A New Species of Nanorana (Anura: Dicroglossidae) from Northwestern Yunnan, China, with Comments on the Taxonomy of Nanorana arunachalensis and Allopaa

Abstract

The genus Nanorana contains three subgenera, namely Nanorana, Paa, and Chaparana, and currently, there are four species known to science in Nanorana (Nanorana). In this study, we describe a new species belonging to the subgenus Nanorana from northwestern Yunnan, China. Phylogenetically, the new species, Nanorana laojunshanensis sp. nov., is the sister to the clade of N. pleskei and N. ventripunctata. Morphologically, the new species can be distinguished from known congeners by the combination of following characters: present tympanum, equal fingers I and II, small body size, yellow ventral surface of limbs, distinct vomerine teeth, indistinct subarticular tubercles, head width greater than head length, slender supratympanic fold, absent dorsolateral fold, nuptial spines present on fingers I and II in adult males, absent vocal sac, and paired brown spines on the chest. Moreover, we suggest moving the genus Allopaa into Nanorana (Chaparana) and consider that N. arunachalensis is neither an Odorrana species nor a member of the subfamily Dicroglossinae (therefore Nanorana), but probably represents a distinct genus closely related to Ingerana or belongs to Ingerana, pending more data. Additionally, we consider that Nanorana minica deserves the rank of an independent subgenus, and we suggest assigning N. arnoldi, N. blanfordii, N. ercepeae, N. polunini, N. rarica, N. rostandi, N. vicina, N. xuelinensis, and N. zhaoermii into the subgenus Paa and placing N. kangxianensis, N. phrynoides, and N. sichuanensis in the subgenus Chaparana.