Duttaphrynus bengalensis (Daudin, 1802)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Bufonidae > Genus: Duttaphrynus > Species: Duttaphrynus bengalensis

Bufo bengalensis Daudin, 1802 "An. XI", Hist. Nat. Rain. Gren. Crap., Quarto: 96. Holotype: Frog figured on page 96, pl. 35, fig. 1, and deposited in MNHNP; now lost according to Dubois and Ohler, 1999, J. South Asian Nat. Hist., 4: 145, who designated MNHNP 4967 neotype. Type locality: "Bengale"; neotype from the same type locality. Synonymy under Bufo melanostictus by Gravenhorst, 1829, Delic. Mus. Zool. Vratislav., 1: 57; Kelaart, 1853, Prodr. Faunae Zeylan., 1: 194. Synonymy (with Bufo scaber and Bufo melanostictus, as Bufo scaber) by Duméril and Bibron, 1841, Erp. Gen., 6: 699; Girard, 1858, U.S. Explor. Exped. 1838–1842, 20: 92; Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 61; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 306.

Bufo carinatus Gray, 1830, Illust. Indian Zool., Part 1: pl. 83. Holotype: Animal originally figured; possibly originally in collection of Thomas Hardwicke, possibly subsequently deposited in the BMNH; now lost according to Dubois and Ohler, 1999, J. South Asian Nat. Hist., 4: 146, who designated MNHNP 4967 neotype. Type locality: "Bengal"; neotype from "Bengale". Synonymy with Bufo melanostictus by Kelaart, 1853, Prodr. Faunae Zeylan., 1: 194; Girard, 1858, U.S. Explor. Exped. 1838–1842, 20: 92; Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 61; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 306. Provisionally placed in this synonymy on the basis of geography (see comment). 

Bufo isos Lesson, 1834, in Bélanger (ed.), Voy. Indes-Orientales N. Eur. Caucase Georgie Perse, Zool.: 333. Type(s): Including animal figured on pl. 7 of the Atlas volume of the original. Syntypes are MNHNP 4966–67, according to Guibé, 1950 "1948", Cat. Types Amph. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat.: 13; this rejected by Dubois and Ohler, 1999, J. South Asian Nat. Hist., 4: 147, who noted that the description rests on a single specimen MNHNP 4967, presumably the same animal figured. Type locality: "Bengale". Synonymy with Bufo melanostictus by Steindachner, 1867, Reise Österreichischen Fregatte Novara, Zool., Amph.: 42; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 306. Recognized without discussion by Bourret, 1927, Fauna Indochine, Vert., 3: 260. Provisionally placed in this synonymy on the basis of geography (see comment). 

Ansonia kamblei Ravichandran and Pillai, 1990, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 86: 506. Holotype: ZSI-WRS V/198, by original designation. Type locality: "Jeur, 29 Km North of Tembhurni, Karnala, Dist.: Sholapur, Maharashtra State, Field Station No. 6", India. Synonymy with Bufo melanostictus by Dubois and Ohler, 1999, J. South Asian Nat. Hist., 4: 167. Provisionally placed in this synonymy on the basis of geography (see comment). 

Bufo melanostictus hazarensis Khan, 2001, Pakistan J. Zool., 33: 297. Syntypes: Not designated by number or museum, presumably in M.S. Khan's personal collection. Type localities: "Ooghi, Manshera, and Data, Hazara Division, eastern NWFP [= Northwest Frontier Province], Pakistan". Invalid name due to not citing a type specimen (ICZN Art. 16.4.2) according to Jablonski, Masroor, and Hofmann, 2022, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 98: 276.

Duttaphrynus melanostictus hazarensis — Akram, Rais, López-Hervas, Tarvin, Saeed, Bolnick, and Cannatella, 2021, Ecol. Evol., 11: 14184. 

English Names

Hazara Toad (Bufo melanostictus hazarensis: Khan, 2002, Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc., 37: 159).

Wrinkled-skin Toad (Bufo camortensis [no longer recognized]: Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 19).

Southeast Asian Broad-skulled Toad (Khan, 2001, Pakistan J. Zool., 33: 294).

Maharashtra Stream Toad (Ansonia kamblei: Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 63).

Common Indian Toad (Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 40).

Common Indian Toad (Daniel, 1963, J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 60: 435; Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 16).

Keeled-nosed Toad (Gray, 1830, Illust. Indian Zool., Part 1: pl. 83).

Indian Toad (Kelaart, 1853, Prodr. Faunae Zeylan., 1: 194).

Bengal True Toad (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 2). 

