Theloderma albopunctatum (Liu and Hu, 1962)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Rhacophoridae > Subfamily: Rhacophorinae > Genus: Theloderma > Species: Theloderma albopunctatum

Philautus albopunctatus Liu and Hu, 1962, Acta Zool. Sinica, 14 (Supplement): 73, 99, 104. Holotype: CIB 601686, by original designation. Type locality: "Yang-liu-chung, Yaoshan, altitude 1350 m, Kwangsi [= Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region]", China. 

Philautus (Philautus) albopunctatus — Bossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 53.

Aquixalus albopunctatus — Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 705. See comment under Philautus.

Liuixalus albopunctatus — Hertwig, Das, Schweizer, Brown, and Haas, 2012, Zool. Scripta, 41: 29-46. See comment.

Theloderma (Theloderma) albopunctatum — Poyarkov, Orlov, Moiseeva, Pawangkhanant, Ruangsuwan, Vassilieva, Galoyan, Nguyen, and Gogoleva, 2015, Russ. J. Herpetol., 22: 241. 

English Names

Dotted Bubble-nest Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 111).

Warty Tree Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 67; Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 120).

Rough-skinned Small Treefrog (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 258).

Cobalt-gray Warted Frog (Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 150).

Pied Warted Treefrog (Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 162).

Rough-skinned Whistling Tree Frog (Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 41).

Rough-skinned Small Treefrog (Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 425, as Aquixalus asper).

Rough Paddle-leg Frog (Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 72).

White-banded Small Treefrog (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 258, as Philautus albopunctatus).

White-patterned Small Treefrog (Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 425, as Philautus albopunctatus).

White-spotted Bug-eyed Frog (Nguyen, Brakels, Maury, Sudavanh, Pawangkhanant, Idiiatullina, Lorphengsy, Inkhavilay, Suwannapoom, and Poyarkov, 2020, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 14 (2: e248): 229).

