NATURAL HISTORY. SURVEY ' M 190.5 1 r.3S £p+£ FIELDIANA • ZOOLOGY Published by CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM Volume 39 February 24, 1961 No. 46 A New Pelobatid Frog of the Genus Megophrys from Hong Kong Robert F. Inger Curator, Division of Amphibians and Reptiles AND J. D. ROMER c/o Urban Council Offices, Hong Kono Several papers (Annandale, 1917; Smith, 1924) have referred to a Megophrys collected on The Peak of Hong Kong Island. One of us (Romer) has collected adults and tadpoles of the same species on Hong Kong Island during the past decade. Though listed as boettgeri by previous authors, we believe this population is a distinct species. Megophrys brachykolos,1 new species Holotype. — Chicago Natural History Museum number 69063, an adult male collected on The Peak, Hong Kong Island, in August, 1952, by J. D. Romer. Paratypes.— CNHM 64165, 69062, 69064-5, 109977-86, from The Peak, Hong Kong Island. CNHM 24408 from Kuatun, Chungan Hsien, Fukien Province, China. Larval series CNHM 109987 (10) from Wong Nai Chung Gap, Hong Kong Island. Diagnosis. — A small species of Megophrys having a strongly pro- jecting snout, no vomerine teeth, a small horn-like tubercle at the edge of the upper eyelid, short legs (the heels not meeting when the flexed legs are held at right angles to the body axis), tympanum usually wider than half diameter of eye, and dorsal markings, if present, restricted to an interorbital triangle. Description. — Habitus robust; head wider than long, width 0.36- 0.43 of snout-vent, length 0.33-0.40; snout almost truncate in plan 1 From brachys, meaning short, and kolos, meaning limb or leg. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-11259 No. 910 533 RATURAC 5 n «tQg-{ HISTORY StiKVET 534 FIELDIANA: ZOOLOGY, VOLUME 39 view, strongly projecting, sloping backward to mouth in profile, depth of snout just before eye subequal to interorbital width and to snout length; interorbital width equal to or greater than that of upper eyelid; upper eyelid with a small, horn-like tubercle at the center of its margin; canthus rostralis sharp; lores vertical, not concave; diameter of eye equal to or longer than snout; pupil ver- tical; tympanum distinct, diameter more than half diameter of eye, 0.06-0.09 of snout-vent; no vomerine teeth; margin of tongue smooth. Tips of digits round, slightly or not dilated; first finger longer than second, fourth shorter than second; a large subarticular tubercle at base of each finger; a large palmar tubercle at base of first finger and one at base of fourth. Toes with a thick, fleshy web at their bases; fifth toe with 2-2 */£ phalanges free, fourth with 4, third with 3; third toe longer than fifth; subarticular tubercles of toes weak, basal ones long; a large, oval, inner metatarsal tubercle, no outer one; tibia 0.34-0.43 of snout-vent. Skin smooth below and above or (in life) weakly granular on dorsum and posterior part of abdomen; usually fine, curved ridges on back; a thin oblique fold from eye above tympanum to axilla; pectoral gland small, round, closer to axilla than to mid-ventral line; one or two similar glands on rear of thigh. Color (in alcohol). — Gray or brown above; a dark interorbital triangle with a light center, apex of triangle over occiput; back usually with obscure darker markings; side of head with dark vertical bars, usually one on lores, one below eye, and one behind eye; ventral surfaces whitish or yellowish spotted with brown or purplish gray; males with dark throats; both sexes usually have dark longi- tudinal streak down center of throat; sides of body with small dark spots; anal region and rear surfaces of tarsus and foot dark brown bordered above with a thin light line; dorsal surfaces of limbs with thin, dark crossbars. In life, ventral surface pinkish near groin. Measurements (mm.) of holotype. — Snout-vent 34.9, tibia 14.8, head width 14.2, head length to tip of snout 13.3, tympanum 2.8. Secondary sex characters. — Three females containing enlarged ova measure 40.0-48.4 mm. (median 43.5), and ten adult males 34.1- 39.5 mm. (median 35.4). A fourth female is 32.6 mm. long. Males have median subgular vocal sacs having small, round openings into the mouth near the commissure of the jaws. Black nuptial pads cover the middle half of the dorsal surface of the first finger and a small circular area of the dorsal surface of the second finger. f. 3 N & t 7 INGER AND ROMER: FROG FROM HONG KONG 535 Fig. 101. Dorsal view of adult female Megophrys brachykolos; snout-vent 43.5 mm. The proportions of head length, head width, and tympanum diameter to snout-vent are smaller in females than in males. Head length in four females is 0.330-0.349, in ten males 0.354-0.395; head width of females 0.354-0.365, of males 0.373-0.430; tympanum diameter of females 0.062-0.073 (median 0.068), of males 0.065-0.086 (median 0.080). Larvae. — The tadpoles have typical funnel mouths and are very similar to those of boettgeri. Head and body oval, slightly depressed, width almost two-thirds of length; diameter of eye greater than eye-lip distance; interorbital equals internarial space, more than twice diameter of eye; mouth 536 FIELDIANA: ZOOLOGY, VOLUME 39 Table 1. — Comparison of Body Proportions in Males of Five Species of Megophrys from Southern China and Tonkin (Proportions given in terms of thousandths of snout-vent) brachykolos kuatunensis boettgeri Tibia Range 384-434 439-472 451-466 Median 410 456 455 Number 10 10 4 Head Width Range 373-430 313-352 295-333 