A new species of Bush frog (Anura, Rhacophoridae, Raorchestes) from southeastern Yunnan, China

Junkai Huang; Xiao Long Liu; Lingyun Du; Justin M Bernstein; Shuo Liu; Yun Yang; Guohua Yu; Zhengjun Wu

doi:10.3897/zookeys.1151.95616

A new species of Bush frog (Anura, Rhacophoridae, Raorchestes) from southeastern Yunnan, China

Zookeys. 2023 Feb 28:1151:47-65. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1151.95616. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Junkai Huang¹, Xiao Long Liu², Lingyun Du¹, Justin M Bernstein³, Shuo Liu⁴, Yun Yang⁵, Guohua Yu¹, Zhengjun Wu¹

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Ecology of Rare and Endangered Species and Environmental Protection (Guangxi Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guilin 541004, China.
² Guangxi Key Laboratory of Rare and Endangered Animal Ecology, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541006, Guangxi, China.
³ Key Laboratory for Conserving Wildlife with Small Populations in Yunnan, Southwest Forestry University, Kunming 650224, Yunnan, China.
⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, Rutgers University Newark, 195 University Ave Newark, NJ 07102, USA.
⁵ Kunming Natural History Museum of Zoology, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming 650223, China.

Abstract

In this study, based on morphological and molecular data, a new bush frog species is described from Yunnan, China. Eleven samples of Raorchestesmalipoensissp. nov. were collected from Malipo County, southeastern Yunnan. This species can be distinguished from other congeners by a combination of 13 morphological characters. Phylogenetic analyses based on the 16S rRNA gene indicate that these individuals form a monophyletic group, and genetic divergence between this clade and its closest relatives is higher than 3.1%, which is comparable to the divergence between recognized Raorchestes species. The discovery of this new species suggests that additional extensive surveys in the southeastern Yunnan would yield more amphibian lineages yet unknown to science.

Keywords: Kurixalusgryllus; Raorchestesgryllus; Raorchestesmalipoensis sp. nov.; taxonomy.

Junkai Huang, Xiao Long Liu, Lingyun Du, Justin M. Bernstein, Shuo Liu, Yun Yang, Guohua Yu, Zhengjun Wu.

Grants and funding

The Supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (2019QZKK0501), Yunnan Fundamental Research Project (202001AW070016, 202005AC160046), Young talent project of China Association for Science and Technology (2019-2021QNRC001), National Natural Science Foundation of China (31702008, 32060114), and the Biodiversity Survey and Assessment Project of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China (2019HJ2096001006).