Vocal repertoire of Microhyla nilphamariensis from Delhi and comparison with closely related M. ornata populations from the western coast of India and Sri Lanka.

Advertisement calls in frogs have evolved to be species-specific signals of recognition and are therefore considered an essential component of integrative taxonomic approaches to identify species and delineate their distribution range. The species rich genus Microhyla is a particularly challenging group for species identification, discovery and conservation management due to the small size, conserved morphology and wide distribution of its members, necessitating the need for a thorough description of their vocalization. In this study, we provide quantitative description of the vocal behaviour of Microhyla nilphamariensis, a widely distributed south Asian species, from Delhi, India, based on call recordings of 18 individuals and assessment of 21 call properties. Based on the properties measured acrossed 360 calls, we find that a typical advertisement call of M. nilphamariensis lasts for 393.5 ±  57.5 ms, has 17 pulses on average and produce pulses at rate of 39 pulses/s. The overall call dominant frequency was found to be 2.8 KHz and the call spectrum consisted of two dominant frequency peaks centered at 1.6 KHz and 3.6 KHz, ranging between 1.5-4.1 KHz. Apart from its typical advertisement call, our study also reveals the presence of three 'rare' call types, previously unreported in this species. We describe variability in call properties and discuss their relation to body size and temperature. We found that overall dominant frequency 1 (spectral property) was found to be correlated with body size, while first pulse period (temporal property) was found to be correlated with temperature. Further, we compare the vocal repertoire of M. nilphamariensis with that of the congener Microhyla ornata from the western coast of India and Sri Lanka and also compare the call properties of these two populations of M. ornata to investigate intra-specific call variation. We find statistically significant differentiation in their acoustic repertoire in both cases. Based on 18 call properties (out of 20), individuals of each locality clearly segregate on PCA factor plane forming separate groups. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) using PCA factors shows 100% classification success with individuals of each locality getting classified to a discrete group. This confirms significant acoustic differentiation between these species as well as between geographically distant conspecifics. The data generated in this study will be useful for comparative bioacoustic analysis of Microhyla species and can be utilized to monitor populations and devise conservation management plan for threatened species in this group.

Widespread amphibian Perkinsea infections associated with Ranidae hosts, cooler months and Ranavirus co-infection.

Amphibians suffer from large-scale population declines globally, and emerging infectious diseases contribute heavily to these declines. Amphibian Perkinsea (Pr) is a worldwide anuran pathogen associated with mass mortality events, yet little is known about its epidemiological patterns, especially in comparison to the body of literature on amphibian chytridiomycosis and ranavirosis. Here, we establish Pr infection patterns in natural anuran populations and identify important covariates including climate, host attributes and co-infection with Ranavirus (Rv). We used quantitative (q)PCR to determine the presence and intensity of Pr and Rv across 1234 individuals sampled throughout central Florida in 2017-2019. We then implemented random forest ensemble learning models to predict infection with both pathogens based on physiological and environmental characteristics. Perkinsea infected 32% of all sampled anurans, and Pr prevalence was significantly elevated in Ranidae frogs, cooler months, metamorphosed individuals and frogs co-infected with Rv, while Pr intensity was significantly higher in ranid frogs and individuals collected dead. Ranavirus prevalence was 17% overall and was significantly higher in Ranidae frogs, metamorphosed individuals, locations with higher average temperatures, and individuals co-infected with Pr. Perkinsea prevalence was significantly higher than Rv prevalence across months, regions, life stages and species. Among locations, Pr prevalence was negatively associated with crayfish prevalence and positively associated with relative abundance of microhylids, but Rv prevalence did not associate with any tested co-variates. Co-infections were significantly more common than single infections for both pathogens, and we propose that Pr infections may propel Rv infections because seasonal Rv infection peaks followed Pr infection peaks and random forest models found Pr intensity was a leading factor explaining Rv infections. Our study elucidates epidemiological patterns of Pr in Florida and suggests that Pr may be under-recognized as a cause of anuran declines, especially in the context of pathogen co-infection.

