Litoria serrata ( Andersson, 1916 )

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 : 39-42

Litoria serrata ( Andersson, 1916)

was described on the basis of six specimens from Atherton , Carrington and Malanda in north Queensland, Australia. However the name has been synonymised variously with L. eucnemis Lonnberg, 1900 and L. genimaculata Horst, 1883 , both from the New Guinea region. Currently L. serrata is considered a synonym of L. eucnemis by Frost (2009) despite evidence presented by Richards et al. (1993) that L. serrata is a junior subjective synonym of L. genimaculata and is quite distinct from L. eucnemis . This confusion reflects the morphological similarity of different populations of these moderately large treefrogs (males 30–50 mm SVL), and lack of access to molecular genetic and call data from type localities. Richards et al. (1993) demonstrated that two morphologically similar forms in the Litoria eucnemis species-group occur in Australia and argued, based on calls, that the Australian population described as L. serrata should be referred to the New Guinean species L. genimaculata . They also demonstrated that Litoria eucnemis occurs in small, isolated populations on the Cape York Peninsula of northern Queensland Australia, where it is widely allopatric to populations of L. genimaculata .

Recent collections in western New Guinea that included tissues suitable for molecular genetic analysis, and re-examination of type material described from New Guinea, have permitted a reassessment of the status of the Australian treefrog described as Litoria serrata .

Six names are available for New Guinean treefrogs of the L. eucnemis species-group that have large digital discs, dermal folds on the arms and legs, and males without vocal sacs. They are treated in order of publication, and evidence is provided subsequently that L. serrata is a species distinct from all of these congeners. The name L. serrata is herein resurrected from the synonymy L. genimaculata .