Leptobrachella sungi (Lathrop, Murphy, Orlov & Ho, 1998)

Pham, Anh Van, Pham, Cuong The, Doan, Lan Duc, Ziegler, Thomas & Nguyen, Truong Quang, 2019, New records of megophryids (Amphibia: Anura: Megophryidae) from Son La Province, Vietnam, Biodiversity Data Journal 7, pp. 39140-39140 : 39140

Leptobrachella sungi (Lathrop, Murphy, Orlov & Ho, 1998)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: TBU MD.2016.116 ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificNameID: Leptobrachellasungi; scientificName: Leptobrachellasungi; class: Amphibia; order: Anura; family: Megophryidae; genus: Leptobrachella; specificEpithet: sungi; scientificNameAuthorship: (Lathrop, Murphy, Orlov & Ho, 1998); Location: country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Son La; county: Phu Yen; municipality: Muong Do; locality: near Tan Do Village ; verbatimElevation: 980 m; verbatimLatitude: 21°11.89'N; verbatimLongitude: 103°43.42'E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS84; Event: eventDate: August 28, 2015; eventRemarks: collected by H.V. Tu and C.K.P.D. Kham; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Amphibians; basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: TBU MD.2016.117 ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificNameID: Leptobrachellasungi; scientificName: Leptobrachellasungi; class: Amphibia; order: Anura; family: Megophryidae; genus: Leptobrachella; specificEpithet: sungi; scientificNameAuthorship: (Lathrop, Murphy, Orlov & Ho, 1998); Location: country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Son La; county: Phu Yen; municipality: Muong Do; locality: near Tan Do Village ; verbatimElevation: 980 m; verbatimLatitude: 21°11.89'N; verbatimLongitude: 103°43.42'E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS84; Event: eventDate: August 28, 2015; eventRemarks: collected by H.V. Tu and C.K.P.D. Kham; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Amphibians; basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: TBU MD.2016.125 ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificNameID: Leptobrachellasungi; scientificName: Leptobrachellasungi; class: Amphibia; order: Anura; family: Megophryidae; genus: Leptobrachella; specificEpithet: sungi; scientificNameAuthorship: (Lathrop, Murphy, Orlov & Ho, 1998); Location: country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Son La; county: Phu Yen; municipality: Muong Do; locality: near Tan Do Village ; verbatimElevation: 980 m; verbatimLatitude: 21°11.89'N; verbatimLongitude: 103°43.42'E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS84; Event: eventDate: August 28, 2015; eventRemarks: collected by H.V. Tu and C.K.P.D. Kham; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Amphibians; basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen

Description

Morphological characters of the specimens (n = 3 females) from Son La Province agreed with the description of Lathrop et al. (1998): SVL 55.9-56.8 mm; head longer than wide (HL 22.2-23.0 mm, HW 21.4-22.0); snout distinctly pointed in dorsal view, longer than eye diameter (SL 8.6-8.9 mm, ED 6.8-7.0 mm); nostrils oval, on lateral side, closer to the tip of snout than to eye (NS 3.8-4.1 mm, EN 4.5-5.0 mm); canthus rostralis distinct, loreal region concave; interorbital distance wider than upper eyelid width and internarial distance (IOD 6.5-6.8 mm, UEW 4.6-5.0 mm, IN 4.0-4.4 mm); eye large, approximately twice diameter of tympanum (TD 3.2-3.5 mm); tympanum round; vomerine teeth absent; tongue notched posteriorly.

Forelimbs. Forearm robust; relative finger lengths I = II = IV <III, tips of fingers not enlarged into discs; webbing absent; subarticular tubercles indistinct; palmar tubercles round, in contact, inner one very large.

Hindlimbs. Tibia longer than thigh (FL 22.0-23.9 mm, TL 23.0-24.2 mm); relative toe lengths I <II <V <III <IV; webbing rudimentary between toes I–IV and absent between IV and V; subarticular tubercles indistinct; inner metatarsal tubercle oval; outer metatarsal tubercle absent; tibiotarsal articulation reaching to orbit when limb adpressed along body.

Skin. Dorsal surface of head and body, upper part of flanks with tubercles; upper eyelid granular; supratympanic fold distinct, extending from posterior corner of eye to a point behind articulation of jaw; dorsolateral fold absent; ventral surface smooth.

Colouration in life. Dorsal surface of head brown grey with a dark brown marking between eyes; canthus and supratympanic fold dark brown; upper lip with dark brown bars; limbs with dark brown transverse bars; ventral surface orange ( Fig. 3 ).

Distribution

In Vietnam, this species has been recorded from Lao Cai, Dien Bien, Yen Bai, and Vinh Phuc provinces ( Nguyen et al. 2009). Our new record in Son La Province filled the distribution gap of the species in northwestern Vietnam. Elsewhere, this species is known from China ( Frost 2019).

Ecology

The specimens were found at night, between 19:00 and 22:00 h, on the side of the streams in the secondary forest.

Figures

Figure 3. Leptobrachella sungi (TBU MD. 2015.116, adult female) from Son La Province, Vietnam. Photo by H. V. Tu.