A New Ranidae Species from China - Limnonectes bannaensis   (Ranidae: Anura)

A new, fanged frog Limnonectes bannaensis sp. nov. (Holotype: CIB 570798, adult male, SVL 87.5 mm) has been recognized based on the collections from Jinghong City and Mengla County, Yunnan Province in China, which was previously recognized as L. kuhlii (Tschudi). This new species can be distinguished from the latter by a combination of the following characteristics: (1) Skin on the body is smooth, with few fine folds on the back and a few small rounded tubercles scattered on the rear of the body; (2) Dorsum is brownish or gray brown in color, black stripes are present on areas around the folds; (3) the tail of tadpoles from Mengyang have black spots, but the rear half is not black; (4) Karyotype: 2n = 22 (20 m+2 st); the chromosome length decreases gradually and does not form distinct size groups. Limnonectes kuhlii has: (1) Skin on its body is very wrinkled, covered densely with star-shaped tubercles; (2) marbled black to complete black all over the back; (3) the tadpoles from Java, the terminal half of their tail is black in color; (4) Karyotype: 2n = 26, consists of five large pairs and eight small pairs.

Keywords
Amphibia; Anura, Ranidae; Limnonectes; Limnonectes bannaensis; New species