A new frog of the genus Mantidactylus from the rainforests of north-eastern Madagascar, and its karyological affinities

Abstract

We describe a new species of the genus Mantidactylus found during field inventories in the northeastern rainforests of Madagascar. Mantidactylus salegy sp. n. reaches a snout-vent length of 45-50 mm, has evident dorsolateral ridges and whitish spots on the upper jaws (mainly in females). The vocal sacs in males are distinctly visible and paired subgular, without strongly inflatable areas recognizable between the blackish lateral skin flaps on the throat. This frog exhibits a mosaic of characters previously thought to be typical for either the subgenera Gephyromantis or Phylacomantis. Therefore, it is a crucial discovery towards better understanding of the relationships between the taxa included in these two subgenera, supporting previous molecular results which indicated their paraphyly. The call of M. salegy consists of a rapid series of 8-11 rattling notes emitted at 1000-3500 Hz. We also provide karyological data for M. salegy, and for several related species, M. granulatus, M. leucomaculatus, M. moseri, M. redimitus, M. zavona, and M. pseudoasper (attributed to the subgenus Phylacomantis) and M. luteus (subgenus Gephyromantis). In terms of general chromosome morphology and structure, NOR localisation and heterochromatin characteristics, M. salegy shows similarities to M. redimitus, M. zavona and M. leucomaculatus, all included within Phylacomantis. Our data confirm that NOR position is a phylogenetically informative character.