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Link to original content: https://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4370.1.2
A new miniature Melanesian Forest Frog (Ceratobatrachidae: Cornufer ) from New Britain Island, constituting the first record of the subgenus Batrachylodes from outside of the Solomon Archipelago | Zootaxa
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Type: Article
Published: 2018-01-09
Page range: 23–44
Abstract views: 178
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A new miniature Melanesian Forest Frog (Ceratobatrachidae: Cornufer) from New Britain Island, constituting the first record of the subgenus Batrachylodes from outside of the Solomon Archipelago

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Dyche Hall, 1345 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, KS 66045-7561, USA.
Herpetology Department, South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, S.A. 5000, Australia.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Dyche Hall, 1345 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, KS 66045-7561, USA. Current address: Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University, 203 South Martin Jischke Dr, West Lafayette, IN 47907-1971, USA.
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas, Dyche Hall, 1345 Jayhawk Blvd, Lawrence, KS 66045-7561, USA.
Amphibia Bismarck Archipelago Papua New Guinea Southwest Pacific Sticky-toed frogs advertisement calls

Abstract

We describe a new species of Cornufer, subgenus Batrachylodes, from high-elevation forests of New Britain Island in the Bismarck Archipelago of Eastern Melanesia. The new species, Cornufer exedrus sp. nov., is a biogeographically disjunct member of the Batrachylodes clade, representing the first record of the subgenus from outside of the Solomon Archipelago. The new species is a small terrestrial form from dense, closed-canopy forests above 1500 meters elevation in the Nakanai Mountains of eastern New Britain. It differs from its closest relatives, the other members of the subgenus Batrachylodes, on the basis of its minute body size, degree of digital disc expansion, reduced subdigital tuberculation, color pattern, and other traits related to its small size. We also provide a description of the new species’ simple advertisement call. The diversity of ceratobatrachid frogs of the Bismarck Archipelago is most likely still underestimated despite several recent surveys. Our understanding of evolutionary trends and species boundaries in the subgenus Batrachylodes currently is hampered by lack of genetic samples and call recordings corresponding to voucher specimens of the endemic species of Bougainville Island.

 

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