Distribution

Known with confidence only from the southern China (Hainan, Guangxi, and Yunnan and expected in Guangdong, Hunan, and Fujian), central and northern Vietnam and Laos and southeastern Cambodia; populations from northeastern India, Myanmar, to and including Thailand are provisionally attached to this species but likely represent a complex of unnamed species.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Cambodia, China, People's Republic of, India, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Theloderma asperum by Poyarkov, Orlov, Moiseeva, Pawangkhanant, Ruangsuwan, Vassilieva, Galoyan, Nguyen, and Gogoleva, 2015, Russ. J. Herpetol., 22: 241, where it had been placed by Yu, Rao, Yang, and Zhang, 2007, Zool. Res., Kunming, 28): 437–442; and Yu, Rao, Yang, and Zhang, 2008, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 153: 745. See Taylor, 1962, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 43: 519–522, for account. See account (as Philautus asperrimus) by Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 465–467. Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 258–260, provided a brief account (under Philautus asper), map, and figure. Reported for southwestern Cambodia by Ohler, Swan, and Daltry, 2002, Raffles Bull. Zool., 50: 465–481. Stuart, 1999, in Duckworth et al. (eds.), Wildlife in Lao PDR: 49, reported the species (as Philautus asperrimus) in the foothills of the Annamite Mountains in Laos. Bain and Nguyen, 2004, Am. Mus. Novit., 3453: 32, provided the record for Ha Giang Province, Vietnam (as Theloderma asperum). Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 162–163, provided a very brief account, map for Thailand, and photograph. Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 41, provided specific localities for Vietnam and (p. 150) a photograph. Stuart, Sok, and Neang, 2006, Raffles Bull. Zool., 54: 143, provided a record for eastern Cambodia. Stuart, 2005, Herpetol. Rev., 36: 479, provided a specific locality for Laos. Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 109, provided bibliography and range. Ao, Bordoloi, and Ohler, 2003, Zoos' Print J., 18: 1117–1125, provided a specific locality for Nagaland, northeastern India. Sarkar and Ray, 2006, In Alfred (ed.), Fauna of Arunachal Pradesh, Part 1: 301, provided a brief report for Arunachal Pradesh. See Orlov, Dutta, Ghate, and Kent, 2006, Russ. J. Herpetol., 13: 155–175, for brief comments. Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 258–259, provided a brief account, map, and figure (as Philautus albopunctatus). Zhang and Wen, 2000, Amph. Guangxi: 119, provided an account for Guangxi (as Philautus albopunctatus). Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 34, provided specific localities for Vietnam (as Philautus albopunctatus). Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 712–714 (as Aquixalus asper), for China and spot map. Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 120, provided a brief characterization and photographs. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 425 Aquixalus asper) provided brief accounts for China including photographs. Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 72–73, for Xizang, China.  Li, Chen, Li, Lv, and Wang, 2011, Asian Herpetol. Res., Ser. 2, 2: 135, provided photographs of the holotype of Philautus albopunctatus. Rowley, Le, Hoang, Dau, and Cao, 2011, Zootaxa, 3098: 1–20, suggested that this name covers a complex of species. Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 258–259, provided a brief account, map, and figure as Philautus albopunctatus. Zhang and Wen, 2000, Amph. Guangxi: 119, provided an account for Guangxi. Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 34, provided specific localities for Vietnam (as Philautus albopunctatus). Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 705–708, provided an account (as Aquixalus albopunctatus). Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 425 (as Aquixalus albopunctatus) provided brief accounts for China including photographs. Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 69, provided an account (as Philautus albopunctatus). Hertwig, Das, Schweizer, Brown, and Haas, 2012, Zool. Scripta, 41: 29–46, in using the Genbank sequences for Philautus albopunctatus (EU215526/12S and 16S; voucher KIZ 061209YP), recovered Philautus albopunctatus, not as a synonym of Theloderma asperum, but as a member of Liuixalus. However, Yu, Rao, Yang, and Zhang, 2007, Zool. Res., Kunming, 28: 437–442, Yu, Rao, Yang, and Zhang, 2008, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 153: 733–749, using multiple samples of putative Philautus albopunctatus into the synonymy of Theloderma asperum. Given that the accession record EU215526 is tied to a publication (Li, Che, Bain, Zhao, and Zhang, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 48: 302–312) that did not include that sequence in their analysis, at this juncture in time I suspect that the sequence used by Hertwig et al., 2012, actually represents an unnamed species of Liuixalus. Regardless, its use by Hertwig et al., 2012, in no way affects the conclusions of their study of Philautus. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 502–503, provided accounts (as Aquixalus albopunctatus and Aquixalus asper), photographs, and range maps for China. A record for Thuong Tien Nature Reserve, Hoa Binh Province, in northern Vietnam, reported by Luu, Le, Do, Hoang, Nguyen, Bonkowski, and Ziegler, 2014, Herpetol. Notes, 7: 51–58. Poyarkov, Orlov, Moiseeva, Pawangkhanant, Ruangsuwan, Vassilieva, Galoyan, Nguyen, and Gogoleva, 2015, Russ. J. Herpetol., 22: 241–280, partitioned the species, resurrecting the name Theloderma albopunctatum for this species and retaining the name Theloderma asperum for the Malayan population, with the mutual ranges poorly understood. In the subgenus Theloderma, Theloderma asperum species group of Poyarkov, Orlov, Moiseeva, Pawangkhanant, Ruangsuwan, Vassilieva, Galoyan, Nguyen, and Gogoleva, 2015, Russ. J. Herpetol., 22: 276. Hou, Yu, Chen, Liao, Zhang, Chen, Li, and Orlov, 2017, Russ. J. Herpetol., 24: 116–117, discussed the known range and previous taxonomic literature. Poyarkov, Nguyen, Duong, Gorin, and Yang, 2018, PeerJ, 6 (e5771): 17, provided records for Cat Ba National Park, Hai Phong Province, and from Cuc Phuong National Park, Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam. Niyomwan, Srisom, and Pawangkhanant, 2019, Field Guide Amph. Thailand: 442–443, provided a brief account (description, photographs, habitat, and range) for Thailand (in Thai). Nguyen, Brakels, Maury, Sudavanh, Pawangkhanant, Idiiatullina, Lorphengsy, Inkhavilay, Suwannapoom, and Poyarkov, 2020, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 14 (2: e248): 218–249, briefly discussed the natural history and range and provided a record for Xaisomboun Province, Laos. Poyarkov, Nguyen, Popov, Geissler, Pawangkhanant, Neang, Suwannapoom, and Orlov, 2021, Russ. J. Herpetol., 28 (3A): 62, suggested that Cambodian and Laotian populations require further study. Ginal, Mühlenbein, and Rödder, 2021, North-West. J. Zool., Romania, 17: 65–72, reported on the advertisement call. Chunskul, Thongproh, Simmasian, Arkajag, Tongpun, Kanishthajata, Prompalad, Duangjai, Duengkae, Phochayavanich, Chuaynkern, and Chuaynkern, 2021, Biodiversitas, 22: 5145–5161, described larval morphology from central Thailand and provided molecular markers for these populations and a tree comparing them to other populations of nominal Theloderma albopunctatum. Ginal, Schmitz, and Rödder, 2022, Zootaxa, 5214: 595–599, described and compared larval morphology from populations n northern Vietnam and northeastern Thailand. 

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