Quasipaa verrucospinosa (Bourret, 1937)

Suwannapoom, Chatmongkon, Nguyen, Tan Van, Poyarkov, Nikolay A., Wu, Yun-He, Pawangkhanant, Parinya, Lorphengsy, Sengvilay & Che, Jing, 2021, First national record of Quasipaa verrucospinosa (Bourret, 1937) (Amphibia: Anura: Dicroglossidae) from Thailand with further comment on its taxonomic status, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 70473-70473 : 70473

Quasipaa verrucospinosa (Bourret, 1937)

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-00392 ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Quasipaa verrucospinosa; class: Amphibia ; order: Anura ; family: Dicroglossidae ; genus: Quasipaa ; specificEpithet: verrucospinosa; Location : country: Thailand; countryCode: TL; stateProvince: Nan; locality: Doi Phu Kha ; verbatimElevation: 900-1000; verbatimLatitude: 21°19.66'N; verbatimLongitude: 103°36.26'E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS84; Event: eventRemarks: collected by C. Suwannapoom, P. Pawangkhanant; Record Level: basisOfRecord: preserved specime Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-00393; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Quasipaa verrucospinosa; Record Level: basisOfRecord: preserved specimen; dynamicProperties: collection date, collector and location as the AUP-00392 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-00530; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Quasipaa verrucospinosa; Record Level: basisOfRecord: preserved specimen; dynamicProperties: collection date, collector and location as the AUP-00392 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-00531; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Quasipaa verrucospinosa; Record Level: basisOfRecord: preserved specimen; dynamicProperties: collection date, collector and location as the AUP-00392 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-00532; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Quasipaa verrucospinosa; Record Level: basisOfRecord: preserved specimen; dynamicProperties: collection date, collector and location as the AUP-00392 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-00533; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Quasipaa verrucospinosa; Record Level: basisOfRecord: preserved specimen; dynamicProperties: collection date, collector and location as the AUP-00392 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-00534; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Quasipaa verrucospinosa; Record Level: basisOfRecord: preserved specimen; dynamicProperties: collection date, collector and location as the AUP-00392 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-01609; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Quasipaa verrucospinosa; Record Level: basisOfRecord: preserved specimen; dynamicProperties: collection date, collector and location as the AUP-00392

Description

Morphological characteristics of the specimens (n = 10) obtained from Nan Province agreed with the descriptions of Bourret (1937), Fei et al. (2010), Nguyen et al. (2020): SVL 99.1-116.8 mm in males (n = 4) and 83.4-116.6 mm in females (n = 6). Other morphological measurements of all specimens collected from Nan Province are presented in Suppl. material 3. Body rather stout; head wider than long; snout round, slightly protruding, longer than horizontal diameter of eye; canthus rostralis distinct; loreal region oblique, moderately concave; nostril lateral, oval with lateral flap of skin, closer to tip of snout than to eye; interorbital broader than upper eyelid and internarial distance; eyes large, pupils oval; tympanum small, distinct; supratympanic fold present; vomerine teeth present; tongue heart-shaped, notched posteriorly; vocal openings absent. Forelimbs long, robust; relative finger lengths II <I <IV <III; fingers without dermal fringe, free of webbing; tips of fingers, slightly enlarged, without discs; subarticular tubercle developed; palmar tubercles two, oval; nuptial pads spines present. Hindlimbs short, strong; thigh longer than tibia; tips of toes rounded, distinctly enlarged, without discs; relative toes lengths I <II <V <III <IV; toe webbing complete; subarticular tubercles prominent, rounded; inner metatarsal tubercle distinct, shorter than length of toe I.

Skin. Dorsal surface with very rough back covered by short, thick, ridges and round tubercles. Sides covered by oval tubercles with dark spines; ventral surface smooth. During the breeding season (May to October), males have black spikes on finger I, chin, chest and underarms. Colouration of dorsum is grey-brown with dark brown spots; ventral surface cream-coloured, except for the chin with dark markings; iris dark green (Figs 2 , 3 ).

Distribution

This species is known to be from northern and central Vietnam, southern China and northwest Laos ( Nguyen et al. 2020). This is the first record of this species in Thailand, ca. 440 km southwest from the type locality in Sa Pa District, Lao Cai Province, Vietnam ( Bourret 1937) (Fig. 1 ).

Ecology

Individual specimens collected from Doi Phu Kha National Park were found at night between 19:00 and 23:00 h on both small and large rocks in medium-sized streams and in forests at elevations between 900-1000 m a.s.l. The surrounding habitat comprised secondary evergreen forests of medium growth. Other amphibian species found to be sympatric include: Limnonectes taylori Matsui, Panha, Khonsue & Kuraishi and L. bannaensis Ye, Fei, Xie & Jiang. Advertisement calls of the males can be heard within or beside rocky streams from May to October (Fig. 4 ).

Figures

Figure 1. Map showing distribution of species Quasipaa verrucospinosa complex. (Red colour: type locality). Localites. Q. verrucospinosa sensu stricto; (1) Sapa, Lao Cai, Vietnam; (2) Pu Mat NP., Con Cuong, Nghe An, Vietnam; (3) Phongsaly, Laos; (4) Mengsong, Jinghong, Yunnan, China; (5) Doi Phu Kha National Park, Nan Province, Thailand; Q. cf. verrucospinosa 1; (6) Tam Dao NP., Vinh Phuc, Vietnam; (7) Thai Nguyen, Vietnam; Q. cf. verrucospinosa 2; (8) Kaleum, Xekong, Laos; Q. cf. verrucospinosa 3; (9) Ngoc Linh Mt., Kon Tum, Vietnam.

Figure 2. Quasipaa verrucospinosa, male, in situ from Nan Province, Thailand. Photo by P. Pawangkhanant.

Figure 3. Quasipaa verrucospinosa (AUP- 00393), male. A. Dorsal view; B. Ventral view; C. Lateral view of head; D. Thenar view of the left foot; E. Palmar view of the right hand; F. Thenar view of the left hand.

Figure 4. Habitat of Q. verrucospinosa at Doi Phu Ka National Park, Nan Province, Thailand. Photo by P. Pawangkhanant.