.[6] In 2007, Ohler concluded that Rana daorum is a junior synonym of Amolops mengyangensis,[5] but this conclusion was challenged by Stuart, Biju, and others who considered it valid as Amolops daorum.[4][7] As of late 2018, the Amphibian Species of the World[2] and AmphibiaWeb[8] databases recognize both Amolops mengyangensis and Amolops daorum as valid species.

Description

Males measure 39–40 mm (1.5–1.6 in) in snout–vent length, whereas females can reach 60 mm (2.4 in) in snout–vent length. The snout is long and blunt. The tympanum is distinct and large. The hind limbs are long. The finger and the toe tips bear discs. The toes are partially webbed. Skin is smooth. Preserved specimens are dorsally grayish-blueish and ventrally white.[3]

Habitat and conservation

Amolops mengyangensis is listed as of "least concern" in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, but this assumes that Amolops daorum is part of this species and has a relatively broad distribution. Circumscribed this way, Amolops mengyangensis lives in tropical forest in and near streams at elevations of 680–1,900 m (2,230–6,230 ft) above sea level.[1] The type series of Amolops mengyangensis (sensu stricto) was collected from an elevation of 680 meters.[2][3]

References
  1. Ohler, Annemarie; Bryan Stuart & Raoul Bain (2008). "Amolops mengyangensis". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2008: e.T136138A4248591. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2008.RLTS.T136138A4248591.en.
  2. Frost, Darrel R. (2018). "Amolops mengyangensis Wu and Tian, 1995". Amphibian Species of the World: an Online Reference. Version 6.0. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  3. "Amolops mengyangensis Wu and Tian, 1995". AmphibiaChina (in Chinese). Kunming Institute of Zoology. 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
  4. Stuart, B.L.; Bain, R.H.; Phimmachak, S. & Spence, K. (2010). "Phylogenetic systematics of the Amolops monticola group (Amphibia: Ranidae), with description of a new species from northwestern Laos" (PDF). Herpetologica. 66 (1): 52–66. doi:10.1655/08-073.1. JSTOR 40602604.
  5. Ohler, A. (2007). "New synonyms in specific names of frogs (Raninae) from the border regions between China, Laos, and Vietnam". Alytes. 25 (1–2): 55–74.
  6. Bain, R. H.; Lathrop, A.; Murphy, R. W.; Orlov, N. L. & Ho, T. C. (2003). "Cryptic species of a cascade frog from Southeast Asia: taxonomic revisions and descriptions of six new species". American Museum Novitates. 3417: 1–60. doi:10.1206/0003-0082(2003)417<0001:CSOACF>2.0.CO;2.
  7. Biju, S. D.; Mahony, Stephen & Kamei, Rachunliu G. (2010). "Description of two new species of torrent frog, Amolops Cope (Anura: Ranidae) from a degrading forest in the northeast Indian state of Nagaland". Zootaxa. 2408 (1): 31–46.
  8. "Ranidae". AmphibiaWeb. University of California, Berkeley. 2018. Archived from the original on 1 February 2019. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
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