Estudo morfológico da pele e glândulas cutâneas de Elachistocleis cesarii (Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae)

One of the main characteristics of the skin of all amphibians is the presence of venomous and mucous glands in the dermis. However, some groups have specialized glands for certain functions, such as the sexually dimorphic glands, identified as related to intraspecific chemical communication during reproduction. Anurans of the family Microhylidae are generally fossorial, with an ovoid body and very short arms, which makes it difficult to perform a nuptial embrace or amplexus. In some species of this group, specialized glands known as adhesive glands have been described in the ventral skin of males, whose function is the male's fixation over the female's back at the moment of the amplexus. The skin morphology of the microhylid Elachistocleis cesarii had never been studied before, and therefore the presence of adhesive glands was unknown. Thus, the present study aimed to study the general skin morphology and description of the cutaneous glands through histological methods. We aimed at the investigation of the presence of adhesive glands in males, identification of their distribution on the ventral skin, and their comparison with those of other species already described, such as the North American species Gastrophryne carolinensi and the Brazilian species Dermatonotus muelleri. Histological and histochemical data revealed similarities of the glands among these species, both from the morphological point of view and in relation to their distribution on the body the data also showed that there are particularities present only in E. cesarii, thus contributing to the knowledge of its natural history. In future stages, more in-depth morphological studies will be carried out using electron microscopy, as well as the analysis of the secretion of this species, in order to verify the presence of compounds that may be related to their adhesion properties.

Uma das principais características da pele de todos os anfíbios é a presença na derme de glândulas venenosas e mucosas. Porém, alguns grupos possuem glândulas especializadas para determinadas funções, como por exemplo as glândulas sexualmente dimórficas, apontadas como relacionadas com a comunicação química intraespecífica no momento da reprodução. Os anuros da família Microhylidae são geralmente fossórios, com o corpo ovóide e braços muito curtos, o que dificulta a realização do amplexo ou abraço nupcial. Em algumas espécies desse grupo, já foram descritas na pele ventral dos machos glândulas especializadas, conhecidas como glândulas adesivas, que tem como função o firmamento do macho sobre o dorso da fêmea no momento do amplexo. A morfologia da pele do microhilídeo Elachistocleis cesarii, nunca havia antes sido estudada, sendo, portanto, desconhecida a presença das glândulas adesivas. Assim, o presente estudo teve como objetivo o estudo geral da morfologia da pele e a descrição das glândulas cutâneas através de métodos histológicos. Objetivamos investigar a presença das glândulas adesivas nos machos e identificar a sua distribuição na pele ventral, comparando-as com as de outras espécies já descritas, como por exemplo, da espécie norte-americana Gastrophryne carolinensi e da espécie brasileira Dermatonotus muelleri. Os dados histológicos e histoquímicos revelaram semelhanças das glândulas entre essas espécies, tanto do ponto de vista morfológico como em relação à sua distribuição no corpo. Também mostraram haver particularidades presentes somente em E. cesarii, assim contribuindo para o conhecimento da sua história natural. Em etapas futuras, serão realizados estudos morfológicos mais aprofundados através de microscopia eletrônica, bem como a análise da secreção dessa espécie, a fim de verificar a presença de compostos que possam estar relacionados com as suas propriedades adesivas.

Resolving the deep phylogeny: Implications for early adaptive radiation, cryptic, and present-day ecological diversity of Papuan microhylid frogs.

