AmphibiaChina 中国两栖类.

Conservation Status (definitions)

IUCN Red List Status Account CITES No CITES Listing National Status None Regional Status None

Description
Leptobrachella verrucosa is a small frog that was described from five male specimens and no females. The snout–vent length range for males is 23.2 - 25.9 mm. The head is slightly longer than wide with a slightly protruding snout. The nostril is closer to the snout tip than the eye. The canthus rostralis has a gentle roundness and the loreal region is concave. The interorbital distance is flat and slightly narrower than the internarial distance. There is no pineal ocellus. The eye diameter is slightly smaller than the snout length, and the pupil is vertical. The distinct tympanum is round and has a diameter that is smaller than the eye but larger than the distance between the eye and tympanum. The distinct supratympanic ridge starts at the posterior corner of the eye, touches the upper edge of the typmanum, and extends to the supra-axillary gland. Males have a single vocal sac. The dorsal surface is shagreened with conical tubercles, but does not have spines, enlarged warts, or ridges. The ventral skin is smooth. Oval pectoral and femoral glands are present. The pectoral glands are larger than the fingertips and the femoral glands are larger than the toe tips. The femoral gland is closer to the knee than the vent and located on the posteroventral surface of the thigh. A raised super-axillary gland and discontinuous, longitudinal series of distinct ventrolateral glands are also present. The large inner palmar tubercle is round and distinctly separated from the small, round outer palmar tubercle. The fingers have a relative length of I = II = IV < III, and do not have webbing, lateral fringes, or subarticular tubercles. Nuptial pads are also absent. The tips of the fingers are swollen and rounded. When the hind limb is adpressed along the body, the tibio-tarsal articulation reaches the anterior corner of the eye. When the legs are held a right angles to the body, the heels do not touch. The tibia is just under half the snout-vent length. The inner metatarsal tubercle is large and there is no outer metatarsal tubercle. The toes have a relative length of I < II < V < III < IV, and have narrow lateral fringes on all toes and rudimentary webbing. There are also continuous longitudinal ridges under all the toes. Like the fingertips, the toe tips are slightly swollen and rounded (Lin et al. 2022).

DIAGNOSIS:

The Leptobrachella genus is specious and L. verrucosa is most closely related to L. bashaensis, L. flaviglandulosa, L. laui, L. liui, L. mangshanensis, L. maoershensis, L. shimentaina, and L. yunkaiensis. Leptobrachella verrucosa can be differentiated from all of these species by the conical tubercles on their dorsal skin. Ventral color and patterning can also differentiate L. verrucosa from its congeners. Specifically, L. verrucosa has a creamy white belly with grayish white and dark brown spots. Leptobrachella bashaensis, L. laui, L. manshanensis, and L. maoershanensis also have creamy white bellies, but have different colored spots or patterning. Leptobrachella flaviglandulosa has a whitishish belly with black speckling at the margins, L. liui has a gray belly with brown markings, L. shimentaina has a greyish pink belly with brown markings, and L. yunkaiensis has a pink belly. It can be further differentiated from some of these species by the narrow fringes on the toes of L. verrucosa, which are wide in L. laui, L. liui, L. shimentaina, and L. yunkaiensis. Continuous longitudinal ridges under all the toes in L. verrucosa further distinguish it from L. flaviglandulosa and L. liui. Lastly, L. verrucosa lacks fringes on the fingers while L. laui, L. shimentaina, and L. yunkaiensis have them in at least the males (Lin et al. 2022).

At the time of its description, L. verrucosa was the smallest species in its genus, with a snout-vent length range of 23.2 - 25.9 mm. In comparison, the next smallest species are L. suiyangensis with an snout-vent length range of of 28.7 - 29.7 mm and L. yunyangensis with a snout-vent length range of 28.3 - 30.6 mm (Lin et al. 2022).

