Herpetology Notes, volume 3: 041-044 (2010) (published online on 10 February 2010) Second species of tree frog, Hyla orientalis (formely H. arborea), from Iran confirmed by acoustic data Václav Gvoždík1,2* Abstract. Presence of a second tree frog species, Hyla orientalis, from Iran is confirmed based on advertisement call. According to available data, it seems that H. orientalis occupies the lowlands along the southern Caspian coast and presumably also the eastern slopes of the Talesh Mts. and the northern slopes of the Alborz Mts. The widely distributed H. savignyi is present west- and southwards from these mountain systems. Keywords. Hyla orientalis; Hyla arborea; Hyla savignyi; distribution; Iran; bioacoustics. Historically, most researchers have held that Iran is arborea gumilevskii is characterized by a reduction occupied by only one tree frog species, Hyla savignyi or even absence of the inguinal loop (Litvinchuk et Audouin, 1827 [“1809”] (Leviton et al., 1992; Baloutch al., 2006), which makes it morphologically almost and Kami, 1995). According to Cheatsazan et al. indistinguishable from H. savignyi. Thus, occurrence of (2005), the species is distributed in the northern and H. arborea in Iran has been adopted only provisionally southwestern part of the country. However, Litvinchuk and considered “uncertain” (Kaya et al., 2008; Schneider, et al. (2006) recently suggested that the northern 2009; Schneider and Grosse, 2009). Recently, Stöck et part could be occupied by Hyla arborea gumilevskii al. (2008) split H. arborea into three species based on Litvinchuk, Borkin, Rosanov, Skorinov, 2006, which molecular data, and resurrected the name Hyla orientalis they described from southwestern Azerbaijan from Bedriaga, 1890 [“1889”] for the eastern populations the Talysh Mts. (cross-border mountains between including H. arborea gumilevskii, which was thereby Azerbaijan and Iran; in Iran, usually spelled the Talesh synonymized with H. orientalis. Herein, the occurrence Mts.). These authors also listed 15 locality records of H. orientalis in Iran is confirmed based on species- from the literature and morphologically investigated specific acoustic data. 13 museum voucher individuals from Iran, which they The recordings of tree frogs advertisement calls assigned to H. arborea gumilevskii. However, Gvoždík, were obtained from four localities in Iran during short- Moravec and Kratochvíl (2008) demonstrated that term field survey in May–June 2005: (1) 12 km E of morphometric characters do not distinguish between Qareh Ziya Eddin, 38.89° N, 45.02° E, 16.5 – 18.5 H. arborea and H. savignyi, and further suggested that °C, n = 3; (2) 10 km W of Mianeh, 37.41° N, 47.72° the colour pattern of the inguinal region (i.e. inguinal E, 20.0 °C, n = 2; (3) Tonekabon, 36.81° N, 50.88° E, loop present in H. arborea) is a more appropriate 21.0 °C, n = 2; (4) Motalla Sara-ye Lemir, 38.20° N, character for interspecific diagnosis. Nevertheless, H. 48.87° E, 18.5 – 20.5 °C, n = 3 (Fig. 1A; coordinates are approximate, taken from maps). In all localities, the frogs were found in rice fields. However, localities 1 and 2 were situated in arid, semi-desert areas, while 1 Department of Zoology, National Museum, 115 79 Prague, Czech Republic; localities 3 and 4 were in wet, subtropical ecozones. e-mail: [email protected] The audio recordings were taken with an Olympus DM- 2 Department of Vertebrate Evolutionary Biology and Genetics, 1 portable recorder with Sony ECM-MS907 electret Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics, Academy of condenser microphone. Environmental temperature was Sciences of the Czech Republic, 277 21 Liběchov, Czech measured by Viking AB 06912 digital thermometer in Republic. the exact place occupied by the calling male. The calls * corresponding author 42 Václav Gvoždík Figure 1. (A). Map of north western Iran showing localities where recordings of advertisement calls were taken; H. savignyi (circles), H. orientalis (triangles), Talesh Mts. (T) and Alborz Mts. (A). Numbers correspond to the list in the text. Advertisement calls of (B) H. savignyi (12 km E of Qareh Ziya Eddin, loc. 1, 16.5 °C) and (C) H. orientalis (Tonekabon, loc. 3, 21.0 °C) as represented by oscillograms and respective spectrograms of the call segments (pulse groups) at 1 s sections. In the background, an alternating calling male is evident in-between the call segments of the focal calling specimen of H. savignyi. Photographs of calling males of (D) H. savignyi (10 km W of Mianeh, loc. 2) and (E) H. orientalis (Motalla Sara-ye Lemir, loc. 4) demonstrate that the two species are morphologically very similar to each other in Iran because the Caspian populations of the latter have a strongly reduced or absent inguinal loop. Acoustic data on Hyla orientalis from Iran 43 were analyzed in BatSound–Sound Analysis version 1.2 Based on the data obtained, it can be hypothesized that software (Pettersson Elektronik AB). Oscillograms and the wet, subtropical Caspian coast in Iran is inhabited by spectrograms were