The microhylid frogs of the New Guinea region are the largest and most ecologically diverse subfamily (Asterophryinae) of one of the largest anuran families in the world and can live in communities of up to 20 species. While there has been recent progress in resolving the phylogenetic relationships of Asterophryinae, significant uncertainties remain, impeding further progress in understanding the evolution of microhabitat use, parental care, and life history variation in this group. In particular, the early divergences at the base of the tree remain unclear; as does the monophyly of some genera; and recent studies have discovered that species with wide geographic distribution are instead cryptic species complexes. In this study, we fortified geographic sampling of the largest previous phylogenetic effort by sequencing an additional 62 taxa and increased data quality and quantity by adding new layers of data vetting and by filling in previously incomplete loci to the five gene dataset (2 mitochondrial, 3 nuclear protein-coding genes) to obtain a dataset that is now 99% complete in over 2400 characters for 233 samples (205 taxa) of Asterophryinae and 3 outgroup taxa, and analyzed microhabitat use data for these taxa from field data and data collected from the literature. Importantly, our sampling includes complete community complements at 19 sites as well as representatives at over 80 sites across New Guinea and its offshore islands. We present a highly resolved molecular phylogeny which, for the first time, has over 95% of nodes supported (84% highly supported) whether using Maximum Likelihood or Bayesian Inference, allowing clarification of all genera (whether monophyletic or clearly not), their sister genera relationships, as well as an age estimate for the Asterophryinae at approximately 20MYA. Early generic diversification occurring between 17 and 12 MYA gave rise to a surprising diversity of about 18 genera as well as the 5 putative microhabitat types. Our tree reveals extensive cryptic diversity calling any widespread taxa into doubt, and clearly demonstrates that complex multispecies communities of Asterophryinae are ecologically diverse, are numerous, and of ancient origin across New Guinea. We discuss the implications of our phylogeny for explaining the explosive diversification of Asterophryinae as the result of adaptive radiation, niche conservatism, and non-adaptive radiation.

The genus Microhyla (Anura: Microhylidae) in Pakistan: species status and origins.

The territory of Pakistan has been influenced by biota from different geographic directions, and is divided zoogeographically into the Palearctic and Oriental regions (Khan 2006; Masroor 2012). This makes Pakistan one of the important territories in Eurasia in the understanding of past biodiversity dynamics. Well-known examples of Oriental elements among its amphibian fauna are observed in all four families of toads and frogs currently known from Pakistan: Bufonidae, Microhylidae, Megophryidae, and Dicroglossidae. In this short contribution, we focused on the species status and the origins of the genus Microhyla (Microhylidae), known from the north-eastern part (Punjab, Islamabad, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir; Masroor 2012) of the country. However, Sarkar (1984), also reported Microhyla from Bhuj in Gujarat, India, very close to the southern Pakistani province of Sindh. This genus has not yet been reported from the Palearctic region of the country and all currently known localities are from the Oriental parts of Pakistan (i.e. eastward of the Indus River). The genus is represented in the country by M. ornata (Duméril Bibron, 1841), originally reported as Oxyglossus lima (Khan 1968). However, in view of the overall distribution and diversity of the genus based on genetic data (Garg et al. 2018, 2019; Gorin et al. 2020), it appears that populations from Pakistan could possibly have a different evolutionary history and be different taxon (see the currently scattered range of the genus between northern and western India and Pakistan; Fig. 1). Therefore, we tested this assumption using mitochondrial (mt) and nuclear (n) DNA data.

A New Family of Diverse Skin Peptides from the Microhylid Frog Genus Phrynomantis.

A wide range of frogs produce skin poisons composed of bioactive peptides for defence against pathogens, parasites and predators. While several frog families have been thoroughly screened for skin-secreted peptides, others, like the Microhylidae, have remained mostly unexplored. Previous studies of microhylids found no evidence of peptide secretion, suggesting that this defence adaptation was evolutionarily lost. We conducted transcriptome analyses of the skins of Phrynomantis bifasciatus and Phrynomantis microps, two African microhylid species long suspected to be poisonous. Our analyses reveal 17 evolutionary related transcripts that diversified from to those of cytolytic peptides found in other frog families. The 19 peptides predicted to be processed from these transcripts, named phrynomantins, show a striking structural diversity that is distinct from any previously identified frog skin peptide. Functional analyses of five phrynomantins confirm the loss of a cytolytic function and the absence of insecticidal or proinflammatory activity, suggesting that they represent an evolutionary transition to a new, yet unknown function. Our study shows that peptides have been retained in the defence poison of at least one microhylid lineage and encourages research on similarly understudied taxa to further elucidate the diversity and evolution of skin defence molecules.

