Microhyla berdmorei (Blyth, 1856)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Microhylinae > Genus: Microhyla > Species: Microhyla berdmorei

Engystoma (?) berdmorei Blyth, 1856 "1855", J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 24: 720. Type(s): Not stated; ZSIC 9718–20 are syntypes according to Sclater, 1892, List Batr. Indian Mus.: 23, although Blyth provides measurements for a single specimen.  Garg, Suyesh, Das, Jiang, Wijayathilaka, Amarasinghe, Alhadi, Vineeth, Aravind, Senevirathne, Meegaskumbura, and Biju, 2018 "2019", Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 69: 15, discussed the confusing status of types and noted that ZSI 9718–9720  (from Arakan, Myanmar, largely match the original description. Type locality: "Pegu" (= Bago), Myanmar; given as "Schwe Gyen" (= Shwegyin) on the Sitang River, Pegu [= Bago]", Myanmar by Blyth, 1856 "1855", J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 24: 711.

Callula natatrix Cope, 1867, J. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, Ser. 2, 6: 192. Syntypes: MCZ 630, according to original publication; MCZ 1587 (5 specimens, apparently renumbered as MCZ A-153454–57), according to Barbour and Loveridge, 1929, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 69: 235). Type locality: "Near Rangoon, Burmah". Synonymy by Günther, 1868, Zool. Rec., 4: 146; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 166; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 509.

Diplopelma (Engystoma) berdmorei — Günther, 1868, Zool. Rec., 4: 146.

Diplopelma berdmorei — Theobald, 1873, Proc. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1873: 112.

Microhyla (Engystoma) berdmorei — Mason, 1882, Burma, Ed. 3: 292.

Microhyla berdmorii — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 166. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Microhyla (Engystoma) berdmorei —Boulenger In Mason, 1882, Burma, Ed. 3: 500.

Microhyla berdmorei — Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 127.

Microhyla (Microhyla) bermorei — Dubois, 1987, Alytes, 6: 3.

Common Names

Berdmore's Narrow-mouthed Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 64; Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 30.

Pegu Rice Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 90).

Burmese Microhylid Frog (Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 36; Neang and Holden, 2008, Field Guide Amph. Cambodia: 63).

Berdmore's Chorus Frog (Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 102; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 53; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 7).

Distribution

India (northeastern part of the country: Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura, and Mizoram states), Bangladesh (central, northeastern, and southeastern parts of the country), and Myanmar (northwestern and central parts of the country); older records from outside of this region apply to other members of the Microhyla berdmorei complex. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bangladesh, India, Myanmar

Likely/Controversially Present: Cambodia, China, People's Republic of, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Malaysia, East (Sarawak and/or Sabah), Malaysia, West (Peninsular), Thailand, Vietnam

Comment

 Trofimets, Dufresnes, Pawangkhanant, Bragin, Gorin, Hasan, Lalremsanga, Muin, Le, Nguyen, Suwannapoom, and Poyarkov, 2024, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 74: 595–641, revised the Microhyla berdmorei complex, on the basis of comparative adult and larval morphology, morphometrics, advertisement calls, and molecular markers, partitioning it into several species (i.e., Microhyla berdmorei (under a restricted definition), Microhyla malcolmi, Microhyla peninsularis, and Microhyla sundaica), requiring that literature of nominal "Microhyla berdmorei" prior to this revision be used with caution. This revision also details the older literature and should be consulted to understand what taxon the various authors were actually referencing under the name Microhyla berdmorei. Gorin, Solovyeva, Hasan, Okamiya, Karunarathna, Pawangkhanant, de Silva, Juthong, Milto, Nguyen, Suwannapoom, Haas, Bickford, Das, and Poyarkov, 2020, PeerJ, 8 (e9411): 1–47, and Kundu, Lalremsanga, Biakzuala, Decemson, Muansanga, Tyagi, Chandra, and Kumar, 2021, MtDNA, Part B, 6: 1586–1591, had previously provided molecular evidence that nominal Microhyla berdmorei (as then recognized) is a complex of cryptic species.

 Choudhury, Hussain, Buruah, Saikia, and Sengupta, 2002, Hamadryad, 26: 277, Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 58–59, Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 36–39, and Sarkar and Ray, 2006, In Alfred (ed.), Fauna of Arunachal Pradesh, Part 1: 291, provided accounts for the Indian component of the range. Devi and Shamungou, 2006, J. Exp. Zool. India, 9: 317–324, provided a record for Manipur, northeastern India. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted several larval descriptions in the literature of varying completeness. Mahony, 2008, Hamadryad, 32: 34–45, reported a tentatively identified specimen from the Chittagong Hill Tract, Bangladesh, that he assumed would ultimately be named as a new species also occurring in adjacent northeastern India. Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 65–66, provided a brief characterization and photographs. Mahony, Hasan, Kabir, Ahmed, and Hossain, 2009, Hamadryad, 34: 80–94, discussed the vouchered range in Bangladesh. Hasan, Islam, Khan, Alam, Kurabayashi, Igawa, Kuramoto, and Sumida, 2012, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 29: 162–172, suggested on the basis of molecular evidence that samples from Bangladesh represents an unnamed species. Ahmad and Mim, 2020, IRCF Rept. & Amph., 27: 36–41, reported specimens from the Bandarban District, southeastern Bangladesh. See comments by Hakim, Trageser, Ghose, Das, Rashid, and Rahman, 2020, Check List, 16: 1239–1268, who reported the species from Lawachara National Park, Sylhet Division, northeastern Bangladesh. Raj, Vasudevan, Aggarwal, Dutta, Sahoo, Mahapatra, Sharma, Janani, Kar, and Dubois, 2023, Alytes, 39–40: 57–61, reported on larval morphology of genetically-confirmed specimens from Mizoram, India. Stuart, Seateun, Sivongxay, and Phimmachak, 2025 "2024", in Wildlife Lao PDR: 36, summarized literature, taxonomy, habitat, and detailed range for Laos (in the sense of Microhyla berdmorei prior to the revision of  Trofimets, Dufresnes, Pawangkhanant, Bragin, Gorin, Hasan, Lalremsanga, Muin, Le, Nguyen, Suwannapoom, and Poyarkov, 2024, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 74: 595–641. 

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