Rana chalconota (Schlegel)

Inger, Robert F. & Iskandar, Djoko T., 2005, A Collection Of Amphibians From West Sumatra, With Description Of A New Species Of Megophrys (Amphibia: Anura), Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 53 (1), pp. 133-142 : 138

Rana chalconota (Schlegel)

Males with nuptial pads, SVL 28.1-38.1 mm (Table 5); mature females, SVL 37.8-43.2 mm (Table 5); juveniles, SVL 23.5- 28.6 mm (n= 7). Round dark spots on back (except in two); heavy dusting of melanophores on the ventral surface of the legs; throat whitish, with dark mottling. The webbing is blackish. Vomerine teeth in patches equidistant from each other and the choanae. Toes three and five fully webbed to base of discs, toe four fully webbed to distal subarticular tubercle; outer metatarsal tubercle elevated. Males with velvety, whitish nuptial pads on the first finger; vocal sac openings at the corners of the floor of the mouth; whitish spinules on the granules of the dorsum. A weak humeral gland present in 10/ 16 males. Males have a larger tympanum than females (Table 5).

We have compared these to a sample from Bohorok, North Sumatra. The two samples are similar in most characters, including the color of the webbing, in the presence of a weak humeral gland in the males, and in body proportions (Table 5). However, they differ in size (Table 5).

Geographic variation in this species is known to involve secondary sex characters of males. Males from Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo usually have the nuptial pad constricted, but those from Java do not ( Inger, 1966). The nuptial pads in males from the Padang-Payakumbuh-Lubuk Serasih area are not constricted, though they are in about half of those from Bohorok. The spinules of the dorsum appear on the upper eyelids of Bornean males but only in a portion of those from Java ( Inger, 1966). All but one of the males from Sumatra have spinules on the upper eyelid. Males in the present sample from Sumatra are about the same size as those from Java (30-40 mm; Iskandar, 1998), but the females are much smaller than those from Java (45-65 mm; Iskandar, 1998), which is the type locality of the species.