Amolops shihaitaoi Wang, Li, Du, Hou & Yu, 2022

Siliyavong, Sonephet, Hoang, Ngoc Van, Nguyen, Tao Thien, Nguyen, Truong & Pham, Anh Van, 2023, New record and dietary ecology of a poorly known frog, Amolops shihaitaoi Wang, Li, Du, Hou & Yu, 2022 (Amphibia, Anura, Ranidae), from Ha Giang Province, Vietnam, Biodiversity Data Journal 11, pp. 104316-104316 : 104316

Amolops shihaitaoi Wang, Li, Du, Hou & Yu, 2022

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: LV 53 ; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: F7C18AED-1D84-568E-ACB1-E231A190C353; Taxon: scientificNameID: Amolops shihaitaoi; scientificName: Amolops shihaitaoi; class: Amphibia ; order: Anura ; family: Ranidae ; genus: Amolops ; specificEpithet: shihaitaoi; scientificNameAuthorship: Wang , Li , Du , Hou & Yu, 2022; Location : country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Ha Giang; county: Ha Giang; municipality: Phuong Do ; locality: near Lung Vai Village ; verbatimElevation: 850 m; verbatimLatitude: 22°49'50''N; verbatimLongitude: 104°53'51''E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS84; Event: eventDate: August 08; eventTime: 2022; eventRemarks: collected by N.V. Hoang and S. Silyavong; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Amphibians; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: LV 57 ; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 19DB3F80-2BF4-506C-9B98-59A11463C6B3; Taxon: scientificNameID: Amolops shihaitaoi; scientificName: Amolops shihaitaoi; class: Amphibia ; order: Anura ; family: Ranidae ; genus: Amolops ; specificEpithet: shihaitaoi; scientificNameAuthorship: Wang , Li , Du , Hou & Yu, 2023; Location : country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Ha Giang; county: Ha Giang; municipality: Phuong Do ; locality: near Lung Vai Village ; verbatimElevation: 850 m; verbatimLatitude: 22°49'50''N; verbatimLongitude: 104°53'51''E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS84; Event: eventDate: August 08; eventTime: 2022; eventRemarks: collected by N.V. Hoang and S. Silyavong; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Amphibians; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: LV 34 ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 417C2CA5-B977-522E-A43C-242460636B42; Taxon: scientificNameID: Amolops shihaitaoi; scientificName: Amolops shihaitaoi; class: Amphibia ; order: Anura ; family: Ranidae ; genus: Amolops ; specificEpithet: shihaitaoi; scientificNameAuthorship: Wang , Li , Du , Hou & Yu, 2024; Location : country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Ha Giang; county: Ha Giang; municipality: Phuong Do ; locality: near Lung Vai Village ; verbatimElevation: 850 m; verbatimLatitude: 22°49'50''N; verbatimLongitude: 104°53'51''E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS84; Event: eventDate: August 08; eventTime: 2022; eventRemarks: collected by N.V. Hoang and S. Silyavong; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Amphibians; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: LV 59 ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: A1C87F5B-3270-5C69-9760-39D16CB01387; Taxon: scientificNameID: Amolops shihaitaoi; scientificName: Amolops shihaitaoi; class: Amphibia ; order: Anura ; family: Ranidae ; genus: Amolops ; specificEpithet: shihaitaoi; scientificNameAuthorship: Wang , Li , Du , Hou & Yu, 2025; Location : country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Ha Giang; county: Ha Giang; municipality: Phuong Do ; locality: near Lung Vai Village ; verbatimElevation: 850 m; verbatimLatitude: 22°49'50''N; verbatimLongitude: 104°53'51''E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS84; Event: eventDate: August 08; eventTime: 2022; eventRemarks: collected by N.V. Hoang and S. Silyavong; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Amphibians; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen

Description

Morphological characteristics of the specimens from Ha Giang Province, Vietnam, agreed with the description of Wang et al. (2022): SVL 33.2-33.6 mm in males (n = 2), 42.2-43.8 mm in females (n = 2); head wider than long; snout short, round; nostril lateral, wider than interorbital distance and upper eyelid width; tympanum smaller than half eye diameter; vomerine teeth present; vocal openings absent in males. Forelimb robust; relative finger lengths I <II <IV <III; fingers free of webbing; tips of fingers expanded into discs; circummarginal groove on disc of the first finger present; palmar tubercles two, oval; nuptial pads present in males. Hind-limb long, thigh shorter than tibia; toes fully webbed, tips of toes expanded into discs; inner metatarsal tubercle distinct; tarsal fold and tarsal glands absent; tibiotarsal articulation reaching to snout when limb adpressed along body (see measurements in Table 1 ). The specimens from Vietnam slightly differ from the type series from China in having spines on nuptial pads not clearly distinct in males and this may be due to the difference in sampling time (in August in Vietnam and in June in China).

Skin. Dorsal surface rough and granular with denser small translucent, dorsolateral folds absent; temporal and loreal region with small white spines; supratympanic fold present; ventral smooth.

Colouration in life. Dorsal surface olive-brown with dark brown patches and dark irregular transverse bars on limbs; flanks olive-brown with warts dark or white; ventral surface white, ventral surface of limbs cream (Fig. 2 ).

Distribution

In Vietnam, this species was previously recorded from Lao Cai, Cao Bang and Vinh Phuc Provinces ( Wang et al. 2022). This is the first record of the species in Ha Giang Province. Elsewhere, this species is known from southern China ( Wang et al. 2022).

Ecology

Specimens of A. shihaitaoi were found on the cliff of waterfalls and large rocks in the streams between 20:00 and 23:00 h. The surrounding habitat was evergreen forest of large hardwood and shrub (Fig. 2 ).

Diet

A total of 40 adult individuals (20 males and 20 females) of A. shihaitaoi were collected from Ha Giang Province for stomach flushing, of which three frogs (or 7.5%) had empty stomachs. We identified 529 prey items, including 515 items of animals and 14 unidentified items. Males had 190 prey items, while females had 339 prey items.

The number of prey items per individual ranged 2-40 items (average 14.69 ± 9.19 items). The number of prey items in males ranged 2-40 (average 11.18 ± 8.41 items), while in females, it ranged 4-35 (average 17.84 ± 8.90 items) ( Kendall’s tau b: tau = 0.355, P = 0.004) (Table 2 ).

Mean prey item length was 5.43 ± 3.99 mm (ranging from 1.00 to 40.00 mm) and mean prey item width was 1.64 ± 1.39 mm (ranging from 1.00 to 40.00 mm) in both sexes.

Mean prey item length in males was 4.48 ± 3.30 mm (ranging from 1.00 to 30.00 mm) and ranged from 1.00 to 40.00 mm in females (average 5.95 ± 4.24 mm); those were significantly different from each other (F 1,528 = 1.449, P = 0.018) as well as mean prey item width in males being 1.60 ± 1.69 mm (ranging from 0.4 to 10.00 mm) and ranging from 0.40 to 7.00 mm in females (average 1.66 ± 1.19 mm); those were significantly different from each other (F 1,413 = 2.018, P = 0.001).

The average volume per individual was 242.73 ± 248.19 mm3 (ranging from 10.71 to 848.06 mm3). In which, the average volume per male individual was 140.57 ± 210.38 mm3 (ranging from 10.71 to 688.21 mm3) and 334.16 ± 248.55 mm3 (ranging from 36.85 to 848.06 mm3) in female; those were significantly different from each other (tau = 0.472, P <0.01) (Table 2 ).

There was not a positive correlation between the frog SVL and the minimum prey volume (tau = 0.47, P = 0.672) (Fig. 3 A), while there were correlations between the frog SVL and the maximum prey item volume (tau = 0.356, P <0.01), mean prey item volume (tau = 0.354, P = 0.01) and the total prey volume (tau = 0.351, P <0.01) (Fig. 3 B-D).

