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A New Treefrog (Anura: Rhacophoridae: Rhacophorus) from Gunung Mulu, Borneo

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A New Treefrog (Anura: Rhacophoridae: Rhacophorus) from Gunung Mulu, Borneo A new Rhacophorus from Borneo SALAMANDRA 44 4 193-205 Rheinbach, 20 November 2008 ISSN 0036-3375 A new treefrog (Anura: Rhacophoridae: Rhacophorus) from Gunung Mulu, Borneo J. Maximilian Dehling Abstract. A new treefrog of the genus Rhacophorus is described from a small montane stream on the southern slope of Gunung Mulu in eastern Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo. The new species is distinguish- able from its Southeast Asian congeners by the combination of the following characters: small size; snout sharply pointed, forming a low swollen rostral tubercle at its anteriormost tip; supratympanic fold thick and conspicuous; tympanum diameter one-third of that of eye; canthus rostralis sharp; interorbital dis- tance greater than upper eyelid width and internarial distance; vomerine teeth in two oblique series; der- mal appendages on trunk and limbs absent; hands and feet not fully webbed; dorsum uniformly yellow- ish-green in life; iris ruby-coloured in life with a light grey margin; advertisement call consisting of three or four notes, with energy maximum at 4050-4380 Hz. Key words. Amphibia, Anura, Rhacophoridae, Rhacophorus penanorum sp. n., taxonomy, natural his- tory, advertisement call, Gunung Mulu National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia, Borneo. Introduction During field work in the park I collected specimens of a species of Rhacophorus Kuhl Gunung Mulu National Park (3°56’-4°6’N, & van Hasselt, 822 that does not match any 4°47’-5°00’E) is located in eastern Sara- of the described species of the genus from wak on Borneo, the largest of the Greater Borneo and from any other part of Southeast Sunda Islands. It is named after Gunung (= Asia. I therefore describe it herein as new to “Mount”) Mulu, the second highest peak in science. The treefrog genus Rhacophorus is Sarawak (2376 m elevation), and encompass- distributed from India to Japan and south- es an area of 544 km2 (Hazebroek & Kash- wards to the Indo-Malayan archipelago and im bin Abang Morshidi 2006). Situated the Philippines and currently contains 76 within the borders of the national park are species (Frost 2007, Bordoloi et al. 2007, the type localities of fourteen frog species, Dehling & Grafe 2008). Sixteen species eight of which have not been recorded else- have been reported from Borneo (Inger & where (Dring 983a, 983b, 987, Kiew 984, Tan 996, Das & Haas 2005, Dehling & Dubois 987, Inger et al. 995). Neverthe- Grafe 2008). less the herpetofauna of the park has hardly been explored. Most of the field work con- ducted so far took place during the joint ex- Materials and methods pedition of the Sarawak Government and the Royal Geographic Society between 977 and Type specimens were collected on 4 January 978, in the course of which 7 species of an- 2008 between 945 and 2000 h, kept alive for urans were recorded (Dring 978, Dring & two days, euthanised using a chlorobutanol Kiew 982). In total 76 species of amphibi- solution, fixed and preserved in 70% ethanol, ans (Dring & Kiew 982, Inger & Stuebing and measured four weeks after collection. 992, Sanchez-Herraiz et al. 995, Malk- The following measurements were taken mus 2002) and 9 species of reptiles (Das et with a digital caliper (to the nearest 0. mm): al. 2008) have been reported from Gunung snout-vent length (SVL, from tip of snout Mulu National Park so far. to vent); tibia-fibula length (TFL, measured © 2008 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Herpetologie und Terrarienkunde e.V. (DGHT) http://www.salamandra-journal.com 193 J. Maximilian Dehling with both knee and tibio-tarsal articulation ger & Stuebing (2005), Wilkinson et al. flexed); head width (HW, distance between (2005), Das & Haas (2005), Matsui & Pan- angles of jaw); head length (HL, distance ha (2006), Ohler & Delorme (2006), and from angle of jaw to tip of snout); horizon- Bordoloi et al. (2007). tal eye diameter (ED); horizontal tympanum Advertisement calls from the type speci- diameter (TD); upper eyelid width (EW); in- mens were recorded in the habitat using a terorbital distance (IO, shortest distance be- Sony WM-D6C stereo cassette recorder and tween upper eyelids); eye to nostril distance a Sony ECM-S959C microphone. Call re- (EN, distance between anterior margin of eye cordings were digitised at 6 bits and 44 kHz and nostril); nostril to snout distance (NS, and analysed using Syrinx 2.6h sound analy- distance between nostril and tip of snout); sis program (John Burt, www.syrinxpc.com) internarial distance (NN, distance between and Adobe Audition .5 software. nostrils); hand length (HND, distance from base of thenar tubercle to tip of third finger); foot length (FOT, distance from base of in- Systematics ner metatarsal tubercle to tip of fourth toe). Rhacophorus penanorum sp. n. The webbing formulae are given as proposed (Figs. -7) by Myers & Duellman (982). Notes on the colouration in life were taken from digital Holotype: ZMB 7078, adult male, from a photographs taken in the habitat and during small stream, 45 minutes by foot below camp two days after collection. four on the southern flank of Gunung Mulu, For comparisons I examined museum approx. 