Theloderma corticale

Abstract: Mitochondrial gene fragments of 16S rRNA gene of four species (Rhacophorus rhodopus, R. reinwardtii, Philautus albopurwtatus and P. rhododiscus) from 11 populations were sequenced in this study. Homologous sequences of R. bipuiwtatus, Theloderma asperum, T. corticale and Buergeria japonica were obtained by screening the GenBank database. After excluding all gaps and ambiguous positions, aligned sequences were 500 bp in length with 115 variable sites and 92 parsimony-informative sites. Using B .japonica as an outgroup, phylogenetic relationships were analyzed using Bayesian inference, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods. Our results indicated that neither of R. rhodopus and P. albopunctatus were monophyletic at the species level. The population of R. rhodo pus from Hainan Island was more close to R. bipuiwtatus than to populations of R. rhodopus from Yunnan Province. Furthermore, the populations of R. rhodopus from Yunnan Province can be divided into two main lineages. Theloderma corticale and P. rhododiscus were clustered together and T. asperum was nested in P. albopunctatus. We considered that P. albopunctatus Liu and Hu, 1962, was the synonymy of T. asperum Boulenger, 1886, and suggested removing P. rhododiscus from Philautus into the genus Theloderma.

Abstract: The problems of identification, number and distribution of Theloderma species living in China are discussed on the base of new original morphological and molecular data collected during the last years. According to the author’s results there are six known Theloderma species living in China: Theloderma albopunctatum (Liu et Hu, 1962), Theloderma baibungense Jiang, Fei et Huang, 2007, Theloderma bicolor (Bourret, 1937), Theloderma corticale (Boulenger, 1903), Theloderma moloch (Annandale, 1912), and Theloderma rhododiscus Liu et Hu, 1962.

Abstract: As an endangered animal group, mossy frog (genus Theloderma) has attracted the attention of biologists and wildlife conservationists. Clarifying the taxonomic status and distribution of each species in Theloderma is important to determine the conservation status for each species, establish appropriate conservation strategies and probe the speciation process. Recently, we discovered a medium-sized species of mossy frog of the genus Theloderma in April 2015 during municipal surveys of amphibians in Dayao Mountain of Jinxiu. It was collected from the water-filled tree cavities. However, there remains some uncertainty about the species determination of the mossy frog in the Yinshan station of Dayao Mountain in Guangxi Province, China. Previously, the mossy frog in Guangxi Province was recognized as Th. kwangsiense. In order to clarify the species status of the mossy frog obtained from Guangxi, we sequenced 2414 bp of the 12S and 16S genes in the sample collected from the Dayao Mountain. Combining all ...

Abstract: In this article we give an extended description of tadpoles of Theloderma bicolor and Theloderma corticale and present morphological differences between larval stages of these two closely related and parapatric species. Larvae of these two species clearly differ by their size (tadpoles of T. bicolor are much smaller than tadpoles of T. corticale at the same developmental stages), number of marginal papillae in one row (less in T. bicolor than in T. corticale ) and tail shape.