Scutiger wuguanfui Jiang, Rao, Yuan, Wang, Li, Hou, Che & Che, 2012, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Jiang, Ke
name: Rao, Dingqi
name: Yuan, Siqi
name: Wang, Jishan
name: Li, Pipeng
name: Hou, Mian
name: Che, Maihe
name: Che, Jing
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Amphibia
Anura
Megophryidae
Scutiger
Scutiger wuguanfui

description: Scutiger wuguanfui sp. nov.
(Figs. 1–2)
Holotype. KIZ 011111 (Fig. 3−4), an adult male from 62K of Medog (Muotuo County), Tibet (Xizang Autonomous Region), People’s Republic of China (29°42′33.6″N, 95°34′56.0″E, elevation 2705 m). Collected by Ke Jiang at night of 7 June 2011.
Paratypes. Four adult males: KIZ 011101, KIZ 011102, KIZ 011109, KIZ 011110, and one adult female: KIZ 011116. All of them were collected by Ke Jiang and Pipeng Li at the same date and locality as holotype.
Etymology. The species epithet is a patronym, dedicated to Prof. Guanfu Wu, following the Chinese style of placing the given name after the family name. Prof. Wu is a noted Chinese herpetologist, who contributed to the taxonomy, karyology, and osteology of amphibians and reptiles, especially on anura. Prof. Wu was a member of Herpetological Team under “The Comprehensive Scientific Expedition to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Chinese Academy of Sciences”, and did fieldwork in Medog for about one month in the summer of 1973, later he described the beautiful new treefrog Rhacophorus translineatus Wu, 1977 which collected from Medog. At present, Prof. Wu still works in Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, at the age of 77 years.
Suggested common name. Wu's Lazy Toad or Medog Lazy Toad.
Diagnosis. Scutiger wuguanfui sp. nov. was placed in the genus Scutiger by the following diagnosis: maxillary teeth absent; vomerine teeth absent; tympanum and tympanic ring absent entirely; pupil vertically elliptic; outer metatarsals united; pectoral and axillary gland very large and covered by black spines.
Scutiger wuguanfui sp. nov. is distinguished from all other species of Scutiger by the following combination of characters: (1) large adult size, female (SVL 116.7 mm) is much larger than male (males SVL 77.5−83.8 mm); (2) maxillary teeth absent; (3) male with a pair of pectoral glands and a pair of axillary glands, axillary glands similar to pectoral glands, all of them covered by black spines in breeding season; (4) in breeding male, nuptial spines on dorsal surface of firs and second fingers, and inner side of third finger; (5) male with an internal single subgular vocal sac, a pair of slit-like openings of vocal sac near corners of the mouth.
Description of the holotype (KIZ0 11111, adult male): SVL 77.5 mm; body stout, moderately slender at waist; head large, nearly was broad as long (HW/HL ratio 1.03), flat; snout rounded, slightly projecting beyond jaw; canthus rostralis obtuse, loreal region oblique and concave; internarial distance larger than distance from anterior margin of eye to nostril (IN/EN ratio 1.39); eye moderate (ED/HL ratio 0.37), its diameter larger than eye to nostril distance (ED/EN ratio 2.16); interorbital space flat, interorbital width less than upper eyelid width (IO/UE ratio 0.63); pupil vertical; tympanum and tympanic rim absent; a small knob on anterior edge of mandible; jaws without teeth; tongue oval, slightly emarginate behind, without papillae; choanae located against anterior border of palate, visible when viewed from below; vomerine teeth absent; an internal single subgular vocal sac present,, with a pair of slit-like opennings near corners of the mouth; supratympanic fold from posterior corner of orbit to shoul- der fold, distinctly developed.
Forelimbs long; forearm about as long as hand (FLL/HAL ratio 1.09), enlarged; fingers slender, free of web or dermal fringes; relative length of fingers:I≈II<IV<III; finger tips rounded, not dilated; subarticular tubercles indistinct; inner metacarpal tubercle large and prominent, outer metacarpal flat, but almost equal to the inner metacarpal; nuptial spines on dorsal surface of first and second fingers, and on inner side of third finger.
Hindlimbs moderately short (TBL/SVL ratio 0.37) (tibiotarsal articulation reaching the corner of mouth), heels widely separated when hind limbs are flexed and held perpendicular to body (TBL/FML ratio 0.82); foot much longer than shank (TFL/TBL ratio 1.69); toe tips rounded, without grooves; dermal fringes present but not development; feebly webbed; relative length of toes: I<II<III ≈ V<IV; subarticular tubercles indistinct; distinct ridges on undersurfaces of toes; inner metatarsal tubercle elliptical and prominent, outer metatarsal tubercle absent.
Skin rough, with flat warts on dorsolateral sides of back, rather flatter on back, each wart bearing several small black spines; upper lip with some small black spines; some small warts with black spine on the corner of mouth; few small warts or granules on dorsal sides of limbs; scattered small warts bearing black spine on upper arm, dorsal surface of thigh and leg, and inner side of foot; forearm with distinct warts, but without spines. Skin of throat, chest, belly and ventral sides of limbs smooth but numerous small black spines on the chin and upper chest. A pair of pectoral glands and a pair of axillary glands on breast, axillary glands similar to pectoral glands, all of them covered by dense black spines.
