Taxonomic re-assessment of the Australian and New Guinean green-eyed treefrogs Litoria eucnemis, L. genimaculata and L. serrata (Anura: Hylidae)
Author
Richards, Stephen J.
South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, 5000, Australia. Email: Steve. Richards @ samuseum. sa. gov. au, and Conservation International, P. O. Box 1024, Atherton, Queensland 4883, Australia.
Author
Hoskin, Conrad J.
Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, 0200, Australia. Email: conrad. hoskin @ anu. edu. au.
Author
Cunningham, Michael J.
School of Integrative Biology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, 4072, Qld, Australia. & Department of Zoology, University of the Free State, Private Bag X 13, Phuthaditjhaba, 9866, South Africa. Email: CunninghamMJ @ qwa. ufs. ac. za.
Author
Mcdonald, Keith
Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage, Wet Tropics District Office, P. O. Box 834, Atherton, Australia, 4883. Email: keith. mcdonald @ epa. qld. gov. au.
Author
Donnellan, Stephen C.
South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, 5000, Australia. Email: Steve. Richards @ samuseum. sa. gov. au, and Conservation International, P. O. Box 1024, Atherton, Queensland 4883, Australia. & Australian Centre for Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005.
onnellan@samuseum.sa.gov.au
text
Zootaxa
2010
2010-03-08
2391
1
33
46
https://biotaxa.org/Zootaxa/article/view/zootaxa.2391.1.2
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.2391.1.2
1175-5326
5308365
Litoria exophthalmia
Tyler, Davies and Aplin, 1986
.
Holotype
: AMS R114751. Type locality:
Haia village
(
6° 42' S
,
145° 00' E
),
South
Simbu Province
,
Papua New Guinea
.
In
their original description of this species the author’s remarked that it is ‘morphologically so distinctive that it is regarded the unique representative of a separate species-group’, and this impression was supported by
Menzies (2006)
who did not associate this species with any currently recognised species-group of
New Guinean
Litoria
.
We
have examined the type material and compared it with numerous specimens of the
Litoria genimaculata
from across
New
Guinea and find them to be morphologically nearly indistinguishable.
The
sole character that appears to distinguish preserved specimens of
L. exophthalmia
from
L. genimaculata
is its less welldeveloped dermal folds.
Molecular
genetic data support the distinctiveness of this taxon (Donnellan
et al
. unpublished) but both morphological and genetic information indicate close relationships with
L. genimaculata
and thus this species does not warrant treatment as a separate species-group (
Figure 4B
).