Nidirana cangshanensis, Liu & Hou & Rao, 2025

Nidirana cangshanensis sp. nov.

https://zoobank.org/ urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:

( Figs 3–5 View Figure 3 View Figure 4 View Figure 5 )

Type material. Holotype: KIZ2024164, adult male, collected by Shuo Liu on 28 June 2024 from Xizhou Town , Dali City, Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China ( 25°53′10″N, 100°0′9″E; 2980 m a.s.l.) GoogleMaps . Paratypes (n=13): KIZ20240165 and KIZ2024167–KIZ2024175, ten adult males, and KIZ2024166 and KIZ2024176–KIZ2024177, three adult females, all the same collection information as the holotype.

Etymology. The specific name cangshanensis refers to the type locality Cangshan Mountain, in Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. We suggest the English common name to be “Cangshan Mountain Music Frog” and the Chinese common name to be “Nj山ḲD (Pinyin: cāng shān qín wā)”.

Diagnosis. Body size medium, SVL 43.6–52.1 mm in adult males and 59.7–64.1 mm in adult females; head relatively short, HDL/SVL 0.34–0.36; head length approximately equal to head width, HDL/HDW 0.99–1.05; eye relatively large, ED/HDL 0.29–0.33; tympanum relatively small, TD/HDL 0.17–0.20, TD/ED 0.52–0.71; tip of every digit not dilated; lateroventral groove absent on every digit; foot short, FTL/SVL 0.52–0.57; tibio-tarsal articulation reaching between tympanum and eye or at eye; heels just meeting; posterior of dorsal skin rough with tubercles; a pair of subgular vocal sacs in breeding males; single nuptial pad present on first finger in adult males; suprabrachial gland large and smooth.

Description of holotype. Adult male, SVL 52.1 mm; head relatively short, HDL/SVL 0.36; head length approximately equal to head width, HDL/HDW 1.03; snout rounded in dorsal and lateral views, protruding beyond lower jaw, longer than eye diameter, SNT/ED 1.20; canthus rostralis relatively distinct, loreal region concave; nostril round, located approximately at middle of snout tip and eye; eye relatively large, ED/HDL 0.32; pupil elliptical, horizontal; tympanum distinct, round, relatively small, TD/HDL 0.19, TD/ED 0.58; a longitudinal strip-shaped gland from posterior upper lip to above arm insertion, gland discontinuous posteriorly; supratympanic fold absent; interorbital distance narrower than internasal distance, IOD/IND 0.69; pineal ocellus invisible; vomerine teeth undeveloped, slightly visible; choanae small, rounded; tongue large, notched behind; a pair of subgular vocal sacs.

Forelimbs moderately robust; fingers thin, tip of every finger not dilated and without lateroventral groove, relative finger lengths III> I> IV> II; webbing between fingers absent; feeble lateral fringes present on fingers II and III; subarticular tubercles rounded, prominent, formula 1, 1, 2, 2; supernumerary tubercles absent; three oval palmar tubercles, innermost one large, middle one medium size, outermost one small and indistinct; single nuptial pad on dorsal surface of first finger, nuptial spinules invisible.

Hindlimbs relatively robust; tibia and foot short, TIB/SVL 0.47, FTL/SVL 0.53; heels just meeting when hindlimbs flexed at right angles to axis of body; tibio-tarsal articulation reaching between tympanum and eye or at eye when hindlimb stretched forward; toes moderately long and thin, tip of every toe not dilated and without lateroventral groove, relative lengths IV> III> V> II> I; webbing formula: I1⅔–2II1½–2⅔III2–3IV3–1⅔V; lateral fringes present on each toe; subarticular tubercles rounded, prominent, formula 1, 1, 2, 3, 2; inner metatarsal tubercle oval, prominent; outer metatarsal tubercle absent; tarsal folds and tarsal tubercle absent.