Distribution

India east and north from the Western Ghats, Nepal, and northern Pakistan and throughout Bangladesh, provisionally in Bhutan, expected in northern Myanmar; apparently introduced to Indonesia, East and West Malaysia, and Singapore. Range is provisional; see comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan

Likely/Controversially Present: Bhutan, Myanmar

Introduced: Malaysia, Malaysia, East (Sarawak and/or Sabah), Malaysia, West (Peninsular), Singapore

Comment

As partitioned out of Duttaphrynus melanostictus by Jablonski, Masroor, and Hofmann, 2022, Zoosyst. Evol., Berlin, 98: 275–284, the eastern (into Myanmar?), southern (into Sri Lanka?), and southeastern (into the Andaman Is.?) limit of the range is poorly understood. These authors recognized 3, possibly 4, lineages within the name Duttaphrynus melanostictus on molecular grounds, applying names to two of these. See comment under Duttaphrynus melanostictus. Daniel, 1963, J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 60: 435, provided a brief account for India (as Bufo melanostictus). Khan, 2006, Amph. Rept. Pakistan: 43–44, provided a brief account for Pakistan (as Bufo melanostictus) as did Lim and Lim, 1992, Guide Amph. Rept. Singapore: 122–123. Ray, 1999, Mem. Zool. Surv. India, 18: 61–64, provided an account for northeastern India (as Bufo melanostictus).  Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 19–20, provided a brief account for Bufo melanostictus in India, and (p. 202) for Ansonia kamblei. Chakravorty, Borah, and Bordoloi, 2002, Bull. Life Sci., India, 10: 47–54, described larval morphology at Gosner stage 38 from a population in Assam, India (provisionally assigned to this species on the basis of geography). Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 101–106, provided an account (as Bufo melanostictus) for South India. Ahmed, Das, and Dutta, 2009, Amph. Rept. NE India: 25, provided a brief account (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus), with photograph, for northeastern India. Mahony, Hasan, Kabir, Ahmed, and Hossain, 2009, Hamadryad, 34: 80–94, provided a record for Bangladesh (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus). See Shah and Tiwari, 2004, Herpetofauna Nepal: 33, for brief account (as Bufo melanostictus) for Nepal.. Das, Chetia, Dutta, and Sengupta, 2013, Zootaxa, 3646: 336–348, compared this species (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus) with other Duttaphrynus from northeastern India. Masroor, 2012, Contr. Herpetol. N. Pakistan: 43–45, provided an account (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus) for northern Pakistan and noted literature where this species had been confused with Duttaphrynus stomaticus, rendering erroneous distributional statements, particularly with respect to Sindh. Subba, Aravind, and Ravikanth, 2016, Check List, 13(1: 2033): 1–14, provided records (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus) for Sikkim, India.  Deuti, Sethy, and Ray, 2014, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 114: 122, provided a very brief account (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus) for the population of the Eastern Ghats, southern India. Roy, Begum, and Ahmed, 2019, J. Threatened Taxa, 10: 12942, discussed the range (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus) in Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India. O'Connell, Aryal, Sherchan, Dhakal, Chaudhary, and Karmacharya, 2019, J. Nat. Hist., London, 53: 1421-1437, reported on the Kathmandu Valley population (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus), Nepal. Sreekumar and Dinesh, 2020, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 120: 33–40, discussed (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus) the range in Maharashtra, India, in terms of agro-climatic zones. Prasad, Gautam, Gupta, Murthy, Ramesh, Shinde, and Das, 2020, Zootaxa, 4851: 450–476, reported (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus) on morphology and advertisement call for a population in the Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, central India. Gautam, Chalise, Thapa, and Bhattarai, 2020, IRCF Rept. & Amph., 27: 18–28, briefly discussed (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus) abundance and elevational range in the Ghandruk region of central Nepal. See comments by Hakim, Trageser, Ghose, Das, Rashid, and Rahman, 2020, Check List, 16: 1239–1268, who reported (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus) the species from Lawachara National Park, Sylhet Division, northeastern Bangladesh. Akram, Rais, López-Hervas, Tarvin, Saeed, Bolnick, and Cannatella, 2021, Ecol. Evol., 11: 14184, suggested, based on genetic distance among samples that Duttaphrynus melanostictus hazarensis may be a distinct species from Duttaphrynus melanostictus melanostictus, but did not make the taxonomic change pending a densely-sampled study across the entire range. Rais, Ahmed, Sajjad, Akram, Saeed, Hamid, and Abid, 2021, ZooKeys, 1062: 157–175, included this species in an identification key to the amphibian species of Pakistan as well as providing a photograph (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus). Srinivasulu and Kumar, 2022, J. Threatened Taxa, 14: 21268, reported the species from the state of Telangana, south-central India. Indra, Roesma, and Tjong, 2021, J. Trop. Life Sci., 11: 383–387, provided records from West Sumatra, as Duttaphrynus melanostictus, which appear from their molecular tree to be Duttaphrynus bengalensis, outside of a clade composed to Duttaphrynus melanostictus + Duttaphrynus himalayanus. Figueroa, Low, and Lim, 2023, Zootaxa, 5287: 1–378, provided records and literature for Singapore. Reported (as Duttaphrynus melanostictus) from the vicinity of Karak and Buner, southern to central Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, northern Pakistan by Majid, Azim, Nawaz, and Ud Din, 2023, Asian J. Res. Zool., 6: 56. Raj, 2023, J. Threatened Taxa, 15: 24214–24218, described larvae (as Duttaphrynus cf. melanostictus) from Banasuramala Hills, Kalpetta, Wayanad, Kerala, India, provisionally referred here to Duttaphrynus bengalensis to reflect the recent species partition. 

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