A REVISION OF SPECIES IN THE SUBGENUS NIDIRANA DUBOIS, 1992, WITH SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE IDENTITY OF SPECIMENS ALLOCATED TO RANA ADENOPLEURA BOULENGER, 1909, AND RANA CHAPAENSIS (BOURRET, 1937) (AMPHIBIA: ANURA: RANIDAE) FROM THAILAND AND LAOS

摘要

Examination of specimens of ranid frogs in the subgenus Nidirana Dubois, 1992, confirms the uniqueness of these frogs based on external morphological, morphometrical and behavioral characters. The results separate the species of Nidirana into three species groups as 1) Rana okinavana group (including three species, Rana chapaensis (Bourret, 1937), Rana daunchina Chang, 1933, and Rana okinavana Boettger, 1895); 2) Rana adenopleura group (including three species, Rana adenopleura Boulenger, 1909, Ranacaldwelli Schmidt, 1925, and Rana lini Chou, 1999); and 3) Rana pleuraden group (including one species, Rana pleuraden Boulenger, 1934). The revalidation of Rana caldwelli by Dubois (1992) was confirmed by morphological and morphometrical data as presented in the result. The specimens from Thailand previously listed as Rana adenopleura and Rana chapaensis are re-allocated to Rana lini based on external morphological characteristics. As for Laos, three specimens referred to Rana chapaensis were restudiedand were assigned to Rana lini. To clarify some confusions of the original description of Rana lini, we provide here a re-description based on specimens from Thailand. Following our study, the recent distribution of Rana lini includes China (Yunnan Province), Laos (Xieang Khouang Province) and Thailand (Loei and Phetchabun Provinces). Rana chapaensis is known from Laos (Saravan Province) and Vietnam (Ha Tinh and Lao Cai provinces).