A New Asian Toad (Leptolalax) From Vietnam

Leptolalax bidoupensis. Photo Credit 
Jodi J. L. Rowley 
The megophryid frog genus Leptolalax (Dubois, 1983) is a relatively recently described genus of about 29 species that often inhabit the forest floor near rocky streams in hilly topography, covered with evergreen forest in Asia. There has been a rapid increase in the number of known Leptolalax species in recent years, with 21 of the known species described in the past two decades. Eleven species have been reported from Indochina;  and all but two of those have been reported from Vietnam. Vietnamese Leptolalax are known from the suitable habitat in northern and central Vietnam, with the southernmost record to date from the Kon Tum Plateau in central Vietnam. Jodi Rowley and colleagues have now described, Leptolalax bidoupensis from the Langbian Plateau in southern Vietnam. Despite previous collections of amphibians from the Langbian Plateau by Malcolm Smith in the 1920's Leptolalax were not reported from the Plateau, and bidoupensis represents the southernmost record of Leptolalax from Vietnam. All specimens of L. bidoupensis were found in montane evergreen forest between 1620–1730 m elevation. Males were observed calling on stream banks, less than 0.5 m from small rocky streams in May and July, but it was as not heard or observed during March, when conditions were cooler and drier. Leptolalax bidoupensis is known only from an area of approximately 1 square km in Bidoup Nui Ba National Park. The actual distribution of the new species is unknown but probably extends to adjacent forested areas in the Langbian Plateau. Leptolalax bidoupensis is most morphologically similar to L. applebyi and L. melicus, both recently discovered from the Kon Tum Plateau to the north, but can be distinguished from these and all other Leptolalax species on the basis of morphological, acoustic and molecular differences. 


Citation
Rowley, J. J. L., D. T. T. Le, D. T. A. Tran, and H. D. Hoang, A new species of Leptolalax (Anura: Megophryidae) from southern Vietnam. Zootaxa 2796: 15–28. 

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