Xenophrys monticola Günther, 1864

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Megophryidae > Subfamily: Megophryinae > Genus: Xenophrys > Species: Xenophrys monticola

Xenophrys monticola Günther, 1864, Rept. Brit. India: 414. Syntypes: 2 specimens, BMNH 1947.2.25.13 (formerly 1860.3.19.1336) from Sikkim and 1853.8.12.52 from Khasya. BMNH 1947.2.25.13 (1860.3.19.1336) designated lectotype by Mahony, Foley, Biju, and Teeling, 2017, Mol. Biol. Evol., 34: 755; BMNH 1853.8.12.52 from "Khassia" subsequently and invalidly designated lectotype by Deuti, Grosjean, Nicolas, Vasudevan, and Ohler, 2017, Alytes, 34: 28. Type locality: "Sikkim and from Khasya [= Khasi Hills, India]"; restricted to Sikkim by lectotype designation. Suppressed for purposes of Principle of Priority (when considered a senior synonym of Leptobrachium parvum Boulenger, 1893) but not Principle of Homonymy by action of Opinion 1763, Anonymous, 1994, Bull. Zool. Nomencl., 51: 84–85. See discussion by Mahony, Kamei, Teeling, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4523: 26, and Dubois, 1989 "1988", Alytes, 7: 97–100.

Xenophrys monticola — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 441.

Leptobrachium monticola — Boulenger, 1889, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, Ser. 2, 27: 748–750.

Xenophrys sanu Deuti, Grosjean, Nicolas, Vasudevan, and Ohler, 2017, Alytes, 34: 28. Holotype: ZSI A 11392, by original designation. Type locality: "Latpancher, Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India". Synonymy by Mahony, Kamei, Teeling, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4523: 30. 

Xenophrys katabhako Deuti, Grosjean, Nicolas, Vasudevan, and Ohler, 2017, Alytes, 34: 35. Holotype: ZSI A 11401, by original designation. Type locality: "Kabi, North district, Sikkim, India". Synonymy by Mahony, Kamei, Teeling, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4523: 29. 

Megophrys sanu — Mahony, Kamei, Teeling, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4523: 5. 

Megophrys katabhako — Mahony, Kamei, Teeling, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4523: 5. 

Megophrys (Xenophrys) monticola — Mahony, Foley, Biju, and Teeling, 2017, Mol. Biol. Evol., 34: 755. See comment. 

Megophrys monticola — Mahony, Kamei, Teeling, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4523: 16. 

English Names

Mountain Horned Frog (As Xenophrys parva, now restricted to Myanmar and points east: Ahmed, Das, and Dutta, 2009, Amph. Rept. NE India: 29).

Mountain Horned Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 6).

Distribution

880–2220 m elevation in Darjeeling District of West Bengal and Sikkim (India), and Nepal (possibly confused with Megophrys zhangi in eastern and central Nepal), and likely into Bhutan. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: India, Nepal

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Megophrys parva by Mahony, Kamei, Teeling, and Biju, 2018, Zootaxa, 4523: 16, based on it distance from that species in their molecular tree, and who provided an account, noting a substantial number of misidentifications in the literature, and noted that this species is part of the Megophrys major group. As noted by these authors most subsequent reports of Megophrys monticola sensu stricto, in the literature were under the name Megophrys parva (e.g., Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 164–167 (who provided an extensive account for Nepalese population); Boulenger, 1908, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1908: 419; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 203; Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 11 (provided a brief account for the Indian population); Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 38; Subba, Aravind, and Ravikanth, 2016, Check List, 13(1: 2033): 8–9 (who provided a record from Sikkim, India). In the Xenophrys major group of Lyu, Zeng, Wang, Liu, Huang, Li, and Wang, 2021, Zootaxa, 4927: 9–40. Khatiwada, Wang, Zhao, Xie, and Jiang, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 1–35, discussed the genetics of the species in Nepal. In the Xenophrys major group of Lyu, Qi, Wang, Zhang, Zhao, Zeng, Wan, Yang, Mo, and Wang, 2023, Zool. Res., Kunming, 44: 380–450.    

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