Rediscovery of Micryletta inornata (Boulenger, 1890) from Sumatra: redescription, molecular identity, and taxonomic implications.

Micryletta inornata (Boulenger 1890), the type species of the genus Micryletta, was originally described from the island of Sumatra in Indonesia. Subsequently, this species has been widely reported from Sundaland (Sumatra and Malay Peninsula), Indo-China, Northeast India and South Andaman, up to southern China and Taiwan. However, since the original description there has been no further report of this species from the type locality or the island. During a herpetofaunal survey in Sumatra, several specimens that are morphologically concordant with the original description and the syntypes of M. inornata were found, and thus the species was rediscovered after 125 years. Here, we provide a redescription of the species based on the freshly collected specimens, along with a detailed morphological and molecular comparison with known congeners. Further, using molecular data from the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene, our study recovered the Sumatran M. inornata as a phylogenetically distinct lineage from all other populations previously referred to this species. This confirms that all known Micryletta 'inornata' populations from regions outside Sumatra constitute several other lineages representing either new species or previously available names currently considered as synonyms, consequently requiring taxonomic validation in the future.

Tadpole of Microhyla picta Shenkel (Anura: Microhylidae), an endemic narrow-mouthed frog from Vietnam.

The Painted Rice Frog, Microhyla picta Schenkel, is one of the least studied species among narrow-mouthed frogs of the genus Microhyla. To date it is known only from Vietnam, where it is distributed mostly in eastern coastal areas in central and southern parts of the country (Nguyen et al. 2009; Nguyen Hoang 2013). The species was also found in Con Dao archipelago (Poyarkov Vassilieva 2011). No data are available on the ecology and reproductive biology of the species, and its larval morphology is also not described. Microhyla frogs are widespread and numerous in terrestrial ecosystems and microhylid tadpoles are known to play an important role in the aquatic communities of temporary waterbodies of monsoon ecosystems in Southeast Asia (Heyer 1973; Vassilieva et al. 2017). The ability to identify microhylid tadpoles in the field is pertinent for biodiversity and ecological studies. We provide a description of larvae of M. picta from various areas in southern Vietnam.

A large-scale phylogeny of Microhylidae inferred from a combined dataset of 121 genes and 427 taxa.

The phylogenetic relationships of Microhylidae, the third largest family of extant frogs, have been difficult to resolve. In the past decade, large amounts of sequence data have been deposited for almost every microhylid genus, but no study has attempted to combine these data to reconstruct a comprehensive phylogeny for this family. In this study, we sequenced 20 near-complete or partial microhylid mitochondrial genomes and integrated them with all available sequences of Microhylidae from GenBank to construct a supermatrix containing 121 genes (14 mitochondrial and 107 nuclear protein-coding genes). The combined dataset is 112,328 characters long (average sequence data length per species = 7829 bp), includes 427 microhylid taxa, and covers all but three genera of the entire family. This dataset provides strong support for the traditional classification of 11 nominal subfamilies and improves the phylogenetic resolution of the relationships among subfamilies. The African subfamily Phrynomerinae is the sister group of all the other microhylids, and the African subfamily Hoplophryninae is the sister taxon to a clade comprising the remaining 9 subfamilies. At the genus level, our analyses confirm the monophyly of most but not all microhylid genera. In summary, we present a new large-scale phylogeny of microhylid frogs that should be valuable for addressing their classification and for comparative evolutionary studies.

The complete mitochondrial genome of the Kaloula verrucosa (Anura: Microhylidae) and phylogenetic analyses.

The first complete mitochondrial genome of a Kaloula verrucosa frog was characterized in this work. The mitogenome was 17,061 base pairs (bp) in length, containing 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes, and a control region (D-loop). The overall base composition was 29.65% A, 30.77% T, 25.41% C and 14.17% G. Besides, the gene arrangement was identical to that observed in vertebrates. Five of 13 PCGs (COII, ATP6, COIII, ND3 and ND4) were ended with incomplete stop codon T. Except for ND6 gene encoded on L-strand, all other PCGs were encoded on H-strand. The non-coding region was 1665 bp in size, which was heavily biased to A + T (65.77%). Additionally, we found mitogenome size of all sequenced Kaloula species were bigger than that of Microhyla species, which was ascribe to the difference of D-loop size. Phylogenetic analysis showed that K. verrucosa was the sister species of Kaloula regifera. This work will provide basic molecular data for further molecular evolution and phylogenetic research of K. verrucosa and other microhylids.

The complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the Sichuan Digging Frog, Kaloula rugifera (Anura: Microhylidae) and its phylogenetic implications.

The Sichuan Digging Frog (Kaloula rugifera) belongs to the family Dicroglossidae, which is endemic to northeastern Sichuan and southernmost Gansu provinces, in southwestern China. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of K. rugifera was sequenced. The mitogenome was 17,074bp in length, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, two ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and a non-coding control region. As in other vertebrates, most mitochondrial genes are encoded on the heavy strand, except for ND6 and eight tRNA genes which are encoded on the light strand. The overall base composition of the K. rugifera is 30.32% A, 25.76% C, 29.72% T, and 14.20% G, which is consistent with the lowest frequency for G content in typical amphibian animals' mitochondrial genomes. The alignment of the Kaloula species control regions exhibited high genetic variability and rich A+T content. Besides, 3 types of tandem repeat units were also identified in the control region. Phylogenetic tree demonstrated that K. rugifera was clustered together with K. borealis and K. verrucosa and they had a close relationship with each other. The complete mitogenome of K. rugifera can provide an important data for the studies on phylogenetic relationship to further explore the taxonomic status of Kaloula species.

Molecular phylogenetics and dating of the problematic New Guinea microhylid frogs (Amphibia: Anura) reveals elevated speciation rates and need for taxonomic reclassification.

Asterophryinae is a large monophyletic subfamily of Anurans containing over 300 species distributed across one of the world's most geologically active areas - New Guinea and its satellite islands, Australia and the Philippines. The tremendous ecological and morphological diversity of this clade, with apparent specializations for burrowing, terrestrial, semi-aquatic, and arboreal lifestyle, suggests an evolutionary process of adaptive radiation. Despite this spectacular diversity, this and many other questions of evolutionary processes have received little formal study because until now the phylogeny of this spececies-rich clade has remained uncertain. Here we reconstruct a phylogeny for Asterophryinae with greatly increased taxon and genetic sampling relative to prior studies. We use Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference methods to produce the most robust and comprehensive phylogeny to date containing 155 species using 3 nuclear and 2 mitochondrial loci. We also perform a time calibration analysis to estimate the age of the clade. We find support for the monophyly of Asterophryinae as well as need for taxonomic reclassification of several genera. Furthermore, we find increased rates of speciation across the clade supporting the hypothesis of rapid radiation. Lastly, we found that adding taxa to the analysis produced more robust phylogenetic results over adding loci.

Nomenclatural stability does not justify recognition of paraphyletic taxa: A response to Scherz et al. (2016).

Peloso et al. (2015: PELOSO) published a comprehensive phylogenetic study of the frog family Microhylidae, which resulted in the discovery that several taxa were not monophyletic. To remedy this, a series of nomenclatural changes were proposed (several generic synonymies and two new subfamilies named). A recent study published in this journal by Scherz et al. (2016: SCHERZ), provided a novel phylogeny for the Malagasy subfamily Cophylinae. SCHERZ dispute the analyses and taxonomic conclusions of PELOSO. Their study is, however, based on substantial reduction of data from the PELOSO study, limited addition of new data, and different analytical methods. In spite of the fact that their own results are consistent with the taxonomy of PELOSO, SCHERZ reject that conservative taxonomy and suggest the revalidation of Platypelis (from the synonymy of Cophyla), the revalidation of Stumpffia (from the synonymies of Rhombophryne), and the creation of at least two new genera (only one named therein). In doing so, SCHERZ accept the recognition of likely paraphyletic taxa, with Stumpffia paraphyletic in their parsimony analysis. Herein, we provide a response to several points raised in SCHERZ: (1) we discuss issues with their interpretation (and selective use) of available phylogenetic and phenotypic evidence; (2) and provide a new phylogenetic analysis of all the data in PELOSO and SCHERZ combined. In the new analysis Stumpffia is paraphyletic with respect to Rhombophryne, whereas Cophyla and Platypelis are both monophyletic and sister taxa. We provide a case for the use of the taxonomy suggested in PELOSO.