Dorsal skin of head and anterior dorsum smooth, posterior dorsum rough with tubercles and horny spinules; dorsolateral fold moderately developed, from posterior margin of upper eyelid to above groin; flank smooth with some tubercles; a large, irregularly shaped, smooth suprabrachial gland posterior to base of forelimb on each side; dorsal surface of forelimbs smooth, dorsal surface of hindlimbs with many small tubercles; ventral surface of head, body, and limbs smooth.

Coloration of holotype in life. Dorsal surface of head and body dark olive; a thin light yellow vertebral stripe extending from snout to vent; upper lip and following gland golden; iris bronze with mesh pattern; tympanum region brown on left side and golden on right side; region between eye and tympanum black; dorsolateral fold slightly paler than dorsum; upper flank dark olive, suprabrachial gland grayish brown, lower flank mottled with yellowish white and brownish black; dorsal surface of forelimbs olive; dorsal surface of hindlimbs olive with black crossbars; anterior ventral surface of head golden with black spots, vocal sac region light purple, middle posterior ventral surface of head grayish white; ventral surface of body creamy white with many light gray spots; ventral surface of limbs pale white with some grayish black spots.

Variations. Morphological measurements of all type specimens are given in Table 4 and photos of some paratypes in life are shown in Figure 4 View Figure 4 . The male paratypes are similar to the holotype in morphology and the female paratypes lack suprabrachial glands and are significantly larger than males in body size. The coloration of the male paratypes is somewhat paler than that of the holotype and the vertebral stripe is indistinct in some male paratypes. The coloration of the female paratypes is much darker than males and the vertebral stripe is more distinct.

Comparisons. Nidirana cangshanensis sp. nov. can be easily distinguished from all other species of this genus except for N. occidentalis and N. pleuraden by tips of fingers and toes being not dilated and lateroventral groove on fingers and toes being absent (vs. tips of fingers being dilated and lateroventral groove on fingers being present in most species and tips of toes being dilated and lateroventral groove on toes being present in all species).

Nidirana cangshanensis sp. nov. is phylogenetically closest to and most similar in morphology characteristic to N. occidentalis and N. pleuraden . However, Nidirana cangshanensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from N. occidentalis by having a slightly smaller ratio of head length to snout–vent length (HDL/SVL 0.34–0.36 vs. 0.36–0.41), a smaller ratio of head length to head width (HDL/HDW 0.99– 1.05 vs. 1.10–1.27), a slightly greater ratio of snout length to head length (SNT/HDL 0.39–0.45 vs. 0.34– 0.39), a smaller ratio of internasal distance to head width (IND/HDW 0.24–0.27 vs. 0.30–0.35), a smaller ratio of interorbital distance to head width (IOD/HDW 0.15–0.18 vs. 0.22–0.27), a greater ratio of eye diameter to head length (ED/HDL 0.29–0.33 vs. 0.24–0.28), a smaller ratio of tympanum diameter to eye diameter (TD/ED 0.52–0.71 vs. 0.74–0.84), a much smaller ratio of foot length to snout–vent length (FTL/SVL 0.52–0.57 vs. 0.71–0.82), a much greater ratio of foot length to tibial length (FTL/TIB 0.84– 0.93 vs. 0.55–0.69), and a smaller ratio of adult male body size to adult female body size (sexual size dimorphism 77.7% vs. 83.5%).

Nidirana cangshanensis sp. nov. can be distinguished from N. pleuraden by having a smaller ratio of head length to snout–vent length (HDL/SVL 0.34–0.36 vs. 0.37–0.44), a much smaller ratio of head length to head width (HDL/HDW 0.99–1.05 vs. 1.25–1.34), a smaller ratio of internasal distance to head width (IND/HDW 0.24–0.27 vs. 0.30–0.35), a slightly smaller ratio of interorbital distance to head width (IOD/HDW 0.15–0.18 vs. 0.18–0.25), a greater ratio of eye diameter to head length (ED/HDL 0.29–0.33 vs. 0.23–0.27), a slightly smaller ratio of tympanum diameter to head length (TD/HDL 0.17–0.20 vs. 0.20–0.23), a much smaller ratio of tympanum diameter to eye diameter (TD/ED 0.52–0.71 vs. 0.79–0.89), a much smaller ratio of foot length to snout–vent length (FTL/SVL 0.52–0.57 vs. 0.76–0.82), a much greater ratio of foot length to tibial length (FTL/TIB 0.84–0.93 vs. 0.60–0.70), a much smaller ratio of adult male body size to adult female body size (sexual size dimorphism 77.7% vs. 89.1%), and tibio-tarsal articulation reaching between tympanum and eye or at eye (vs. reaching between eye and nostril or at nostril).

