Current Herpetology
Online ISSN : 1881-1019
Print ISSN : 1345-5834
ISSN-L : 1345-5834
Original articles
A New Brown Frog from the Goto Islands, Japan with Taxonomic Revision on the Subspecific Relationships of Rana tagoi (Amphibia: Anura: Ranidae)
Koshiro ETOMasafumi MATSUI
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2023 Volume 42 Issue 2 Pages 191-209

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Abstract

Recent molecular analyses cast doubt on the subspecific relationships of Japanese brown frogs Rana tagoi tagoi, R. t. okiensis, and R. t. yakushimensis. Many samples of R. tagoi from three main islands, i.e., Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu tend to form a genetic unit with rich variation. On the other hand, R. t. okiensis, R. t. yakushimensis, and some insular samples are clearly isolated from R. t. tagoi and each other. Thus, we propose to treat each subspecies of R. tagoi as full species and describe part of the Goto Islands populations as Rana matsuoi sp. nov. The new species and R. tagoi show a complicated distributional pattern within the Goto Islands but the former is distinguishable from the latter by their smaller male body size, relatively longer limbs, more developed toe webs, nuptial pad formation in breeding male, and advertisement call with repetition of short notes.

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© 2023 The Herpetological Society of Japan
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