Scutiger boulengeri (Bedriaga, 1898)

Common Names

Boulenger's Lazy Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 86; Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 15).

Xizang Alpine Toad (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 80).

Himalayan Stream Frog (Halliday and Adler, 2002, New Encyclop. Rept. Amph.: 82).

Xizang Alpine Toad (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 80).

Boulenger's High Altitude Toad (Schleich, Anders, and Kästle, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 78).

Xizang Alpine Spade Foot Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 5).

Distribution

High elevation western Nepal, east through Sikkim (India), Bhutan (tentative; see comment), and southern and eastern Tibet to Sichuan, eastern Qinghai, and southern Gansu, China, 3300–5270 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bhutan, China, People's Republic of, India, Nepal

Comment

In the Scutiger sikimmensis group, according to Dubois, 1978, Senckenb. Biol., 59: 169. Liu, 1950, Fieldiana, Zool. Mem., 2: 181–185, discussed this species (as Megophrys boulengeri) (including Megalophrys weigoldi Vogt, 1924, in synonymy). Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 16–19, provided an account. See accounts by Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China 134, and Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 80–81. Fei and Ye, 2001, Color Handbook Amph. Sichuan: 124–125, also provided a brief account and illustration. See also brief account by Zhao and Yang, 1997, Amph. Rept. Hengduan Mountains Region: 59–61. Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 172–175, provided an extensive account for Nepalese population. See brief account (as Scutiger alticola) by Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 76. In the Scutiger (Scutiger) boulengeri group of Fei, Ye, Huang, Jiang, and Xie, 2005, in Fei et al. (eds.), Illust. Key Chinese Amph.: 64. Li, Lu, Li, Zhao, Hou, and Zhang, 2005, Sichuan J. Zool., 24: 247, provided additional localities in Xizang. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 178–185, provided an account, spot-map, and illustration. Chen, Bi, and Fu, 2009, Mol. Ecol., 18: 2856–2876, suggested that recognition of Scutiger glandulatus may render Scutiger boulengeri evidentially paraphyletic due to incomplate lineage sorting. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 144–145, provided a brief account including photographs of specimens and habitat. Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 15–17, provided an account for Xizang, China. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted several larval descriptions in the literature. See Shah and Tiwari, 2004, Herpetofauna Nepal: 43, for brief account for Nepal. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 170–171, provided an account, photographs, and a range map. Subba, Ravikanth, and Aravind, 2015, J. Threatened Taxa, 7: 7655–7663, provided a record for Sikkim, India, at 5270 m elevation, and discussed the range and distinctiveness from Scutiger sikkimensis. See comments by Seimon and Seimon, 2015, J. Threatened Taxa, 7: 7849–50, and Subba, Ravikanth, and Aravind, 2015, J. Threatened Taxa, 7: 7851–52. Subba, Ravikanth, and Aravind, 2016, Herpetol. Rev., 47: 251, provided a second record (although stated to be the first) for Sikkim, India. Fei and Ye, 2016, Amph. China, 1: 574–576, provided an account, photograph, and spot map. Yao and Gong, 2012, Amph. Rept. Gansu: 34–35, provided a brief account and photographs. See Khatiwada, Shu, Subedi, Wang, Ohler, Cannatella, Xie, and Jiang, 2019, Asian Herpetol. Res., 10: 139–157, for comment on morphology. Chettri, 2017, Das (ed.), Diversity Ecol. Amph. India: 89–104, discussed the species in Sikkim, India. See account for Tibet, China, by Che, Jiang, Yan, and Zhang, 2020, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 68–73. Wangyal, Bower, Sherub, Tshewang, Wangdi, Rinchen, Puntsho, Tashi, Koirala, Bhandari, Phuntsho, Koirala, Ghalley, Chaida, Tenzin, Powrel, Tshewang, Raika, Jamtsho, Kinley, Gyeltshen, Tashi, Nidup, Wangdi, Phuentsho, Norbu, Wangdi, Wangchuk, Tobgay, Dorji, and Das, 2020, Herpetol. Rev., 51: 793, tentatively identified a photograph as of this species from  Lhuentse District, Bhutan. Khatiwada, Wang, Zhao, Xie, and Jiang, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 1–35, discussed the genetics of the species in Nepal. Lin, Hou, Yang, Shi, Zheng, Shih, Jiang, and Xie, 2023, Zool. Res., Kunming, 44: 3–19, reported on mt- and nu-DNA phylogeography and landscape genetics analysis in the Xizang-Qinghai-Sichuan–Gansu area of China, noting three distinct lineages, with Scutiger mammatus and Scutiger glandulatus nest within these.  

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