Limnonectes utara Matsui, Belabut & Ahmad, 2014

Suwannapoom, Chatmongkon, Jiang, Ke, Wu, Yun-He, Pawangkhanant, Parinya, Lorphengsy, Sengvilay, Nguyen, Tan Van, Poyarkov, Nikolay A. & Che, Jing, 2021, First records of the fanged frogs Limnonectes bannaensis Ye, Fei & Jiang, 2007 and L. utara Matsui, Belabut & Ahmad, 2014 (Amphibia: Anura: Dicroglossidae) in Thailand, Biodiversity Data Journal 9, pp. 67253-67253 : 67253

Limnonectes utara Matsui, Belabut & Ahmad, 2014

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-01706 ; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Limnonectes utara; class: Amphibia ; order: Anura ; family: Dicroglossidae ; genus: Limnonectes ; specificEpithet: utara; scientificNameAuthorship: Matsui , Belabut & Ahmad, 2014; Location : country: Thailand; countryCode: TL; stateProvince: Yala; locality: Bannang Sata ; verbatimElevation: 680; verbatimLatitude: 6°11'39.5"N; verbatimLongitude: 101°18'28.2"E; Event: eventDate: 21 August, 2018; fieldNotes: P. Pawangkhanant, C. Suwannapoom; Record Level: language: en; collectionCode: Amphibians; basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-01706; individualCount: 1; sex: female; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Limnonectes utara; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen; dynamicProperties: collection date, collector and Location as the AUP-01705 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-01707; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Limnonectes utara; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen; dynamicProperties: collection date, collector and Location as the AUP-01705 Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: AUP-01708; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; Taxon: scientificName: Limnonectes utara; Record Level: basisOfRecord: Preserved Specimen; dynamicProperties: collection date, collector and Location as the AUP-01705

Description

Morphological characters of specimens from Yala Province agreed with the description by Matsui et al. (2014): Body size moderate, with males SVL of 70.7 mm (n = 2) and females SVL of 46.1 mm (n = 2). The complete morphometric description of each specimen is presented in Suppl. material 2. Head slightly longer than wide (males HL of 32.8 mm, HW 29.8 mm, n = 2 and females HL of 20.0 mm, HW 19.6 mm, n = 2). Snout obtusely pointed in dorsal view, obtuse in profile, projecting beyond the lower jaw. Eye diameter shorter than snout length, canthus rostralis rounded, loreal region sloping and concave, nostril dorsolaterally orientated, placed closer to tip of snout than to eye, internarial distance equal to upper eyelid width. Fore limb robust, relatively short and moderately slender fingers, finger length formula: II<I <IV <III (Fig. 6 F), toe length formula, I <II <V <III <IV (Fig. 6 E), tips of toes expanded into round, elevated pads lacking grooves, toe webbing complete, webbing formula, I 0 - 0 II 0 - 0 III 0 - 0 IV 0 - 0 V.

Skin on dorsal surfaces of head, fore limbs and body feebly crenulate, skin of body flanks rough with moderately, roundish and non-pearl tipped tubercles, skin around vent, knees and shanks distinctly tuberculate, covered with moderately, small, low tubercles with translucent spinules, ventral surfaces smooth, pair of faint, but broken dorsolateral folds extending from posterior of eye to vent.

Colouration in life: dorsum light brown with confluent dark brown markings (Fig. 6 A), head with narrow light bands placed anteriorly to the dark interorbital bar, blackish-brown stripe on canthus rostralis, sides of head pale brown with dark markings. Ventral surfaces of hand and foot dark brown (Fig. 6 E and F). Colouration in preservative: after two years in preservative, dorsal colouration slightly faded, but other than that, no obvious change in colour pattern has occurred.

Distribution

Prior to these records, this species was considered endemic to Peninsular Malaysia. This is the first country record for Thailand, ca. 158 km northeast from the type locality [Bukit Larut (= Larut Hill), Perak State, Peninsular Malaysia] ( Matsui et al. 2014).

Ecology

Specimens were found after 20:00 h in small rocky streams. Most specimens were found in the water. All specimens were collected in evergreen forests along hillside streams and small tributaries varying in width from 1 m to 2 m (Fig. 7 ). Other syntopic anuran species include: Limnonectes plicatellus (Stoliczka), Nyctixalus pictus (Peters) and Rhacophorus rhodopus Liu & Hu.

Figures

Figure 6. Male of Limnonectes utara (AUP- 01708) in life. A. Dorsal view; B. Lateral view of head; C. Dorsolateral view of head; D. Dorsal view of leg (notice the tubercles); E. Ventral view of foot; F. Ventral view of hand.

Figure 7. Habitat of Limnonectes utara in Bannang Sata District, Yala Province, southern Thailand.