Genomic data reveals potential for hybridization, introgression, and incomplete lineage sorting to confound phylogenetic relationships in an adaptive radiation of narrow-mouth frogs.

The microhylid frog genus Kaloula is an adaptive radiation spanning the edge of the Asian mainland and multiple adjacent island archipelagos, with much of the clade's diversity associated with an endemic Philippine radiation. Relationships among clades from the Philippines, however, remain unresolved. With ultraconserved element (UCE) and mitogenomic data, we identified highly supported differences in topology and areas of poor resolution, for each marker set. Using the UCE data, we then identified possible instances of contemporary hybridization, past introgression, and incomplete lineage sorting (ILS) within the Philippine Kaloula. Using a simulation approach, and an estimate of the Philippine Kaloula clade origin (12.7-21.0 mya), we demonstrate that an evolutionary history including inferred instances of hybridization, introgression, and ILS leads to phylogenetic reconstructions that show concordance with results from the observed mitogenome and UCE data. In the process of validating a complex evolutionary scenario in the Philippine Kaloula, we provide the first demonstration of the efficacy of UCE data for phylogenomic studies of anuran amphibians.

Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of the Sichuan digging frog Kaloula rugifera (Anura: Microhylidae).

The Sichuan Digging Frog (Kaloula rugifera) belongs to the family Dicroglossidae, which is endemic to northeastern Sichuan and southernmost Gansu provinces, in southwestern China. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of K. rugifera was sequenced. The mitogenome was 17 074 bp in length, consisting of 13 protein-coding genes, 22 transfer RNA (tRNA) genes, 2 ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes, and a non-coding control region. As in other vertebrates, most mitochondrial genes are encoded on the heavy strand, except for ND6 and eight tRNA genes which are encoded on the light strand. The overall base composition of the K. rugifera is 29.7% A, 30.3% T, 25.8% C, and 14.2% G. The alignment of the Kaloula species control regions exhibited high genetic variability and rich A + T content. Phylogenetic tree demonstrated that K. rugifera was clustered together with K. borealis and K. verrucosa and they had a close relationship with each other. The complete mitogenome of K. rugifera can provide an important data for the studies on phylogenetic relationship to further explore the taxonomic status of Kaloula species.

The advertisement call of Stumpffia be Köhler, Vences, D'Cruze & Glaw, 2010 (Anura: Microhylidae: Cophylinae).

We describe the calls of Stumpffia be Köhler, Vences, D'Cruze & Glaw, 2010. This is the first call description made for a species belonging to the large-bodied northern Madagascan radiation of Stumpffia Boettger, 1881. Stumpffia is a genus of small (~9-28 mm) microhylid frogs in the Madagascar-endemic subfamily Cophylinae Cope. Little is known about their reproductive strategies. Most species are assumed to lay their eggs in foam nests in the leaf litter of Madagascar's humid and semi-humid forests (Glaw & Vences 1994; Klages et al. 2013). They exhibit some degree of parental care, with the males guarding the nest after eggs are laid (Klages et al. 2013). The bioacoustic repertoire of these frogs is thought to be limited, and there are two distinct call structures known for the genus: the advertisement call of the type species, S. psologlossa Boettger, 1881, is apparently unique in being a trill of notes repeated in short succession. All other species from which calls are known emit single, whistling or chirping notes (Vences & Glaw 1991; Vences et al. 2006).

The complete mitochondrial genome of Kaloula rugifera (Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae).

