Quasipaa acanthophora Dubois and Ohler 2009
Creators: name: Nguyen, Vien Hong Thi
name: Pham, Anh Van
name: Nguyen, Truong Quang
name: Tran, Tung Thanh
name: Ziegler, Thomas
name: Pham, Cuong The
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Amphibia
Anura
Dicroglossidae
Quasipaa
Quasipaa acanthophora

description: Quasipaa acanthophora Dubois and Ohler, 2009
Materials
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: IEBR A. 6385; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 9786FF3A-6233-5445-8488-A95B369871F1; Taxon: scientificName: Quasipaa acanthophora; class: Amphibia; order: Anura; family: Dicroglossidae; genus: Quasipaa; specificEpithet: acanthophora; scientificNameAuthorship: Dubois and Ohler, 2009; Location: country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Quang Ninh; locality: Dong Son-Ky Thuong Nature Reserve; verbatimElevation: 537 m; verbatimLatitude: 21°7.404'N; verbatimLongitude: 107°8.706'E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS 84; Event: eventDate: 16 March 2024; eventRemarks: collected by Ngo N. H, Do Q. H., and Nguyen N. T.; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Amphibians; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen
Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: IEBR A. 6386; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 404F9789-AD42-59AA-8123-569FB9D50308; Taxon: scientificName: Quasipaa acanthophora; class: Amphibia; order: Anura; family: Dicroglossidae; genus: Quasipaa; specificEpithet: acanthophora; scientificNameAuthorship: Dubois and Ohler, 2009; Location: country: Vietnam; countryCode: VN; stateProvince: Quang Ninh; locality: Dong Son-Ky Thuong Nature Reserve; verbatimElevation: 640 m; verbatimLatitude: 21°7.410'N; verbatimLongitude: 107°8.706'E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: WGS 84; Event: eventDate: 16 March 2024; eventRemarks: collected by Ngo N. H, Do Q. H., and Nguyen N. T.; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Amphibians; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen
Description
Two sequences (GenBank accession numbers PV 541279 and PV 541280) of Quasipaa specimens from Quang Ninh Province were similar (99.2 % and 99.5 %, respectively) to the available sequence of Q. acanthophora (accession number OP 326694 from type locality, Mau Son Mountain, Lang Son Province) in GenBank.
Morphological characters of the specimens from Bac Giang, Lang Son and Quang Ninh Provinces agreed well with the descriptions of Dubois and Ohler (2009) and Pham et al. (2020): Size large, SVL 83.32–123.40 mm (103.41 ± 11.46 mm, n = 10), MW 31.10–45.50 mm (38.99 ± 4.17 mm, n = 10) and body mass (BM): 51.90–152.40 g, 110.52 ± 35.97 g, n = 10) in males; SVL 70.5–109.00 mm; 88.29 ± 12.97 mm, n = 17), MW 27.90–43.70 mm (35.09 ± 4.79 mm, n = 17) and body mass (BM 32.40–140.00 g, 73.39 ± 37.44 g, n = 17) in females; and SVL 42.3–69.93 mm (53.40 ± 9.08 mm, n = 11), MW 17.3–29.0 mm (21.51 ± 3.79 mm, n = 11) and body mass (BM): 5.3–31.3 g, 13.23 ± 8.46 g, n = 11) in subadults. There were strong positive correlations between the morphological measurements (SVL and MW: r = 0.981, p <0.001; SVL and BM: r = 0.940; p <0.001; MW and BM: r = 0.936, p <0.001) (Fig. 1).
Morphological characteristics of two individuals collected from Dong Son – Ky Thuong Nature Reserve, Quang Ninh Province for taxonomic identification: A large frog, habitus robust with enlarged head (HL 37.4 mm, HW 39.8 mm in male and HL 38.4 mm, HW 42.8 mm in female); snout round anteriorly in dorsal view, projecting beyond lower jaw; rostral length greater than eye diameter (RL 12.3 mm, ED 11.5 mm in male and RL 12.9 mm, ED 12.7 mm in female); nostrils oval, closer to eye than to the tip of snout (NS 6.9 mm, EN 5.7 mm in male and NS 6.7 mm, EN 6.3 mm in female); internarial distance wider than interorbital distance and upper eyelid width (IND 9.3 mm, IOD 7.5 mm, UEW 7.7 mm in male and IND 9.2 mm, IOD 8.1 mm, UEW 7.9 mm in female) (Table 1); tympanum indistinct; vomerine teeth in two oblique ridges; tongue cordiform, notched posteriorly; external vocal sac absent.
Fore-limb: arms short; upper arm length (UAL 22.4 mm in male, 21.6 in female), forearm length (FAL 46.2 mm in male and FAL 47.7 mm in female); relative finger lengths: II <I <IV <III; fingers free of webbing; sides of fingers II and III with narrow dermal ridge; tips of fingers swollen, not expanded; subarticular tubercles prominent, round, formula 1, 1, 2, 2; inner metatarsal tubercle round; outer metatarsal tubercle elongate; Finger I with nuptial pad in male (Table 1).
