Limnonectes dabanus (Smith)

Stuart Ko Sok Thy Neang, Bryan L., 2006, A Collection Of Amphibians And Reptiles From Hilly Eastern Cambodia, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 54 (1), pp. 129-155 : 137-138

Limnonectes dabanus (Smith)

( Fig. 7 )

Material examined. – O’Rang: FMNH 262747 , hilly evergreen forest, O Ronas Stream, 12°17'30.7"N 107°03'06.0"E, 450 m elev., 3 Nov.2003 .

Pichrada: FMNH 261924-27 , Phnom Nam Lyr Mountain , evergreen mixed with deciduous and bamboo forest along O Nam Lyr Stream, near 12°32'16"N 107°32'00"E, 600 m elev., 16 Jun.2000 ; FMNH 261929-32 , 261935 , 261937 , 261942 , 261944-45 , Phnom Nam Lyr Mountain , evergreen mixed with deciduous and bamboo forest, near 12°32'16"N 107°32'00"E, 600-700 m elev., 17-21 Jun.2000 .

Siem Pang: FMNH 262744-45 , bamboo mixed with evergreen forest, near 14°16'03.7"N 106°37'44.6"E, 600 m elev., 1 Dec.2003 ; FMNH 262920 , bamboo mixed with evergreen forest, O Chay Stream, 14°17'38.7"N 106°36'44.8"E, 370 m elev., 02 Dec.2003 .

Remarks. – Seventeen adult males fully agree with Smith’s (1922) brief original description of Rana macrognathus dabana from the Langbian Plateau of southern Vietnam by having distinctly enlarged heads, encompassing nearly half the SVL; a swelling consisting of dense fibrous tissue on top of the head, commencing at the interorbital region and extending to or near to the level of the posterior border of the tympanum; the heels not or only slightly touching when the hindlimbs are folded at right angles to the body; and in measurements (Table 4). The specimens also fully agree with the holotype (MNHN 1948.0126) of Rana toumanoffi Bourret, 1941b , a single male from Mimot, Cambodia, which we have examined. There are no apparent differences in body measurements among Smith’s syntypes, our Cambodian specimens, and Bourret’s holotype of R. toumanoffi (Table 1), although the degree of enlargement of the head and head swelling varies considerably among individual males, even from the same locality. We treat Rana toumanoffi as a junior synonym of Limnonectes dabanus .

Smith (1922) stated that juveniles and females of the species belonging to the Rana doriae group, in which he included L. dabanus , resemble each other so closely that “it is practically impossible to distinguish between them.” A large series (FMNH 261928, 261933-34, 261936, 261938-41, 261943, 262665, 262669, 262743, 262746, 262902-19, 262921-31, 262933-38, 262940-51, N = 60) of females, juveniles, and undeveloped males are tentatively assigned here to L. dabanus because they generally agree in skin texture and size (except head measurements) and were collected with the 17 developed males. Nine of the 77 (11.7%) specimens have a light vertebral stripe from the tip of the snout to near the vent.

Specimens were collected in and along small streams. This was the most frequently encountered, forest-dwelling frog species during our fieldwork. A developed male (FMNH 261937) was collected at night (2015 hrs.) in June sitting in a depression about twice its body size in a sandy vertical bank with exposed tree roots, 15 cm above a stream pool. The depression appeared to have been constructed by the frog, possibly for breeding activity.

This is the first report of the species in Cambodia since Bourret’s (1941b) description of its junior synonym R. toumanoffi from Mimot.

Figures

Fig. 7. Male Limnonectes dabanus from Phnom Nam Lyr Wildlife Sanctuary, Pichrada District, Mondolkiri Province, Cambodia.