SPHENOPHRYNE - American Museum of Natural History
SPHENOPHRYNE - American Museum of Natural History
SPHENOPHRYNE - American Museum of Natural History
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2000 ZWEIFEL: PARTITION OF <strong>SPHENOPHRYNE</strong><br />
65<br />
fold, figs. 58, 59. Kuramoto and Allison<br />
(1989) illustrated the karyotype.<br />
CALL: Frogs <strong>of</strong> the presumably disjunct<br />
population in mountains southeast <strong>of</strong> Wau utter<br />
a loud, single-note call, being highpitched<br />
for a frog <strong>of</strong> its size (fig. 77A). I have<br />
a recording made by Allen Allison on the<br />
Bulldog Road, 2600 m, about 15 km southeast<br />
<strong>of</strong> Wau, Morobe Province, at about 2000<br />
hours on April 30, 1982, copy on AMNH<br />
Herpetology tape reel 244. Six calls (notes)<br />
average 0.235 sec long (0.22–0.26), with a<br />
mean interval between call initiations <strong>of</strong> 3.98<br />
sec (3.5–5.1). The notes are unpulsed, with<br />
the dominant frequency beginning at about<br />
1300 Hz, rising gradually to about 1700 Hz,<br />
and descending slightly to the end.<br />
COMPARISONS WITH OTHER SPECIES: Adults<br />
<strong>of</strong> this large species can be confused only<br />
with the sibling Liophryne similis (see the<br />
account <strong>of</strong> that species for comparisons). Juveniles<br />
<strong>of</strong> rhododactyla could be confused<br />
with the much smaller but similar sympatric<br />
species, Austrochaperina brevipes (see the<br />
account <strong>of</strong> that species for comparisons).<br />
HABITAT AND HABITS: Almost nothing is<br />
published specifically referring to the habitat<br />
and habits <strong>of</strong> rhododactyla. Zweifel and Allison<br />
(1982: 9, Allison’s observations) referred<br />
to rhododactyla as a terrestrial species<br />
‘‘that roams the forest floor at night,’’ and<br />
Green and Simon (1986) characterized rhododactyla<br />
as terrestrial. Archbold and Rand<br />
(1935) described the forest and terrain near<br />
the summit <strong>of</strong> Mt. Tafa, where rhododactyla<br />
has been taken.<br />
DISTRIBUTION: Moderately high elevations<br />
south <strong>of</strong> Wau and in the Owen Stanley<br />
Mountains (fig. 34). Dr. Allison informed me<br />
that he has collected this species as low as<br />
2200 m on Bulldog Road (a World War II<br />
supply road, now in disuse, that crossed the<br />
divide southwest <strong>of</strong> Wau), and has heard it<br />
at the same elevation south-southeast <strong>of</strong><br />
Wau. A specimen supposedly from the outskirts<br />
<strong>of</strong> Wau at 1200 m, far below the altitudinal<br />
limit otherwise known and in an area<br />
where much collecting has produced no other<br />
specimens <strong>of</strong> this species, is almost certainly<br />
mislabeled, as presumably is a hylid frog <strong>of</strong><br />
higher elevations (Litoria angiana) bearing<br />
the same locality data from the same collector.<br />
Undoubtedly the range in the Owen Stan-<br />
ley Mountains, suggested by the area above<br />
2400 m (fig. 34), is much more extensive<br />
than the known localities might seem to imply.<br />
LOCALITY RECORDS AND SPECIMENS EXAM-<br />
INED: PAPUA NEW GUINEA: Central Prov.:<br />
Mt. Victoria (BMNH 1947.2.12.47–49, syntypes);<br />
Mt. Tafa, 2600 m (BMNH 1935.<br />
3.9.123). Morobe Prov.: Bulldog Road, 15–<br />
17 km S, about 1 km W Wau, ca. 2400–2700<br />
m (BPBM 6264, 6265, 6325, 6326, 6344,<br />
9641–9643, 9652–9654, 9662, 9793 (C&S);<br />
UPNG 4119, 4886, 4887, 5329–5335); Kunai<br />
Creek, Wau, 1200 m (BPBM 5520, locality<br />
questionable; see above).<br />
REMARKS: Liophryne rhododactyla had remained<br />
a little known species for the nearly<br />
100 years since its initial description until the<br />
activities <strong>of</strong> collectors and researchers working<br />
out <strong>of</strong> the Wau Ecology Institute provided<br />
a generous sample <strong>of</strong> specimens. The only<br />
specimen additional to those <strong>of</strong> the type series<br />
had been one collected by Evelyn<br />
Cheeseman on Mt. Tafa in the mid-1930s and<br />
reported by Parker (1936).<br />
Liophryne rubra, new species<br />
Figure 35<br />
HOLOTYPE: UPNG 9361 (field no. 97), collected<br />
by Tamari Mara on October 3–9,<br />
1995, in Western Highlands Province, Papua<br />
New Guinea, about 3 km east <strong>of</strong> Mt. Opio<br />
(53551S, 1444725E) at an elevation <strong>of</strong><br />
2180 m.<br />
PARATYPE: UPNG 4147, collected by G.<br />
George in July 1973 in the Kubor Range,<br />
Western Highlands Province, Papua New<br />
Guinea. No more specific data are available.<br />
ETYMOLOGY: The Latin adjective rubra refers<br />
to the red color in life.<br />
DIAGNOSIS: ALiophryne <strong>of</strong> moderate size<br />
(SVL about 37 mm in two specimens), similar<br />
in size to L. dentata and L. schlaginhaufeni<br />
but differing from these in its shorter<br />
eye–naris distance (EN/SVL maximum<br />
0.076 vs. minima <strong>of</strong> 0.082 and 0.091 in dentata<br />
and schlaginhaufeni), wider average internarial<br />
span (mean IN/SVL 0.134 vs. maxima<br />
<strong>of</strong> 0.109 and 0.116), and lack <strong>of</strong> scapular<br />
skin folds. L. dentata differs additionally in<br />
having a postocular skin fold that curves