Hind-limb: tibia length longer than thigh length (FeL 46.6 mm, TbL 50.1 mm in male and FeL 49.8 mm, TbL 51.7 mm in female); tips of toes swollen, round; relative length of toes: I <II <V <III <IV; toes fully webbed to distal end of terminal phalanx; dermal ridge present on outer sides of toes I and V; subarticular tubercles prominent, oval, formula 1, 1, 2, 3, 2; inner metatarsal tubercle elongate; outer metatarsal tubercle absent (Table 1).
Skin texture in life. Dorsal skin shagreened with regularly disposed glandular warts on back; upper part of flanks shagreened with elongated glandular warts; supratympanic fold prominent, from eye to above arm; belly and ventral surface of thigh smooth. Male with nuptial spines present on prepollex and Finger I (two separate pads), fingers II and III and chest (Figs 2, 3).
Colouration in life. Iris pale copper, dorsum and upper part of flanks brown; lower part of flanks light brown with whitish-yellow marbling; throat and chest brown with whitish marblings; dorsal surface of limbs brown with dark crossbars; belly immaculate white; toe webbing dark brown (Figs 2, 3).
Distribution
In Vietnam, this species was recorded in three provinces: Lang Son (Mau Son Mountain), Bac Giang (Tay Yen Tu Nature Reserve) and Quang Ninh (Hai Ha District) (Dubois and Ohler 2009, Hecht et al. 2013, Pham et al. 2020). This is the first record of the species from Dong Son – Ky Thuong Nature Reserve in Quang Ninh Province.
Ecology
In Dong Son – Ky Thuong Nature Reserve, frogs were observed between 19: 00 h and 23: 00 h in the headwaters of rocky streams. They were found in the water or on the ground of stream banks at elevations between 150 and 700 m a. s. l. The surrounding habitat was secondary forest of large, medium and small hardwoods mixed with shrubs and vines. Air temperatures at the sites ranged from 24.2–29.8 ° C and relative humidity was 72–86 %.
Diet
For stomach flushing, 38 individuals (10 males, 17 females and 11 subadults) of Q. acanthophora were collected in Lang Son, Bac Giang and Quang Ninh Provinces. We identified 446 prey items of Q. acanthophora, including 138 prey items in males, 198 prey items in females and 110 prey items in subadults.
The number of prey items per individual was 1-29 items (average 11.74 ± 7.19 items, n = 38). Mean prey item length was 7.92 ± 7.84 mm (ranging from 1.80 to 85.00 mm, n = 446) and mean prey item width was 3.25 ± 2.69 mm (ranging from 0.50 to 30.00 mm, n = 446). The average volume per individual was 265.74 ± 616.03 mm 3 (ranging from 7.06 to 3,286.31 mm 3, n = 38) (Table 2).
There was no positive correlation between the frog SVL and the minimum prey volume (Kendall’s tau b: tau = - 0.085, P = 0.500), mean prey item volume (tau = - 0.024, P = 0.839), maximum prey item volume (tau = - 0.028, P = 0.808) and the total prey volume (tau = - 0.04, P = 0.971) (Fig. 4).
We identified 27 categories in the stomachs of Q. acanthophora. Insects are the main food component of Q. acanthophora, with 21 categories (Blattidae, Carabidae, Elateridae, Hybosoridae, Hydraenidae, Scarabaeidae, Chrysomelidae, Lucanidae, Meloidae, Hydrophilidae, larvae of Coleoptera, other Coleoptera, Forficulidae, Tipulidae, Pentatomidae, Formicidae, Termitidae, Acrididae, Gryllidae, Tettigoniidae, Phasmatodea, Diapheromeridae) and other invertebrates (Myriapoda, Uropygi, Decapoda and Oligochaeta) (Table 3). The most number of prey items was Blattidae (46.64 %, n = 446), followed by other Coleoptera (8.97 %), Acrididae (5.61 %) and Formicidae (4.93 %), while the most frequently foraged prey group was also Blattidae (24.77 %), followed by Formicidae (11.01 %), other Coleoptera (10.09 %), Elateridae and larvae Coleoptera (7.34 %). In the comparisons by the IRI, Blattidae (32.67 %), followed by Gryllidae (9.11 %), other Coleoptera (6.57 %), Decapoda (5.72 %) and Formicidae (5.61 %) were evaluated as the most important diet groups of Q. acanthophora (Table 3).
description: Published as part of Nguyen, Vien Hong Thi, Pham, Anh Van, Nguyen, Truong Quang, Tran, Tung Thanh, Ziegler, Thomas & Pham, Cuong The, 2025, New record and diet of the endangered Mau Son Spiny Frog (Quasipaa acanthophora Dubois and Ohler, 2009) in Vietnam, pp. e 154204 in Biodiversity Data Journal 13 on page e154204, DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.13.e154204