Median 391 325 309 Number 10 10 4 Head Length Range 354-395 326-362 317-344 Median 373 342 328 Number 10 10 4 Tympanum Diameter Range 65-86 47-56 49-52 Median 80 53 51 Number 10 9 4 1 Data from Liu (1950). palpe- bralespinosa minor1 462-478 470-490 2 ' 8 335-356 300-310 2 ' 8 356-365 320-330 2 "8 54-65 2 terminal; lips forming funnel; when expanded, lips as wide as body; spiracle ventrolateral, closer to eye than to end of body; vent median; tail strong, margins subparallel, tapering to a point; fins subequal in depth, both about one- third depth of caudal muscle at center of tail. Color (in alcohol) dark brown above and below; ventral fin lighter than dorsal, colorless in proximal third in a pre-limb bud larva. Total length of larva in pre-limb bud stage 22 mm., head-and- body 7.1 mm.; total lengths of 7 larvae in hind limb stages XI-XIV (Taylor and Kollros, 1946) 36-41 mm., head-and-body 10.3-12.6 mm.; total lengths of 2 larvae with erupted fore limbs 4(M1 mm., snout-vent 12.3-12.5 mm. Ecological notes. — All Hong Kong specimens, including those men- tioned by Annandale (1917) and Smith (1924), have been collected on The Peak. Those caught by Romer were found at elevations between 300 and 400 meters. Males emit a series of short notes repeated in quick succession from hidden positions in holes or under rocks. Larvae were collected in small streams at Ho Chung in the New Territories (mainland) of Hong Kong on January 2, 1949 (now in INGER AND ROMER: FROG FROM HONG KONG 537 British Museum), and at Wong Nai Chung Gap on Hong Kong Island on May 1, 1949, and January 29, 1955. Well-developed tadpoles were seen on The Peak on April 21, 1956. Those caught in January, 1955, were in pools of an intermittent stream. Comparisons. — Four small species of Megophrys having strongly projecting snouts but no vomerine teeth have been reported from eastern and southern Asia. Megophrys brachykolos differs from all of them in having shorter legs and a wider head (Table 1). The differences in body proportions are obvious when a specimen of brachykolos is placed beside one of any of the other species. One of the four previously known species, M. minor Stejneger (type locality Kwanhsien, Szechwan), also differs from brachykolos in having no webbing at all between the toes (leaving three phalanges of the fifth toe free of web). Megophrys boettgeri (Boulenger) (type locality Kuatun, Fukien), the second of the small species, has no "horn-like" tubercle on the edge of the upper eyelid such as occurs in brachykolos. A conspicuous, large black mark covers most of the dorsum in boettgeri; the back of brachykolos is without a pattern or has obscure mottling. Megophrys kuatunensis Pope (type locality Kuatun, Chungan Hsien, Fukien), the third of the small species, has less extensive webbing (fifth toe with three phalanges free in kuatunensis, usually two or at most 2% free in brachykolos). The femoral gland is larger in kuatunensis than in brachykolos. The last of these small species, palpebralespinosa Bourret (type locality Chapa, Tonkin), has four to six large, erect papillae on the upper eyelid. Each of them is larger than the small tubercular structure at the edge of the eyelid of brachykolos, and they are not confined to the margin of the lid. The web of brachykolos, though as extensive as that of palpebralespinosa, is fleshy rather than thin as in the Tonkin frog. The coloration of the three paratypes of palpebralespinosa that were seen (Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle 48.114-6) has become too obscured in preservative for comparative purposes. Bourret's description (Bourret, 1941) men- tions a dark diamond-shaped mark on the posterior part of the back but says nothing about an interorbital or occipital spot. The specimens of kuatunensis and boettgeri used for Table 1 are from Chungan Hsien, Fukien Province, the district including the type localities of both species. A female (CNHM 24408) from the latter locality and originally one of the paratypes of kuatunensis agrees with topotypic female brachykolos in each body proportion: 538 FIELDIANA: ZOOLOGY, VOLUME 39 tibia 0.389, brachykolos 0.340-0.406; head width 0.355, brachykolos 0.354-0.365; head length 0.346, brachykolos 0.330-0.349; tympanum 0.067, brachykolos 0.062-0.073. As this specimen also has the tubercle at the edge of the upper eyelid and only 2*^ phalanges of the fifth toe free as in brachykolos, it has been assigned to that species. Thus brachykolos is sympatric with boettgeri and kuatunensis. It must, as a consequence, be regarded as a full species. We are indebted to Dr. J. Guib£, Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, and Mr. C. M. Bogert, American Museum of Natural History, for the use of specimens in their institutions. We are also grateful to Mr. Clifford H. Pope, Winnetka, Illinois, for his suggestions and critical reading of the manuscript. REFERENCES Annandale, Nelson 1917. Zoological results of a tour in the Far East. Batrachia. Mem. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 6: 119-155, pis. 5-6. Bourret, Rene 1941. Les batraciens de l'lndochine. Inst. Oceanogr. Indochine, 547 pp., 4 pis., 196 text figs. Liu, C. C. 1950. Amphibians of western China. Fieldiana, Zool. Mem., 2: 1-400, 10 pis. Smith, M. A. 1924. Descriptions of Indian and Indo-Chinese tadpoles. Rec. Indian Mus., 26, pt. 2, pp. 137-144, pi. 7. Taylor, A. C, and Kollros, J. J. 1946. Stages in the normal development of Rana pipiens larvae. Anat. Rec, 94: 7-24, 4 pis.