Pelophryne rhopophilia Inger & Stuebing, 1996

Pelophryne rhopophilia Inger & Stuebing, 1996 View in CoL

Materials

Type status: Other material. Occurrence: catalogNumber: SP 26096 ; occurrenceRemarks: observed perching on leaf; individualCount: 1; sex: male; lifeStage: adult; disposition: in collection; occurrenceID: 57FFC647-9075-50AF-8A94-CCFA706F12C6; Taxon: vernacularName: Lowland Dwarf Toad, Climbing Dwarf Toad; Location: continent: Borneo; country: Malaysia; stateProvince: Sabah; municipality: Keningau; locality: Entomology Trail, 14 km from the Crocker Range Park's administrative office ; verbatimElevation: 1,216 m; verbatimCoordinates: 05°27’44”N, 116°01’57”E; verbatimCoordinateSystem: degrees minutes seconds; Event: eventDate: 9 Sept 2006; habitat: montane forest; Record Level: institutionCode: SP; basisOfRecord: PreservedSpecimen GoogleMaps

Description

An adult male SVL 23.6 mm, with vocal sac opening on right side of floor of mouth and the gular skin stretched and wrinkled. It has a weak nuptial pad of colourless spinules densely packed on the dorsal surface of the first finger, but no mandibular spinules. The outer fingers are expanded and truncate at the tips; web reaches the tip of first finger, one phalanx of second finger is free medially and the outer fingers have two phalanges free. Fleshy web reaches the tips of first three toes laterally, the fifth toe has two phalanges free medially and the fourth toe with three phalanges free; tympanum less than half eye diameter; abdomen black with many small light dots. Three Bornean species of Pelophryne have tips of fingers expanded: P. guentheri (Boulenger, 1882) , P. signata (Boulenger, 1895) and P. rhopophilia Inger & Stuebing, 1996 . The present specimen agrees only with the last species in size [ P. rhopophilia males 21.7–23.6 mm ( Inger and Stuebing 1996)] and absence of mandibular spinules in males.

Distribution

As the type (and only recorded) locality is in southern Sarawak, the present record represents a significant extension of the geographic range.

Ecology

Little is known about the natural history of this species other than that it is a montane species. The specimen was found perching on a leaf about 0.5–1.0 m above the ground, in montane forest trail at an elevation of 1,216 m a. s. l. (Fig. 5 View Figure 5 ).