Quasipaa spinosa (David, 1875)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Dicroglossidae > Subfamily: Dicroglossinae > Genus: Quasipaa > Species: Quasipaa spinosa

Rana latrans David, 1872 "1871", Nouv. Arch. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, 7: 76. Types: Not stated; presumably in MNHNP but not reported in type lists. Type locality: "torrent des montagnes", Jiangxi Province, China. Junior homonym of Rana latrans Steffen, 1815. Synonymy by David, 1875, J. Trois. Voy. Explor. Emp. Chinoise, 2: 253. Considered by by Thurston, 1888, Cat. Batr. Sal. Apoda S. India: 23, to be a synonym of Rana tigerina.

Rana spinosa David, 1875, J. Trois. Voy. Explor. Emp. Chinoise, 2: 253. Type(s): Not stated, presumably deposited originally in MNHNP. CIB 64I2890 designated neotype by Fei and Ye in Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 3: 1375.Type locality: "Ouang-mao-tsae", (= Wangmaozhai) a mountain village in Jiangxi near the Fujian boundary, China. Neotype from "Guadun, Wuyishan City, Fujian Prov., China; 1100 m".

Nyctibatrachus sinensis Peters, 1882, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1882: 146. Holotype: ZMB 10373 according to Bauer, Günther, and Klipfel, 1995, in Bauer et al. (eds.), Herpetol. Contr. W.C.H. Peters: 49. Type locality: "Lofau-Gebirge [= Mt. Luofu], Provinz Canton [actually Guangzhou]", China. Synonymy by Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 156. See also synonymy of Limnonectes fujianensis.

Rana (Rana) spinosa — Boulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 8; Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 35.

Rana duboisreymondi Vogt, 1921, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1921: 75. Types: Presumably ZMB (2 specimens). Type locality: "chinesischen Bade Kuling auf dem rechten Yangtzeufer bei der Stadt Kin Kinag" = Kuling [= Guling, Lu Shan], right bank of Yangtze Rvier, Kin Kiang [= Jin Jiang, Jiangxi Province], China. Synonymy by Pope, 1931, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 61: 502; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 287; Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 156.

Rana spinosa spinosa — Bourret, 1937, Annexe Bull. Gen. Instr. Publique, Hanoi, 1937: 26.

Hylorana dubois-reymondi — Deckert, 1938, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1938: 144.

Rana chekiensis Angel and Guibé In Angel, Bertin, and Guibé, 1947 "1946", Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 2, 18: 473. Syntypes: MNHNP 1923.16 and 1923.22, by original designation. Type locality: Not given; given as "Changaï" (= Shanghai, China), by Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 35. Synonymy by Zhao and Adler, 1993, Herpetol. China: 149.

Rana (Rana) chekiensis — Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 35.

Rana (Paa) spinosa — Dubois, 1975, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 3, Zool., 324: 1098; Dubois, 1976, Cah. Nepal., Doc., 6: 24; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 43.

Paa (Paa) spinosa — Fei, Ye, and Huang, 1990, Key to Chinese Amph.: 157; Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 284; Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 208.

Paa (Quasipaa) spinosa — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 320.

Nanorana spinosa — Chen, Murphy, Lathrop, Ngo, Orlov, Ho, and Somorjai, 2005, Herpetol. J., 15: 239, by implication.

Quasipaa spinosa — Frost, 2006, Amph. Spec. World, vers. 4.0: 358.

English Names

Chinese Spiny Frog (Karsen, Lau, and Bogadek, 1986, Hong Kong Amph. Rept.: 23; Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 24).

Chinese Edible Frog (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 128).

Giant Spiny Frog (Karsen, Lau, and Bogadek, 1986, Hong Kong Amph. Rept.: 23; Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 208).

Spiny Paa Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 103).

Distribution

Northeastern Vietnam (see comment) east and north through southern and eastern Guangxi and southern Guangdong and Hong Kong to southeastern Hubei, southern Anhui, and northern Zhejiang, east throughout to the Pacific coast, 200–1500 m elevation; expected in northeastern Myanmar (Shan) and northern Laos.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: China, People's Republic of, Hong Kong, Vietnam

Likely/Controversially Present: Laos, Myanmar

Comment

Discussed by Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 287–291; Pope, 1931, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 61: 500–508; and Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 156–159. See also Chang, 1947, Trans. Chinese Assoc. Adv. Sci., 9: 93. Removed from the synonymy of Rana boulengeri by Chang, 1947, Trans. Chinese Assoc. Adv. Sci., 9: 93, where it had been placed by Boulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 74. See accounts by Yang, 1991, Amph. Fauna of Yunnan: 149–151; Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 284; and Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 208–210. Karsen, Lau, and Bogadek, 1986, Hong Kong Amph. Rept.: 23, provided a brief account. Huang, 1990, Fauna Zhejiang, Amph. Rept.: 72–73, provided an account (as Rana spinosa) for Zhejiang populations. Zhang and Wen, 2000, Amph. Guangxi: 114, provided an account for Guangxi. Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 25, provided specific localities for Vietnam. Yang, 2008, in Yang and Rao (ed.), Amph. Rept. Yunnan: 82–83, provided a brief account (as Paa spinosa) for Yunnan, China. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Paa spinosa) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 492.  Yu and Zheng, 2009, Curr. Zool., Chengdu, 55: 411–415, reported on the advertisement call. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 3: 1375–1382, provided an account (as Paa spinosa) for China, figures, and map, and included this species in their Paa spinosa group. Not addressed, and therefore not assigned to subgenus, by Che, Zhou, Hu, Papenfuss, Wake, and Zhang, 2010, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 107: 13765–13770, and Che, Zhou, Hu, Papenfuss, Wake, and Zhang, 2010, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, Suppl. Inform., doi:10.1073/pnas.1008415107/-/DCSupplemental: 2. Yu, Zheng, Zhang, and Liu, 2010, J. Nat. Hist., London, 44: 1749–1741, reported on geographic variation (as Paa spinosa) among populations from Zhengjiang, southern Jiangxi, northeastern Hunan, and north-central Guangdong, China. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 366–367, provided a brief account (as Paa spinosa) for China including photographs. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 470–471, provided an account, photographs, and a range map for China. Yu, Zheng, Lu, Yang, Fu, and Zhang, 2016, Asian Herpetol. Res., 7: 75–86, reported on geographic variation of genetic markers, identifying four distinct groups which they suggested are species. Shen, 2014, Fauna Hunan, Amph.: 290–293, provided an account for Hunan, China. Li, 2011, Amph. Rept. Guangdong: 59, provided a brief account for Guangdong, China, and photograph. Zhang, 2017, Amph. Rept. Fanjing Mts.: 157–160, provided taxonomic and natural history information for the Fanjing Mountains population in northeastern Guizhou, China. Luo, Wang, Yang, Cheng, Liu, and Hu, 2021, Frontiers Zool., 18 (14): 1–14, reported on molecular phylogeography and the expected effects on range caused by climate warming. Records from Vietnam may be assignable to Quasipaa acanthophora, if that taxon is recognized. Yan, Nneji, Jin, Yuan, Chen, Mi, Chen, Murphy, and Che, 2021, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 163 (107218): 1–7, found mtDNA evidence of hybridization with Quasipaa spinosa, and reported on phylogeography and phylogenetics, excluding Quasipaa spinosa from the Yunnan, China, fauna. They did not include any samples from Vietnam, so, these (and the status of Quasipaa acanthophora)  require confirmation. Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 24, briefly discussed identification, habitat, and expected range in Myanmar.   

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