Boulenophrys minor (Stejneger, 1926)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Megophryidae > Subfamily: Megophryinae > Genus: Boulenophrys > Species: Boulenophrys minor

Megophrys minor Stejneger, 1926, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 39: 53. Holotype: USNM 68816, by original designation. Type locality: "On mountain, about 3000 feet altitude, above Kwanghsien [now Guan Xian (mountain), Dujiangyan City], 55 kilometers northwest of Chengtu [= Chengdu], Szechwan [= Sichuan], China".

Megophrys (Megophrys) minor — Dubois, 1980, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 49: 472.

Megophrys minor minor — Ye and Fei, 1995, Acta Herpetol. Sinica, 4–5: 75-76.

Panophrys minor — Rao and Yang, 1997, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 7: 98; Lyu, Zeng, Wang, Liu, Huang, Li, and Wang, 2021, Zootaxa, 4927: 12. 

Megophrys (Xenophrys) minor — Dubois and Ohler, 1998, Dumerilia, 4: 14.

Megophrys minor minor — Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 118.

Xenophrys minor — Ohler, 2003, Alytes, 21: 23, by implication; Delorme, Dubois, Grosjean, and Ohler, 2006, Alytes, 24: 17; Chen, Zhou, Poyarkov, Stuart, Brown, Lathrop, Wang, Yuan, Jiang, Hou, Chen, Suwannapoom, Nguyen, Duong, Papenfuss, Murphy, Zhang, and Che, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 106: 41.

Boulenophrys minor — Fei and Ye, 2016, Amph. China, 1: 660; Dubois, Ohler, and Pyron, 2021, Megataxa, 5: 413; Qi, Lyu, Wang, Mo, Zeng, Zeng, Dai, Li, Grismer, and Wang, 2021, Zootaxa, 5072: 404.

Xenophrys (Panophrys) minor — Chen, Zhou, Poyarkov, Stuart, Brown, Lathrop, Wang, Yuan, Jiang, Hou, Chen, Suwannapoom, Nguyen, Duong, Papenfuss, Murphy, Zhang, and Che, 2017, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 109: 41.

Megophrys (Panophrys) minor — Mahony, Foley, Biju, and Teeling, 2017, Mol. Biol. Evol., 34: 755. 

Common Names

Kwangshien Spadefoot Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 86).

Little Horned Toad (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 118).

Dwarf Horned Frog (Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 84).

Tiny Spadefoot Toad (Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 14).

Lesser Horned Toad (Poyarkov, Nguyen, Popov, Geissler, Pawangkhanant, Neang, Suwannapoom, and Orlov, 2021, Russ. J. Herpetol., 28 (3A): 37). 

Distribution

Restricted on molecular evidence to Dujiangyan City, at elevations of 1200–1400 m, Sichuan, China. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: China, People's Republic of

Likely/Controversially Present: Bhutan, India, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam

Endemic: China, People's Republic of

Comment

Prior to 2023 and the decision by Lyu, Qi, Wang, Zhang, Zhao, Zeng, Wan, Yang, Mo, and Wang, 2023, Zool. Res., Kunming, 44: 412 (who provided a discussion of this topic), to restrict this member of the Boulenophrys minor group on the basis of molecular evidence to the population from Sichuan, China, the name had been applied to many populations across tropical and subtropical Asia (e.g., from Guizhou, eastern Xizang, Sichuan, northern and northeastern Yunnan, extreme western Hunan, and extreme northwestern Guangxi and northern Guangdong, China; northwestern Vietnam (Lao Cai Province); and one questionable record in eastern Arunachal Pradesh, India, and another in Bhutan). See records of Boulenophrys chishuiensis, Boulenophrys jiangi, Boulenophrys binchuanensis, Boulenophrys leishanensis, and Boulenophrys shunhuangensis, all of which at one time were referred to Boulenophrys minor. The following literature should therefore be employed with caution. 

See Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 68, and Liu, 1950, Fieldiana, Zool. Mem., 2: 185–191. See comments under Megophrys wuliangshanensis and Megophrys wushanensis. See account s by Yang, 1991, Amph. Fauna of Yunnan: 42–46; Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 170. Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 118–119, provided a brief account, figure, and map. Fei and Ye, 2001, Color Handbook Amph. Sichuan: 148–149, provided a brief account and illustration. Zhang and Wen, 2000, Amph. Guangxi: 45, provided an account for Guangxi. Orlov, Murphy, Ananjeva, Ryabov, and Ho, 2002, Russ. J. Herpetol., 9: 83, provided the Vietnam component of the range statement. Jiang, Xie, Fei, Ye, and Zheng, 2002, Zool. Res., Kunming, 23: 89–94, reported on vocalization. See also brief account by Zhao and Yang, 1997, Amph. Rept. Hengduan Mountains Region: 45–46. Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 14, provided a specific locality for Vietnam. Yang, 2008, in Yang and Rao (ed.), Amph. Rept. Yunnan: 30–31, provided a brief account for Yunnan, China. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 438–443, provided an account for China and spot map. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 199, provided a brief account including photographs. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 227, provided an account, photographs, and a range map for China. Wangyal, 2013, J. Threatened Taxa, 5: 4777, provided a record from Mongar District, southeast-central Bhutan although this identification requires confirmation. Mahony, Teeling, and Biju, 2013, Zootaxa, 3722: 151, commented on the one record for India, noting that it is based on one old, dehydrated specimen but clearly not Megophrus angka; they tentatively accepted the identification as Megophrys minor, but suggested that confirmation on the ground is required. Fei and Ye, 2016, Amph. China, 1: 660–652, provided an account, photographs, and dot map as Boulenophrys minor. Li, 2011, Amph. Rept. Guangdong: 29, provided a brief account for Guangdong, China, and photograph. Wang, Zhao, Yang, Zhou, Chen, and Liu, 2014, PLoS One, 9(4)(e93075): 1–15, discussed the advertisement call. Zhang, 2017, Amph. Rept. Fanjing Mts.: 82–84, provided taxonomic and natural history information for the Fanjing Mountains population in northeastern Guizhou, China. Deuti, Grosjean, Nicolas, Vasudevan, and Ohler, 2017, Alytes, 34: 20–48, provided comparative morphological data and a molecular tree that places this species phylogeneticall. Thailand records now referred to Megophrys angka. Wu, Suwannapoom, Poyarkov, Chen, Pawangkhanant, Xu, Jin, Murphy, and Che, 2019, Zool. Res., Kunming, 40: 564–574, discussed comparative characteristics within the Panophrys minor complex. Poyarkov, Nguyen, Popov, Geissler, Pawangkhanant, Neang, Suwannapoom, and Orlov, 2021, Russ. J. Herpetol., 28 (3A): 37, commented on the single Vietnam record.

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