650 m elev., Gunung Mulu National specimens of several species of Rhacopho- Park, Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, col- rus (see Appendix). Museum abbreviations lected by J. M. Dehling, 4 January 2008. are as follows: Field Museum of Natural His- tory, Chicago, Illinois, USA (FMNH), Mu- Paratopotypes: ZMB 7079, 70720, two adult seum und Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, males, collected with the holotype. Frankfurt am Main, Germany (SMF), Sabah Parks Zoological Museum, Kinabalu Park Diagnosis: A species of the genus Rhacoph- Headquarters, Ranau District, Sabah, Malay- orus, distinguishable from its congeners by sia (SP), Zoological Museum of the Depart- the combination of the following characters: ment of Biology, Universiti Brunei Darussal- am, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussal- am (UBD), Zoologisches Museum der Hum- boldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany (ZMB). Additional information about char- acters used to compare Southeast Asian spe- cies of Rhacophorus were taken from: Bou- lenger (882), Ahl (927), Smith (930), Wolf (936), Inger (954), Taylor (962), Inger (966), Brown & Alcala (994), Manthey & Grossmann (997), Manthey & Steiof (998), Inger et al. (999), Ohler et al. (2000), Ziegler & Köhler (200), Or- lov et al. (200), Chanda (2002), Ziegler (2002), Harvey et al. (2002), Malkmus et Fig. 1. Holotype of Rhacophorus penanorum sp. al. (2002), Wilkinson & Rao (2004), Mat- n. (ZMB 70718) in life. Photograph taken in the sui (2005), Inger & Iskandar (2005), In- habitat. 194 A new Rhacophorus from Borneo () small size (SVL of adult males 33.6-34.2 mm); (2) snout sharply pointed, projecting beyond mandible, sloping forward from nos- trils then backward to mouth, forming a low swollen rostral tubercle at its anteriormost tip; (3) head wider than long and wider than body; (4) supratympanic fold thick and con- spicuous; (5) tympanum diameter one-third of that of eye; (6) canthus rostralis sharp; (7) interorbital distance greater than upper eye- lid width and internarial distance; (8) vomer- ine teeth in two oblique series; (9) dermal appendages on trunk and limbs absent; (0) Fig. 3. Lateral view of the head of a paratype hands and feet not fully webbed; () dor- of Rhacophorus penanorum sp. n. (ZMB 70719). sum uniformly yellowish-green in life; (2) Note the brownish-green daytime-colouration of iris ruby-coloured in life with a light grey the dorsum. margin; (3) advertisement call consisting of three or four notes, with energy maximum at 4090-4380 Hz. Description of the holotype: Body moder- ately slender with a narrow waist; head short (HL/SVL 0.3), slightly wider than trunk and wider than long (HW/HL .23); snout project- Fig. 4. Type series of Rhacophorus penanorum sp. n. (top to bottom: ZMB 70719, 70718, 70720), showing the variation in daytime-colouration. Fig. 2. Ventral view of a paratype of Rhacophorus Fig. 5. Paratype of Rhacophorus penanorum sp. penanorum sp. n. (ZMB 70719) in life. n. (ZMB 70720) in life. Note the greyish-green daytime-colouration. 195 J. Maximilian Dehling ing beyond mandible, pointed in dorsal view, and IV; webbing formula of the hand I2.75- sloping forward from nostrils then back to- 2.75II.75-3III2-2-IV (Fig. 6); thenar tuber- ward mouth in profile, forming a low swollen cle oval, almost as large as base of Finger I rostral tubercle at its anteriormost tip (cf. Fig. (length 2.4 mm); inner and outer palmar tu- 3); canthus rostralis distinct, sharp, curved in bercles oval, low and indistinct, fused at their profile, slightly concave in dorsal view; loreal bases; narrow dermal ridge on postaxial edge region sloping, almost vertical; nostril about of Finger IV between base of disk and outer as close to eye as to tip of snout (EN/NS 0.99); palmar tubercle; metacarpals with several su- internarial distance greater than eye to nostril pernumerary small tubercles; nuptial pads or distance (NN/EN .43); eyes directed antero- asperities absent. laterally, protruding, large (ED/HL 0.45); pu- Legs slender, moderately long (TFL/SVL pil horizontal; eye diameter greater than eye- 0.53); heels slightly overlap each other when to-nostril distance (ED/EN .63); interorbital legs are folded right angle to body; tibio-tarsal distance wider than upper eyelid (IO/EW articulation reaching tip of snout; heel with- .30) and greater than internarial distance out dermal appendages; tarsus with several (IO/NN .08); tympanum visible, separated very small, indistinct white tubercles; relative from eye by distance subequal to its horizon- length of toes: I < II < III < V < IV; disks of tal diameter; tympanum diameter about one- toes smaller than those of fingers; subarticu- third of eye diameter (TD/ED 0.32); tym- lar tubercles numbering one on Toes I and II, panic annulus visible; skin not co-ossified to two on Toes III and V, and three on Toe IV; forehead; maxillary teeth present; choanae pedal webbing formula I.5-2II+-2.5III.5- located far laterally, at margins of roof of the 2.5IV2-+V (Fig.
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