Microhyla okinavensis Stejneger, 1901

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

Microhyla okinavensis Stejneger, 1901, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 14: 189. Holotype: USNM 36553 (formerly Sci. Coll. Mus. Tokyo 25a) according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 68. Type locality: "Okinawa Shima, Riu Kiu Archipelago", Japan.

Microhyla undulata Brown, 1902, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 54: 186. Syntypes: Wistar Inst. Of Anatomy and Biology, Philadelphia 5726-28 (current status of these specimens unknown—DRF), and USNM 75081 (formerly WIM 5728B) according to Cochran, 1961, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 220: 68. Type locality: ambiguously rendered in the original publication; either "Borneo" or "Loo Choo Islands". Given as "Loo Choo Islands" by Stejneger, 1907, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 58: 89. Synonymy by Stejneger, 1907, Bull. U.S. Natl. Mus., 58: 89.

Microhyla (Diplopelma) okinavensis — Dubois, 1987, Alytes, 6: 4.

Common Names

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

Distribution

Ryukyu Archipelago north of the Yaeyama Group, Japan. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Japan

Endemic: Japan

Comment

Removed from the synonymy of Microhyla ornata by Dubois, 1987, Alytes, 6: 4, where it had been placed by Okada, 1931, Tailless Batr. Japan. Empire: 71, and Inger, 1947, Fieldiana, Zool., 32: 324. Matsui, Ito, Shimada, Ota, Saidapur, Khonsue, Tanaka-Ueno, and Wu, 2005, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 22: 489–495, confirmed through analysis of mtDNA sequences the distinctiveness of this taxon from Microhyla ornata and Microhyla fissipes (its sister species). Goris and Maeda, 2004, Guide Amph. Rept. Japan: 127–129, provided an account, as Microhyla ornata, for Japan, map, and photograph. Maeda and Matsui, 1990, Frogs Toads Japan, Ed. 2: 174–177, provided an account (as Microhyla ornata) for Japan. Kuramoto and Joshy, 2006, Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 25: 15–27, compared the morphology and calls of this species with Microhyla ornata and Microhyla okinavensis. Hasan, Islam, Khan, Igawa, Alam, Tjong, Kurniawan, Joshy, Yong, Belabut, Kurabayashi, Kuramoto, and Sumida, 2014, Turkish J. Zool., 38: 389, suggested on the basis of 16S mtDNA divergence that the population on Ishigaki Island may be an unnamed species, this now Microhyla kuramotoi. In the Microhyla fissipes species group of Garg, Suyesh, Das, Jiang, Wijayathilaka, Amarasinghe, Alhadi, Vineeth, Aravind, Senevirathne, Meegaskumbura, and Biju, 2018 "2019", Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 69: 1–71. Tominaga, Matsui, Shimoji, Khonsue, Wu, Toda, Eto, Nishikawa, and Ota, 2019, Zool. Scripta, 48: 400–453, demonstrated that this nominal taxon is composed of four cryptic species: (1) Yaeyama population [now Microhyla kuramotoi]; (2) Miyako population; (3) Okinawa population [which includes the type locality]; and (4) Amami population, with the Okinawa population more closely related to Microhyla mixtura and Microhyla beilunensis than to other populations currently assigned to Microhyla "okinawensis". Gorin, Solovyeva, Hasan, Okamiya, Karunarathna, Pawangkhanant, de Silva, Juthong, Milto, Nguyen, Suwannapoom, Haas, Bickford, Das, and Poyarkov, 2020, PeerJ, 8 (e9411): 1–47, placed this species in their Microhyla fissipes group and noted that while the species already is likely composed of two species on Okinawa and Amani Islands, populations in the Yaeyama Archipelago formerly considered to be Microhyla okinavensis may also be a distinct species, but otherwise group with Microhyla mixtura. Matsui and Tominaga, 2020, Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 39: 120–136, named the Yaeyama Group Microhyla kuramotoi.

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