Nyctimystes loveridgei Neill, 1954

Richards, Stephen J., Hoskin, Conrad J., Cunningham, Michael J., Mcdonald, Keith & Donnellan, Stephen C., 2010, Taxonomic re-assessment of the Australian and New Guinean green-eyed treefrogs Litoria eucnemis, L. genimaculata and L. serrata (Anura: Hylidae), Zootaxa 2391 (1), pp. 33-46 : 42

Nyctimystes loveridgei Neill, 1954 .

Holotype: MCZ 27823. Type locality: near Taburi , a native village about 2 miles southeast of Rouna Fall , Papua New Guinea .

This species is currently incorrectly synonymised with L. genimaculata . Adult males are much larger than L. genimaculata (SVL 39.5–47.5; holotype 41.1 mm, SJR pers. obs.), and the original description mentions a triangular heel lappet that is present only in L. eucnemis ( Figure 4H ). Furthermore, the original description ( Neill 1954) notes that the call is a ‘series of five or six raucous notes, like laughter’ which could describe the quite loud series of ‘waah, waah’ growls produced by eucnemis but not the soft ‘ticking’ notes produced by L. genimaculata . We here remove N. loveridgei from the synonymy of L. genimaculata and place it in the synonymy of L. eucnemis .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Photographs in life of A) Litoria eucnemis, Muller Range, PNG, B) L. exophthalmia, Namosado, PNG, C) L. genimaculata, Waigeo Island, Indonesia, D) L. serrata, Wooroonooran National Park, Australia, and of preserved specimens of E) holotype of L. genimaculata, RMNH 4420, F) hand of L. genimaculata holotype showing extent of finger webbing, G) holotype of Hyla rhacophorus, ZMA 5823, and H) holotype of Nyctimystes loveridgei, MCZ 27823 including (below) close-up of large heel flap. All scale bars = 10 mm