A NEW LEAF-LITTER FROG OF Leptobrachella (ANURA: MEGOPHRYIDAE) FROM TAY CON LINH MOUNTAIN, NORTHERN VIETNAM

Abstract

A new Leptobrachella species is described from Vietnam based on six specimens collected from Tay Con Linh Mountain, Ha Giang Province, Vietnam. Morphologically, the new species can be distinguished from its congeners based on the combination of the following characteristics: size medium (SVL 21.3 – 24.4 in males); skin on the entire dorsum relatively smooth with some small tubercles; webbing between toes and fingers absent with weak lateral fringes; dorsum orangish-yellow with pink pigments, a gray patch between eye in a triangle shape and a gray patch in Λ shape in the center of the back, in the posterior of dorsum with a pattern, which seems to connect with the bars on the upper side of thigh and tibia when the hindlimbs shrank; ventral side of body smooth, throat pinkish-white and chest cream white with some gray blobs on the belly and grayish blobs on the throat; lower jaw gray with white spots, iris bicolor. The genetic distance between the new species and other Leptobrachella species ranges from 8.15 to 10.43% (compared to L. namdongensis and L. puhoatensis, respectively).