COLORATION:

In life, the dorsal region has a gray brown background coloration with dark brown markings and spots and irregular light orange pigmentations. Noteworthy markings include an inverted triangle in the interorbital space that connects to a W-shaped mark in the occipital region. There are also dark brown vertical bars under the eyes. The irises are bicolored with the top half being coppery orange and the lower half being grayish brown. The tympanum is dark brown with a grayish white lower margin. The supratypmanic ridge has a black line. The dorsal surfaces of the limbs and digits have transverse, dark brown bars, and the flanks have several distinct dark brown blotches or spots. The elbows and upper arms are coppery orange and have dark spots and markings. The ventral surface of the throat and body has a creamy white backdrop with grayish-white spots, accentuated by the presence of dark brown marbling. The ventral surface of the hind limbs is grayish purple with white spots. The supra-axillary and femoral glands are coppery orange while the pectoral gland is grayish-white hue. The ventrolateral glands are coppery in the anterior region and become grayish brown posteriorly (Lin et al. 2022).

In preservative, the dorsal background is dark brown, with the markings, bars, and spots becoming less distinct. The tympanum maintains its original dark brown coloration. On the ventral side, the color shifts to grayish-white, obscuring the grayish-white spots while the dark brown spots become more distinct. Similarly, the supra-axillary, pectoral, and ventrolateral glands become grayish-white (Lin et al. 2022).

VARIATION:

There is variation in the lightness or darkness of the dorsal coloration and markings. There is also variation in how tuberculated the dorsal surface is and how distinct the pectoral glands are (Lin et al. 2022).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: China

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

At the time of the species description, L. verrucosa was only documented at a single location in northwestern Guangdong Province near the boundaries of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, and Hunan provinces. They were found at an elevation of approximately 500 - 600 meters in primary broad-leaved forests on granite landforms (Lin et al. 2022).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
The species can be found near clear-water rocky streams. Specifically, calling males were found perched on the leaves of dwarf shrubs and rocks near flowing seeps (Lin et al. 2022).

Based on long-term observations, the breeding season occurs from April to June, however, little else was known at the time of the species description about larvae and females (Lin et al. 2022).

Larva
Members of the Leptobrachella genus exhibit indirect development and tadpoles in the genus display a fossorial, aquatic lifestyle, aided by their elongated body shapes, semi-calcified vertebrae, and muscular tails (Chen et al. 2018). However, larvae for this species have not been described as of 2024.

Trends and Threats
Lin et al. (2022) state that the forests where the species is found is well-protected and the distribution of the species may be larger than currently known. As a result, they recommend that the species be listed as “Least Concern” under the IUCN Red List categorization.

Comments

Phylogenetic relationships:

Based on Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood analyses of partial 16S rRNA, L. verrocosa is sister to the clade composed of L. liui and L. mangshanensis. The next most closely related species is L. shimentaina (Lin et al. 2022).

References
Chen, J. M., Poyarkov, N. A. Jr., Suwannapoom, C., Lathrop, A., Wu, Y.-H., Zhou, W.-W., Yang, Z.-Y., Jin, J.-Q., Chen, H.-M., Liu, H.-Q., Nguyen, T. Q., Nguyen, S. N., Duong, T. V., Eto, K., Nishikawa, K., Matsui, M., Orlov, N. L., Stuart, B. L., Brown, R. M., Rowley, J. L., Murphy, R. W., Wang. Y.-Y., Chi, J. (2018). Large-scale phylogenetic analyses provide insights into unrecognized diversity and historical biogeography of Asian leaf-litter frogs, genus Leptolalax (Anura: Megophryidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 124(2018), 162-171. [link]

Lin, S.-S., Li, Y.-H., Lu, Y.-H., Su, H.-L., Wu, S.-B., Zhang, Q.-Q., Mo, M.-J., Xiao, S.-J., Pan, Z., Pan, H.-J., Zeng, Z.-C., Wang, J. (2022). A new species of the genus Leptobrachella (Anura, Megophryidae) from the northwestern Guangdong Province, China. OGH Herpetoza 35, 165-178. [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2024 Leptobrachella verrucosa <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/9573> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 21, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 21 Nov 2024.

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