Natural history. Males of the new species were found calling in water surfaces of the ponds with abundant wetland plants at night, while females were found lurking on the shores of the ponds. Other amphibians with sympatric distribution include Bombina maxima (Boulenger, 1905) , Glyphoglossus huadianensis Zhang, Liu, Zhang, Hui, Xiao & Rao, 2021 , Rana chaochiaoensis Liu, 1946 , R. shuchinae Liu, 1950 , and Zhangixalus puerensis (He, 1999) .

Distribution. This species is currently known only from Cangshan Mountain in Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China.

Discussion

Previously, the Yunnan Music Frog (Yunkwei Plateau Frog or Yunnan Pond Frog) was considered a single species, namely Nidirana pleuraden ( Yang & Rao 2008; Fei et al. 2009, 2012; Chan & Bi 2016; Lyu et al. 2017). Later, Lyu et al. (2020) described the population previously misidentified as N. pleuraden distributed in western Yunnan as a distinct species, namely N. occidentalis . This study further revealed that the diversity of the Yunnan Music Frog sensu lato is still underestimated. Although Nidirana cangshanensis sp. nov. is similar in morphology to N. pleuraden and N. occidentalis , it can be distinguished from the latter two species by a combination of morphological characteristics ( Table 5) and relatively significant divergence in the mitochondrial genes (2.6% in 16S and 6.1% in COI).

There are two types of reproductive behavior in species of Nidirana , one exhibiting nidification behavior and males call within mud nest and two sexes engage in amplexus within the nest, while another lacking such complicated behavior and two sexes just court and mate in standing water surfaces like most of other lentic frogs ( Lyu et al. 2024). Like its closely related species N. pleuraden and N. occidentalis , Nidirana cangshanensis sp. nov. is also the type that without nidification behavior.

Geographically, N. pleuraden is known to be distributed in the northeast of the Red River, while N. occidentalis is known to be distributed in the southwest of the Red River ( Lyu et al. 2020; Frost 2025). Interestingly, the collection site of Nidirana cangshanensis sp. nov. is located just above the source of the Red River ( Fig. 6 View Figure 6 ). Currently, no overlap has been found in the distributions of these three species.

Cangshan Mountain is located at the intersection of the western part of the Dian Central Plateau and the southeastern edge of the Hengduan mountains, it exhibits complex and diverse terrain, distinct and varied climatic conditions, making it a natural repository of biological resources ( Ni et al. 2023). In recent years, new species have been continuously discovered from Cangshan Mountain, including animals, plants, fungi, and so on ( Zhang et al. 2020, 2021; Ji et al. 2023; Jiang et al. 2024; Zheng et al. 2024). However, the biodiversity of Cangshan area is far from being fully understood, and more detailed field surveys are needed to find out how many species live in Cangshan Mountain.

Acknowledgements

We thank the staff and forest rangers of Cangshan Erhai National Nature Reserve for their assistance in the survey. We also thank the editors and reviewers for their working on the manuscript. This work was supported by Yunnan Fundamental Research Project: Comprehensive Scientific Investigation of Cangshan Mountain (grant no. 202201BC070001), Biological Resources Programme, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Position of Bioclassonomist of Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. CAS- TAX-24), and Foundation of Yunnan Key Laboratory of Biodiversity Information, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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