investigated, and the call segment H. orientalis, while H. savignyi (Fig. 1D) is distributed (pulse group sensu Schneider, 2004) length and the west- and southwards from the Talesh and Alborz Mts. number of pulses per segment were measured and in semiarid or arid habitats. It seems that the two species counted, respectively. Averaged values were taken from are mutually parapatric in Iran, however more data five consecutive call segments from the middle of the (acoustic or genetic) are needed to clarify the situation. call. Cheatsazan et al. (2005) and Kami (2005) published The recordings were not made by a professional audio a north-eastward range extension of H. savignyi as recorder and the conditions were not ideal during some they discovered a remote population in the Golestan recording sessions due to a chorus of many calling Province. In the light of current findings, it is more frogs present. However, these recordings do allowed likely that the Golestanian population represents H. for an analysis of the main call characteristics, which orientalis. Nevertheless, farther data coming from the clearly separate the recorded advertisement calls into Golestanian tree frogs must be investigated to confirm two distinct groups. The advertisement calls from the this preliminary assumption. localities 1 and 2 (Kurdistan and south-west of the Talesh Mts.) had longer call segments and higher number of pulses (163 ms and 140 ms, 133 – 169 ms; 18.6 and Acknowledgements. The study was supported by the Czech Science Foundation GA CR 206/05/2334, the Biodiversity 19.4 pulses, 18 – 20 pulses; means for loc. 1 and 2, Research Centre grant No. LC06073, and grants Nos. respectively, and ranges of both localities; Fig. 1B) than MK00002327201 and �����������������������������������IRP IAPG AV0Z 50450515�������������. Many thanks the advertisement calls recorded in the localities 3 and 4 are given to J. Moravec (Prague) for improving the first version on the southern Caspian coast (76 ms and 79 ms, 72 – 81 of the manuscript, D. C. Blackburn (Lawrence) for help with the ms; 8.6 and 8.4 pulses, 8 – 9 pulses; means for loc. 3 and English and general discussion, and an anonymous reviewer for 4, respectively, and ranges of both localities; Fig. 1C). valuable comments. The above results indicate that the recorded advertisement calls from the two groups are very distinct, References and thus belong to two species. The slight difference in call segment lengths between loc. 1 and loc. 2 likely Baloutch, M., Kami, H.G. (1995): Amphibians of Iran. Teheran, corresponds to the difference in temperatures. The calls Teheran Univ. Publications. Cheatsazan, H., Mahjoorazad, A., Rabani, V., Kami, H.G. (2005): from the inland clearly correspond to H. savignyi, while Distribution of the Yellow-Lemon Tree Frog, Hyla savignyi the calls from the Caspian coast are assignable to the H. Audouin, 1827 (Anura: Hylidae) in Iran. Zool. Middle East arborea-like type (e.g. cf. Schneider, 2004). This finding 36: 109–111. agrees with the assumptions of Litvinchuk et al. (2006), Gvoždík, V., Moravec, J., Kratochvíl, L. (2008): Geographic who expected H. arborea to be present in northern Iran. morphological variation in parapatric Western Palearctic tree However, according to the current taxonomy (Stöck et frogs, Hyla arborea and Hyla savignyi: are related species si- al., 2008), the Caspian population should be named H. milarly affected by climatic conditions? Biol. J. Linn. Soc. 95: 539–556. orientalis. This taxon has a circum-Pontic distribution Gvoždík, V., Moravec, J., Klütsch, C., Kotlík, P.: Phylogeography including Asia Minor and the Caucasus (Stöck et al., of the Middle Eastern tree frogs (Hyla, Hylidae, Amphibia) 2008; Gvoždík et al., in press) and has the same (or very as inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA variation, similar) advertisement call as H. arborea. Schneider with a description of a new species. �����������������������Mol. Phylogenet. Evol.: (2000, 2004) demonstrated that tree frogs from western in press. Turkey and northern Armenia (both formerly H. Kami, H.G. (2005): Hyla savignyi (Savigny’s Tree Frog). Herpe- arborea, now assigned to H. orientalis) possess similar tol. Rev. 36: 75. Kaya, U., Agasyan, A., Avisi, A., Tuniyev, B., Crnobrnja Isai- advertisement calls to that of H. arborea from Germany. lovic, J., Lymberakis, P., Andrén, C., Cogalniceanu, D., Wil- Thus, the obtained acoustic data suggest that the Irano- kinson, J., Ananjeva, N., Üzüm, N., Orlov, N., Podloucky, R., Caspian populations belong to H. orientalis, and not Tuniyev, S. (2008): Hyla arborea. In: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red to H. savignyi (Fig. 1E). This finding was recently List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.1. http://www.iucn- confirmed also genetically (Gvoždík et al., in press). No redlist.org. Downloaded on 13 September 2009. H. savignyi calls were detected among the recordings Leviton, A.E., Anderson, S.C., Adler, K., Minton, S.A. (1992): from the Caspian region.