Quasipaa boulengeri (Günther, 1889)

English Names

Boulenger's Paa Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 102).

Spiny-bellied Frog (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 204).

Boulenger's Spiny Frog (Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 24).

Distribution

Northern Vietnam from Cao Bang, Song La, Nghe An, Ha Giang, Bac Kan, and Tuyen Quang Provinces (see comment), north to southern and southwestern China, from the Vietnam border area northward to Sichuan (Hechuan County), southern Shaanxi, southern Gansu, and east to western Jianxian and southern Hunan, isolated population in southern Shanxi, 300–1900 m elevation.

Comment

From 2009 to 2021, this nominal species usually included Quasipaa robertingeri as a synonym, removed from that synonymy of Quasipaa boulengeri by  Wang, Du, Wei, Wang, Li, and Lu, 2021, MtDNA, Part B, 6: 668, where it had been placed by Che, Hu, Zhou, Murphy, Papenfuss, Chen, Rao, Li, and Zhang, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 50: 71 and  Zhang, Zhang, Yu, Storey, and Zheng, 2018, BMC Evol. Biol., 18(26): 12. As a result caution should be employed using that literature. Account (including Rana spinosa) provided by Liu, 1950, Fieldiana, Zool. Mem., 2: 263–272. See Rana spinosa. See also account by Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 295–299, and (as Rana tibetana) by Boulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 70. See accounts by Yang, 1991, Amph. Fauna of Yunnan: 120–122; Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 273; Zhao and Yang, 1997, Amph. Rept. Hengduan Mountains Region: 84–85, and Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 204–206. See comments under Quasipaa verrucospinosa. Fan, Guo, and Liu, 1998, Amph. Rept. Shanxi Prov.: 71–73, provided an account (as Paa boulengeri) for Shanxi. Zhang and Wen, 2000, Amph. Guangxi: 110, provided an account (as Paa boulengeri) for Guangxi. Fei and Ye, 2001, Color Handbook Amph. Sichuan: 182–184, provided a brief account and illustration (as Paa boulengeri). Bain and Nguyen, 2004, Am. Mus. Novit., 3453: 1–42, provided a record for Ha Giang Province, Vietnam. Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 24, provided specific localities for Vietnam. Yang, 2008, in Yang and Rao (ed.), Amph. Rept. Yunnan: 83–84, provided a brief account (as Paa boulengeri) for Yunnan, China. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Paa boulengeri) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 489. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 3: 1351–1361, provided an account (as Paa boulengeri) for China, figures, and map, and included this species in their Paa boulengeri group. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 360–361 (as Paa boulengeri), provided a brief account for China including photographs of specimens and habitat. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543–583, in their study of Genbank sequences, did not find Quasipaa robertingeri to be adjacent to Quasipaa boulengeri. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 460–461, provided accounts (Quasipaa boulengeri: 460–461; Quasipaa robertingeri: 466–467), photographs, and range maps for China. Yao and Gong, 2012, Amph. Rept. Gansu: 51, provided a brief account and photographs. Yan, Zhou, Zhao, Yuan, Wang, Jiang, Jin, Murphy, Che, and Zhang, 2013, Mol. Ecol., 22: 1120–113, reported on mtDNA phylogeography. Shan, Xia, Zheng, Zou, and Zeng, 2014, Mitochondrial DNA, 25: 83–84, reported the complete mtDNA genome. Zhang, 2017, Amph. Rept. Fanjing Mts.: 153–155, provided taxonomic and natural history information for the Fanjing Mountains population in northeastern Guizhou, China. Yuan, Yuan, Liu, Xia, and Zeng, 2017, Genome, 60: 707–711, reported on chromosomal rearrangement polymorphisms.  Zhang, Zhang, Yu, Storey, and Zheng, 2018, BMC Evol. Biol., 18(26): 11, discussed the status of Quasipaa robertingeri and confirmed its synonymy with Quasipaa boulengeri (but see Quasipaa robertingeri record). Shen, 2014, Fauna Hunan, Amph.: 278–283, provided an account for Hunan, China. Xia, Yuan, Luo, Yuan, and Zeng, 2020, Frontiers in Genetics, 10 (1364): 1–13, reported on evolution of chromosomal translocations. Le, Luong, Pham, Phan, Nguyen, Ziegler, and Nguyen, 2021, Bonn Zool. Bull., 70: 201–219, provided natural history notes and a record from Tuyen Quang Province, Vietnam. Poyarkov, Nguyen, Popov, Geissler, Pawangkhanant, Neang, Suwannapoom, and Orlov, 2021, Russ. J. Herpetol., 28 (3A): 26–27, implied that this nominal species is a species complex by referring to it as Quasipaa cf. boulengeri and stating that the taxonomic status of the Vietnam population requires study. Yan, Nneji, Jin, Yuan, Chen, Mi, Chen, Murphy, and Che, 2021, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 163 (107218): 1–7, reported on phylogenetics and phylogeography, and recovered populations from Tam Dao, Vinh Phu, Vietnam and Pingbian, Yunnan, China, as an unnamed species, closely related to Quasipaa boulengeri. Luong, Do, Hoang, Phan, Nguyen, and Pham, 2022, Biodiversity Data J., 10(e75595): 12–13, provided a record, photograph, and description of a specimen from Bac Kan Province, Vietnam. 

External links:

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• For additional sources of information from other sites search Google
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• To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
• For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
• For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist; for a quick link to their maps see iNaturalist KML
• For additional information specific to China see Amphibia China
• For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.