Rana adenopleura Boulenger, 1909

Chuaynkern, Yodchaiy, Ohler, Annemarie, Inthara, Chantip & Duengkae, Prateep, 2010, A Revision Of Species In The Subgenus Nidirana Dubois, 1992, With Special Attention To The Identity Of Specimens Allocated To Rana Adenopleura Boulenger, 1909, And Rana Chapaensis (Bourret, 1937) (Amphibia: Anura: Ranidae) From Thailand And Laos, Raffles Bulletin of Zoology 58 (2), pp. 291-310 : 302-303

Rana adenopleura Boulenger, 1909

Rana adenopleura Boulenger, 1909: 492 . [Syntypes: BM (“several specimens”). Type-locality: Fuhacho Village (= Maobu or Wucheng, Nantou County), altitude about 4,000 feet (ca. 1 219 m), Taiwan.]

Material examined. – Taiwan: Fushan Nature Reserve (NMNS 1512-1, 1512-3 to 11, 1512-14 to 23), Horisha (AMNH A 11618- 623), Pingtung (MCZ A-125372), Polisia Forosa (CAS 19693–696), Tai-Chung Hsien (Huan-Shan) (AMNH A 68242 –243), Yang Ming Mountain (CAS-SUA 20485–487) .

Taxonomic notes. – Rana adenopleura was described by Boulenger (1909) from four specimens collected at “Fuhacho”, Taiwan. Several authors regarded the frogs from continental China belonging to R. adenopleura and regarded the congeneric species from Fukien namely R. caldwelli as a synonym ( Pope, 1931; Liu, 1950; Kuramoto, 1985; Chou, 1999; Orlov et al., 2002). Based on published evidences, Dubois (1992) proposed to keep the name of R. adenopleura for Taiwan population and restricted the name of R. caldwelli for the Fujian population. As given above, the morphological and morphometrical comparisons confirm the differences between these two species as similar as the proposal of Dubois (1992).

Diagnostic characters. – Rana adenopleura is characterized by the following combination of characters: (1) body elongated; (2) SVL of adult males 48.5 ± 2.7 (44.6–53.9 mm), adult females 49.9 ± 1.9 (47.6–52.8 mm); (3) nostril directed laterally; (4) marginal grooves on fingers present or absent; (5) marginal grooves on toes present; (6) mid-dorsal stripe present or absent; (7) external vocal sac present; (8) nuptial pad present on thumb and first finger, forming a single pad; (9) suprabrachial gland present and large; (10) nest construction behavior absent; (11) spinules present on entire dorsum of head and body (in adult males); (12) spinules on ventrum present in adult males; (13) tibio-tarsal articulation reach snout tip or between eye to snout; (14) finger tips dilated; (15) toe tips dilated; (16) relative length of fingers II<I<IV<III; (17) relative length of toes I<II<III=V<IV; (18) pigmented eggs; (19) larval keratodont formula 1:1+1/1+1:2; (20) Calling: 2–4 loud “gai-gai-…” notes.

Distribution. — China (Taiwan).