Glyphoglossus guttulatus (Blyth, 1856)

Nguyen, Tan Van, Brakels, Peter, Maury, Nathanael, Sudavanh, Somchit, Pawangkhanant, Parinya, Idiiatullina, Sabira, Lorphengsy, Sengvilay, Inkhavilay, Khamla, Suwannapoom, Chatmongkon & Poyarkov, Nikolay A., 2020, New herpetofaunal observations from Laos based on photo records, Amphibian & Reptile Conservation (e 248) 14 (2), pp. 218-249 : 225

Glyphoglossus guttulatus (Blyth, 1856)

Burmese Squat Frog ( Fig. 4C)

Several individuals of G. guttulatus were observed by K. Inkhavilay on 19 May 2018 in Xonnabouly District , Savannakhet Province (16°16.071’N, 105°38.594’E; elevation 140 m asl) . One individual was observed by P. Brakels on 14 March 2019 in Kiat Ngong Village, Pathoumphone District , Champasak Province (14°41.023’N, 106°06.413’E; elevation 170 m asl) and another individual was observed by P. Brakels and N. Maury on 10 August 2019 in Bortaen District site 2, Xaignabouli Province (17°47.338’N, 101°04.359’E; elevation 475 m asl) .

Morphological characters of the individuals from Savannakhet, Champasak, and Xaignabouli provinces agreed well with the descriptions of Taylor (1962) and Vassilieva et al. (2016). The photographed individual ( Fig. 4C) agrees with the diagnosis of G. guttulatus in the following characters: body habitus stocky, roughly triangular in shape; head wide and short, with blunt snout; tympanum indistinct; supratympanic fold distinct; limbs short; tips fingers and toes without discs; dorsal surfaces finely granulate with lager tubercles scattered on sides of neck and shoulders; coloration of dorsum brownish with scattered irregular brown blotches of different size.

Ecological notes. The individuals from Savanakhet Province were found in riverine forest and seasonally dry dipterocarp forest with patches of mixed deciduous forest. The individual from Champasak Province was found near a seasonal pond in the village, in an open area surrounded by seasonally flooded riparian secondary disturbed forest. The individual from Xaignabouli Province was found along the roadside in disturbed secondary dry evergreen hill forest.

Distribution. In Laos, this species has previously only been reliably recorded from Vientiane Province (Stuart 1999). This is the second record from the country as well as the first from Xaignabouli, Savannakhet, and Champasak provinces. Moreover, G. guttulatus was also recorded in June 2018 in Khammouan Province (Teynié, pers. comm.). Elsewhere, this species has been reported from Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and peninsular Malaysia ( Vassilieva et al. 2016).