We determined the complete mitochondrial genome of Kaloula rugifera in this work. The mitogenome was 17,073 bp in length, containing 13 protein-coding genes, 2 rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and a control region (D-loop). The base composition of the light strand was 29.7% A, 30.4% T, 25.7% C and 14.2% G. The gene order and contents of it is identical to most amphibian mitogenome. All protein-coding genes began with ATG as start codon except ND1 gene beginning with GTG and COI gene beginning with ATA. Five protein-coding genes (COII, ATP 6, COIII, ND3 and ND4) ended with incomplete stop codon T. The 22 tRNA genes with the size ranging from 65 bp to 73 bp were interspersed along the whole genome. The D-loop region containing tandem repetition was 1675 bp in length and heavily biased to A + T nucleotides.

The complete mitochondrial genome of Microhyla butleri (Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae).

The complete mitochondrial genome was determined from a Microhyla butleri, Microhylidae, Microhyla, which was collected from Shenzhen, China. The mitogenome was 16 714 bp in length, containing 13 protein-coding genes, two rRNA genes, 22 tRNA genes and a control region (D-loop). The base composition was 28.7% A, 29.5% T, 27.2% C and 14.6% G. The gene order and contents were identical to most amphibian mitogenome. Except ND1 gene beginning with GTG and COI gene beginning with ATA, all other protein-coding genes began with ATG as start codon. Six protein-coding genes (ND1, COII, ATP6, COIII, ND3 and ND4) ended with incomplete stop codon T. The 22 tRNA genes with the size ranging from 65 bp to 74 bp were interspersed along the whole genome. The D-loop region containing tandem repetition was 1334 bp in length and heavily biased to A + T nucleotides.

An adaptive radiation of frogs in a southeast Asian island archipelago.

Living amphibians exhibit a diversity of ecologies, life histories, and species-rich lineages that offers opportunities for studies of adaptive radiation. We characterize a diverse clade of frogs (Kaloula, Microhylidae) in the Philippine island archipelago as an example of an adaptive radiation into three primary habitat specialists or ecotypes. We use a novel phylogenetic estimate for this clade to evaluate the tempo of lineage accumulation and morphological diversification. Because species-level phylogenetic estimates for Philippine Kaloula are lacking, we employ dense population sampling to determine the appropriate evolutionary lineages for diversification analyses. We explicitly take phylogenetic uncertainty into account when calculating diversification and disparification statistics and fitting models of diversification. Following dispersal to the Philippines from Southeast Asia, Kaloula radiated rapidly into several well-supported clades. Morphological variation within Kaloula is partly explained by ecotype and accumulated at high levels during this radiation, including within ecotypes. We pinpoint an axis of morphospace related directly to climbing and digging behaviors and find patterns of phenotypic evolution suggestive of ecological opportunity with partitioning into distinct habitat specialists. We conclude by discussing the components of phenotypic diversity that are likely important in amphibian adaptive radiations.

Review of the geographical distribution of the white-spotted frog Chiasmocleis albopunctata (Boettger, 1885) (Anura, Microhylidae) / Revisão da distribuição do sapo-de-pintas-brancas Chiasmocleis albopunctata (Boettger, 1885) (Anura, Microhylidae)

This paper presents a review of the geographical distribution of Chiasmocleis albopunctata (Boettger, 1885), based on data from literature, scientific collections, and field notes. Our reviewing significantly enlarges the distribution of the species within the Brazilian territory, with new records for the states of Bahia, Maranhão, and Tocantins. Among all species of the genus, C. albopunctata can be considered the one with the widest latitudinal and altitudinal ranges, as well as greater environmental plasticity.

Este trabalho apresenta uma revisão da distribuição geográfica de Chiasmocleis albopunctata (Boettger, 1885), a partir de dados da literatura, coleções científicas e anotações em campo. Os dados aqui apresentados ampliam consideravelmente a distribuição da espécie dentro do território brasileiro, com novos registros para os estados da Bahia, Maranhão, Tocantins. Dentre todas as espécies do gênero, C. albopunctata pode ser considerada a espécie que apresenta maior variação altitudinal e latitudinal, bem como maior plasticidade ambiental.