Coloration. Back, head and upper limbs dark brown, lighter on flanks; loreal region and supratympanic fold brownish-black; upper and lower lip light brown; ventral surface of belly grayish-brown, chin and ventral surface of limbs rather darker. Iris yellowish-brown with vertical pupil. In formalin or ethanol, back, head and upper limbs brownish-black; loreal region and supratympanic fold a little darker; ventral surface of belly grayish-brown, chin and ventral surface of limbs gray, chin and ventral surface of limbs a little darker than belly; iris black, pupil white.
Variation. Measurements of the type series are shown in Table 1. Individuals of the type series are generally uniform in morphology, except for the sexual dimorphism.
Sexual dimorphism. In male, a pair of pectoral glands and a pair of axillary glands present on breast, axillary glands similar to pectoral glands, all of them covered by black spines in breeding season; scattered warts with black spines on back, upper lip, chin, side of head and body, upper arm, dorsal side of thigh and leg, inner side of foot. Dorsal surface of first and second fingers, and inner side of third finger with nuptial black spines. Spines disappeared gradually after breeding season. Forearm of male much stronger than in female. In female, snout-vent length much bigger than in males, other measurement ratios (ratios to SVL), is similar to males, except NS and HW, slightly wider than males; FLL, HAL, FOL, IMT, and TFL, slightly shorter than males (Table 1). Female without spine on whole body, skin smoother, the warts flater than males.
Tadpoles. The tadpoles had elongate bodies and muscular tails with narrow tail fins (Fig. 5). The tail length is about 1.5 times body length and about as high as the body. The tadpole has clasping mounth parts with strong jaw sheath. The labial tooth row formula is I: 3–3/3–3: 1 at stage 36. In life tadpole is dark grey, getting slightly paler in preservative. The tadpoles live in still water and remain at the bottom of the water. A detailed description of the tadpole will be published separately.
Distribution. This species is currently known only from the type locality (Fig. 6).
Ecological notes. Figure 7 shows the habitat and microhabitat of the type locality. All specimens were collected in a sluggish stream in mixed broadleaf-conifer forest at an elevation of 2705 m. The sluggish and shallow stream was near the road, with few big stones and with many fallen trees, leaf litter and weeds. Scutiger wuguanfui sp. nov. hid under the logs in daytime, was active after sundown, always squatted on leaf litter or under the fallen trees, peeped head out. The loud call of male is a toneless croaking like“ong...ong...ong...” and can be heared nightlong, even sometimes in the afternoon. Three other amphibian species were found at the site, including Liurana xizangensis (Hu), Nanorana medogensis (Fei & Ye), and Scutiger nyingchiensis Fei. Scutiger wuguanfui sp. nov. and S. nyingchiensis reproduced at the same period and shared the same mating places, but the egg masses of the former are bigger, based on observation in the field. The black spines of male fade away after breeding season.
Comparisons. The most obvious differences of Scutiger wuguanfui sp. nov. distinguishing it from other known species of Scutiger are summarized in Table 2. Most species of Scutiger without vocal sac, should be attributed in part to the high-altitude distributions. It is not easy to determine this character by only external observation in the genus Scutiger, but easily by the observation on openning of vocal sac in mouth. Eminently, three species of the genus Scutiger with vocal sac are known. Scutiger wuguanfui sp. nov. with an internal single subgular vocal sac; Scutiger gongshanensis with a pair of internal subgular vocal sacs. The vocal sac type of Scutiger adungensis Dubois is currently unknown (Dubois 1979). This organ might enable these three species having some differences of sexual behavior from congeners.
In the males of Scutiger, the nuptial spines on breast, belly, fingers or other parts are important and rather stable characters in breeding season. All available references described these characters (Delorme & Dubois 2001; Dubois 1973, 1979; Fei et al. 2009), including one pair or two pairs of spine patches on breast, spines on the first and second fingers or the first, second and third finger, spine patches present or absent on belly.
Scutiger wuguanfui sp. nov. is similar to Scutiger bhutanensis, Scutiger nepalensis, Scutiger muliensis and Scutiger tuberculatus. Except the different characters shown in Table 1, Scutiger wuguanfui sp. nov. differs from S. bhutanensis, S. nepalensis and S. tuberculatus by with flatter warts on back and dorsolateral sides of back (developed in S. bhutanensis, S. nepalensis and S. tuberculatus); Scutiger wuguanfui sp. nov. differs from S. muliensis by without exiguous furrows on back and belly (present at S. muliensis).
description: Published as part of Jiang, Ke, Rao, Dingqi, Yuan, Siqi, Wang, Jishan, Li, Pipeng, Hou, Mian, Che, Maihe & Che, Jing, 2012, A new species of the genus Scutiger (Anura: Megophryidae) from southeastern Tibet, China, pp. 29-40 in Zootaxa 3388 on pages 30-38, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.213659