We identified 35 different categories of prey and other unidentified subjects in the stomachs of A. shihaitaoi with insects being the main food component, including 11 orders and other invertebrate groups, namely Opiliones , Araneae , Crustacea and Diplopoda (Table 3 ).

The most commonly consumed prey items were Formicidae (15.12%), followed by Acrididae (13.42%), Mantidae (9.64%), Araneae (9.45%) and other Lepidoptera (8.70%). While the most frequently foraged prey group was Lepidoptera other (15.28%), followed by Formicidae (14.58%), Acrididae (11.11%), Araneae (8.33%) and Mantidae (4.17%). In the comparisons by the IRI, Formicidae (11.5%), Acrididae (11.0%), other Lepidoptera (8.5%), Araneae (8.0%) and Mantidae (7.1%) were identified as the most important prey groups (Table 3 ).

The total dietary breadth of A. shihaitaoi from Vietnam was 13.22 ( Simpson’s index of diversity) and Shannon’s evenness was 0.82. Adult females (19 prey categories) consumed more diverse prey than adult males (16 prey categories). The diversity index of prey categories of adult males (11.11 with an evenness index of 0.41) was also lower than that of adult females (11.48 with an evenness index of 0.61) (Table 4 ).

There was an overlap of more than 65% in the diet of males and females. The trophic spectrum of males consisted of 24 prey categories, the most important groups (with IRI> 6) being Araneae , Lepidoptera , Blattidae , Hepialidae , Formicidae and Acrididae , while the trophic spectrum of females comprised 26 prey categories, with Formicidae , Acrididae , Mantidae , Gryllotalpidae and Coleoptera being the most important prey categories.

Byrrhidae , Tenebrionidae , Forficulidae , Anthomyiidae , Mycetophilidae , Baetidae , Braconidae , Noctuidae and Leptoceridae were found exclusively in the diet of males, whereas Opiliones , Crustacea, Diplopoda, other Hymenoptera , Gryllotalpidae , Gryllidae , Tetrigidae , Aleyrodidae , Cercopidae , Tettigoniidae and Orthoptera were found only in the diet of females. Despite these differences, Formicidae and Acrididae were identified as the most important prey categories for both males and females (Fig. 4 ).

Figures

Figure 2. Adult male (Left) and natural habitat (Right) and of Amolops shihaitaoi in Ha Giang Province, northern Vietnam.

Figure 3. Relationships between the frog SVL and the minimum (A), maximum (B) and the mean (C) prey item volume and the total prey volume (D). Dots: Males; Open triangles: Females; Vmin = minimum prey item volume (mm 3); Vmax = maximum prey item volume (mm 3); Vmean = mean prey item volume (mm 3); Vtotal = the total prey volume (mm 3).

Figure 4. Importance indices (Ix) for prey categories consumed by males (cross) vs. females (black) of Amolops shihaitaoi in Vietnam. For: Formicidae, Acr: Acrididae, Lep: Lepidoptera other, Ara: Araneae, Uni: Unidentified, Bla: Blattidae, Hep: Hepialidae, Man: Mantidae, Col: Coleoptera other, Gra: Gracillariidae, Lept: Leptophlebiidae, Blab: Blaberidae, Bre: Brentidae, Hem: Hemiptera other, Geo: Geometridae, Gry: Gryllotalpidae, Gryl: Gryllidae, Tetr: Tetrigidae, Tet: Tettigoniidae, Opi: Opiliones, Ort: Orthoptera other, Hym: Hymenoptera other, Ale: Aleyrodidae, Cer: Cercopidae, Cru: Crustacea, Dip: Diplopoda, Byr: Byrrhidae, Ten: Tenebrionidae, Forf: Forficulidae, Ant: Anthomyiidae, Myc: Mycetophilidae, Bae: Baetidae, Brac: Braconidae, Noc: Noctuidae, Lepto: Leptoceridae.