Taxonomic revision of south-eastern Australian giant burrowing frogs (Anura: Limnodynastidae: Heleioporus Gray) Author Mahony, Michael J. 0000-0002-1042-0848 Department of Biological Sciences, The University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia. Michael. mahony @ newcastle. edu. au; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 1042 - 0848 ichael.mahony@newcastle.edu.au Author Penman, Trent 0000-0002-5203-9818 Research and Development Division, Forests New South Wales, P. O Box 100 Beecroft, NSW 2119, Australia. & Current address: Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science, University of Melbourne, 4 Water Street, Creswick, Victoria 3363, Australia. https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 5203 - 9818 Author Bertozzi, Terry The South Australian Museum, North Terrace Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia. & School of Biological Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide SA 5005, Australia. Author Lemckert, Frank Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum, 1 William Street Sydney NSW 2010, Australia; Eco Logical Australia, Level 7, 19 Bolton Street, Newcastle, NSW 2300, Australia. Author Bilney, Rohan Forestry Corporation of NSW, PO Box 702 Eden, NSW 2551, Australia. Author Donnellan, Stephen C. 0000-0002-5448-3226 The South Australian Museum, North Terrace Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia. & Steve. Donnellan @ samuseum. sa. gov. au; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0002 - 5448 - 3226 onnellan@samuseum.sa.gov.au text Zootaxa 2021 2021-08-09 5016 4 451 489 journal article 10.11646/zootaxa.5016.4.1 1175-5326 5222411 4EB07508-887E-45BE-BE34-1C3FBEC92437 Heleioporus australiacus ( Shaw & Nodder, 1795 ) Diagnosis . Assigned to Heleioporus based on the generic definition of Lee (1967) and molecular phylogenetic evidence ( Morgan et al . 2007 ). Eastern Australian Heleioporus are phylogenetically quite distant from their western Australian congeners with divergence estimated in the late Oligocene to early Miocene ( Morgan et al . 2007 ). Eastern Australian Heleioporus are readily diagnosed morphologically from their western congeners by the presence of black spines capping the tubercles on the dorsum, sides, and throat, and the uniform chocolate dorsum with yellow or white spots restricted to the sides separating H. australiacus from all other species of Heleioporus except H. barycragus . The length of the metatarsal tubercle distinguishes H. australiacus (less than one half the length of the fourth toe) from H. barycragus (at least one-half the length of the fourth toe) ( Lee 1967 ). The advertisement calls of H. barycragus consist of a single note compared with multi-pulses in eastern Heleioporus (FrogID application). Contra to Lee (1967) , the number and distribution of the pre-orbital papillae in the anterior corner of the eye is quite variable in H. australiacus ( Fig. 8 ) and includes exemplars that closely resemble the condition in H. barycragus illustrated in Figure 5 of Lee (1967) . Heleioporus australiacus comprises two sub-species- H. a. australiacus new combination and H. a. flavopunctatus subsp. nov. which closely resemble each other in most morphological features but can be diagnosed from each other by two features in combination as follows. In H. a. australiacus the tubercles on the flanks have small central white- and yellow-coloured spots which rarely cover the entire tubercle or coalesce with adjacent spots; yellow or white spots occur on the raised tubercles surrounding the cloaca, but they do not coalesce to form a complete ring. In H. a. flavopunctatus tubercles on the flanks have cream and yellow-coloured spots that coalesce with adjacent spots; yellow or white spots on raised tubercles coalesce to from an almost complete ring surrounding the cloaca. Higher mean number of pulses of the note in the advertisement call of H. a. flavopunctatus . Apomorphic character states for at least 16 nucleotide sites in the mitochondrial ND4 gene diagnose the two taxa ( Table 2 ).