Boulenophrys binchuanensis ( Ye and Fei, 1995 )

Boulenophrys binchuanensis ( Ye and Fei, 1995) View in CoL

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualID: CIB GZJL 2023080601 –03; individualCount: 3; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 86136069-FAC1-5A13-A34D-85F5C083ADE4; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Sichuan; county: Jiulong; locality: Xiaojinxiang ; verbatimElevation: 2540 m; verbatimCoordinates: 28.662°N, 101.925°E; Event: samplingProtocol: by hand; eventDate: 06-08-2023; eventRemarks: collected by Huaming Zhou; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen GoogleMaps

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualID: CIB SCJL 20230823001 –04; individualCount: 4; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; occurrenceID: 760F815E-C0A9-545C-988B-FCE695525AB1; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Sichuan; county: Jiulong; locality: Xiaojinxiang ; verbatimElevation: 2540 m; verbatimCoordinates: 28.662°N, 101.925°E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: degrees minutes seconds; Event: samplingProtocol: by hand; eventDate: 23-08-2023; eventRemarks: collected by Tianyu Qian; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen GoogleMaps

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: individualID: CIB XJX 01 –12; individualCount: 12; lifeStage: tadpole; occurrenceID: 4B66A211-F278-5876-824C-2A19B01CDA9E; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Sichuan; county: Jiulong; locality: Xiaojinxiang ; verbatimElevation: 2540 m; verbatimCoordinates: 28.662°N, 101.925°E; Event: samplingProtocol: by hand; eventDate: 23-08-2023; eventRemarks: collected by Tianyu Qian; Record Level: basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen GoogleMaps

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: recordNumber: CIB RC 230081 , 83, and 84; recordedBy: Tianyu Qian; occurrenceID: 16414D6E-5649-50FF-B2F3-5E0ADE9D535C; Location: country: China; stateProvince: Sichuan; county: Jiulong; locality: Xiaojinxiang ; verbatimElevation: 2540 m; verbatimCoordinates: 28.662°N, 101.925°E; Event: eventDate: 26-08-2023; Record Level: type: Sound GoogleMaps

Description

Morphologically, the newly - collected specimens mostly agreed with the description of Ye and Fei (1995) and the revised diagnosis proposed by Lyu et al. (2023). The following description is based on four formalin-fixed specimens ( CIB SCJL 20230823001 –4): SVL 34.5–39.3 mm in males; small horn-like tubercles on upper eye-lid; tongue not notched posteriorly; relatively finger lengths I = II <IV <III or IV <I = II <III; fingers not webbed, lateral fringes absent or narrowly present; subarticular tubercles present on each finger; toes with rudimentary webbing, lateral fringes absent or narrowly present; subarticular tubercles distinct on all toes or indistinct on toes III and IV; metacarpal tubercles large and rounded; upper margin of tympanum concealed by supratympanic fold; dorsal skin relatively smooth, with discontinuous dorsolateral skin fold; large tubercles on flanks present. Measurements are given in Table 1 View Table 1 .

Tadpoles

Measurements of all tadpole specimens are given in Table 2 View Table 2 . The tadpole description is based on specimen CIB XJX 03 , stage 25, TTL 31.4 mm (Fig. 2 View Figure 2 ). The body is elongate in lateral view, flattened and elliptical above, BW / BL 59.5 %; the eyes are located dorsolaterally and not visible ventrally; the pupils are round; the nares are oval, opening laterally, closer to eye than to snout, NED / SND 66.7 %; the rims of nares are slightly raised from the body wall; the spiracle is single, sinistral, low on the left body; the spiracle tube is short, free from the body wall at the tip and opens laterally, SSD / BL 56.0 %; the anal tube is medial, attached to the ventral fin and opens medially, posteriorly directed; the tail muscle is strong, taller than tail fins before reaching two-thirds of the tail length, TMH / MTH 74.4 %; the tail is long, accounting for 73.2 % of the total length; the tail tip is rounded; the upper fin arises behind the body-tail junction, UFH / MTH 14.0 %, the lower fin is connected to the trunk, LFH / MTH 18.6 %; the mouth is terminal and the oral disc is funnel-like; the upper jaw sheath is wide, comb-like, exhibiting a median notch; four rows of oval submarginal papillae are visible on the upper lip and four rows of oval submarginal papillae on the lower lip; the lower jaw sheath is thin and sickle-shaped, serrated and slightly keratinised.

In life, the background colour of the body from above is yellowish and extends to the tail, scattered with brown pigments at the posterior edge of the oral disc, the inner edge of nares, the median region between eyes and above the trunk; the body is brown in lateral view, pigmented with golden speckles around the eye and on the trunk; a dark brown stripe extends alongside with the tail-upper fin connection; the tail muscle is light yellowish, scattered with brown pigments and forms several brown spots posteriorly; the body and tail are semi-transparent ventrally; brown pigments start from the lower jaw, extend medially on the throat and are widely sparse on the chest; dense whitish speckles on the abdomen and the gut coil is barely visible.

Advertisement calls

Calls were recorded from three male frogs (see Fig. 3 View Figure 3 for the oscillogram of a call group and a detailed illustration of a call extracted from this call group of CIB SCJL 20230823004 ). Measurements of acoustic parameters are shown in Table 3 View Table 3 . The calls are typical Boulenophrys calls with a medium number of calls per call group (averages 27, 36 and 21 from different individuals, respectively) and a medium number of pulses (averages 26, 27 and 31). The 1 st and 2 nd pulses are of relatively low amplitude with relatively larger intervals. Within a call group, the calls begin with a relatively low amplitude and increase to the peak amplitude at about the 6 th – 7 th calls.

Habitat

Frogs were found in a village on the mountain top at about 2500 m in elevation. The habitat is close to an artificial reservoir; water seeps out from the wall and flows out from the water pipe (Fig. 4 View Figure 4 ). Small pools form in flat areas and the ditch, which can support tadpoles. Vegetation grew in the ditch. Adult male frogs call under vegetation. We investigated two other creeks in the town; both were polluted by agricultural activities and evidence for this species was barely found.