Platymantis gilliardi Zweifel, 1960

Richards, Stephen J., Mack, Andrew L. & Austin, Christopher C., 2007, Two new species of Platymantis (Anura: Ceratobatrachidae) from the Admiralty Archipelago, Papua New Guinea, Zootaxa 1639, pp. 41-55 : 42-43

Systematics of Platymantis gilliardi Zweifel, 1960

Zweifel (1960) provided a thorough description of the holotype (AMNH 64253) from New Britain, and three paratypes (AMNH 23545–7) from the Admiralty Archipelago. He noted that paratypes differ from the holotype in several aspects of colour pattern, the most conspicuous being a dark loreal region in the paratypes that is lacking in the holotype. Re-examination of the type series has confirmed these differences although the dark loreal region of the three paratypes has faded somewhat over time in preservative. During field work in the Admiralty Archipelago during 2001 and 2002 a number of frogs resembling P. gilliardi were obtained. Based on differences in advertisement call structure and consistent morphological differences two species are identified within these samples. One species closely resembles the paratype series of P. gilliardi and consistently possesses a dark loreal region, indicating that the absence of this character in the holotype of P. gilliardi is not due to variation within that species. The other species has much longer legs than the holotype of P. gilliardi (TL/SV 0.54–0.60 vs 0.51). Molecular data indicate a sister-species relationship between the two Manus taxa and only distant relationships between these taxa and P. gilliardi from New Britain (R. Brown and S. Richards, unpubl. data).

Based on differences in morphology and advertisement call structure we here describe the populations of P. gilliardi -like frogs from the Admiralty Archipelago as two new species. Platymantis gilliardi is currently known only from the island of New Britain.