Microhyla pulchra (Hallowell, 1861)

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

Engystoma pulchrum Hallowell, 1861 "1860", Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 12: 506. Holotype: Deposition not stated, presumably USNM or ANSP. Type locality: "Hong-Kong, China. Common in the brackish water marshes between Hong-Kong and Whampoa [=Huang-Pu]", Guangdong, China.

Scaptophryne labyrinthica Fitzinger, 1861 "1860", Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Phys. Math. Naturwiss. Kl., 42: 416. Types: Not stated, though likely NHMW. Type locality: "Hong Kong", China. Nomen nudum. Synonymy by Steindachner, 1867, Reise Österreichischen Fregatte Novara, Zool., Amph.: 36; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 166; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 522.

Diplopelma pulchrum — Günther, 1864, Rept. Brit. India: 417.

Ranina symetrica David, 1872 "1871", Nouv. Arch. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, 7: 76. Types: Not stated, presumably MNHNP but not reported in type lists. Type locality: "les collines voisines du Yantzékiang, et devient abondante vers le Setchuan", (= Hills near the Yangtzékiang [= Chang Jiang], and toward Sichuan Province, China. Synonymy by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 166; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 522.

Microhyla pulchra — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 165.

Microhyla hainanensis Barbour, 1908, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., 51: 322. Syntypes: MCZ 2435 (4 specimens), by original designation. Type locality: "Mt. Wuchi [= Wuzhi], Central Hainan [Island]"., Hainan Province, China. Synonymy by Smith, 1923, J. Nat. Hist. Soc. Siam, 6: 211; Parker, 1928, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 10, 2: 484.

Microhyla melli Vogt, 1914, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1914: 101. Holotype: ZMB 24097 according to Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 138, and Bauer, Günther, and Robeck, 1996, Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 72: 266. Type locality: "Umbegung der Stadt Canton" (= Environs of the city of Canton [= Guangzhou Shi]), Guangdong Province, China. Synonymy by Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 137; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 522.

Microhyla (Diplopelma) pulchrum — Bourret, 1927, Fauna Indochine, Vert., 3: 263.

Microhyla major Ahl, 1930, Sitzungsber. Ges. Naturforsch. Freunde Berlin, 1930: 317. Holotype: ZMB, unnumbered according to the original publication and Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 138. Type locality: Not stated; presumably Yaoshan [= Dayao Shan, Kwangsi [=Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China]. Synonymy by Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 137; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 522.

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

Common Names

Painted Narrow-mouthed Frog ( Stuart, Seateun, Sivongxay, and Phimmachak, 2025 "2024", in Wildlife Lao PDR: 37). 

Guangdong Rice Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 91).

Marbled Pigmy Frog (Karsen, Lau, and Bogadek, 1986, Hong Kong Amph. Rept.: 36; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 55).

Yellow-legged Pigmy Frog (Karsen, Lau, and Bogadek, 1986, Hong Kong Amph. Rept.: 36).

Beautiful Pygmy Frog (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 296).

花姬蛙 (Chinese: Wang, Ren, Chen, Lyu, Guo, Jiang, Chen, Li, Guo, Wang, and Che, 2020, Biodiversity Sci., 28: App. 1: 15).

Painted Frog (Dey and Gupta, 2001 "2000", Hamadryad, 25: 214).

Yellow-legged Narrow-mouthed Frog (Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 159).

Painted Chorus Frog (Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 104; Makchai, Chuaynkern, Safoowong, Chuachat, Cota, and Pongcharoen, 2025, Amph. N. Thailand, Updated Ed.: 132).

Beautiful Narrow-mouthed Frog (Neang and Holden, 2008, Field Guide Amph. Cambodia: 67).

Beautiful Pigmy Frog  (Vassilieva, Galoyan, Poyarkov, and Geissler, 2016, Photograph. Field Guide Amph. Rept. Lowland S. Vietnam: 83). 

Marbled Narrow-mouthed Frog (Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 32).

Distribution

Southern China from Gansu to southern Yunnan and Hainan and Hong Kong Is. to Hubei and Zhejiang; to central Myanmar (Sagaing, Magway, Mandalay), Thailand (Chiang Mai and Kalasin provinces south to Nakhon Si Thammarat on the peninsula) and Taninthary Division, peninsular Myanmar; Vietnam (Lao Cai and Ha Giang provinces in the north south to Lam Dong and Dong Nai provinces), Laos and Cambodia; introduced into Guam. Records for peninsular Malaysia and Singapore require confirmation. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Cambodia, China, People's Republic of, Hong Kong, Laos, Macao, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam

Introduced: Guam

Comment

See Chang, 1947, Trans. Chinese Assoc. Adv. Sci., 9: 98, and Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 522–524. See accounts by Taylor, 1962, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 43: 548–554; and Yang, 1991, Amph. Fauna of Yunnan: 245–247; Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 345; and Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 296–297. Heyer, 1971, Fieldiana, Zool., 58: 61–82, reported on the call from Thailand. Recorded for Malaysia and Singapore by Khonsue and Thirakhupt, 2001, Nat. Hist. J. Chulalongkorn Univ., 1: 77; this requires confirmation. Karsen, Lau, and Bogadek, 1986, Hong Kong Amph. Rept.: 36, provided a brief account. Zhang and Wen, 2000, Amph. Guangxi: 147, provided an account for Guangxi. Orlov, Murphy, Ananjeva, Ryabov, and Ho, 2002, Russ. J. Herpetol., 9: 100, reported the species for Indochina, presumably meaning Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Reported for southwestern Cambodia by Ohler, Swan, and Daltry, 2002, Raffles Bull. Zool., 50: 465–481. Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 159, provided a brief characterization and photograph. Stuart, 1999, in Duckworth et al. (eds.), Wildlife in Lao PDR: 50, commented on the range in Laos. Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 104–105, provided a very brief account, map for Thailand, and photograph. Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 46, provided specific localities for Vietnam and (p. 150) a photograph. Stuart, 2005, Herpetol. Rev., 36: 476, provided specific localities for Laos. Yang, 2008, in Yang and Rao (ed.), Amph. Rept. Yunnan: 127, provided a brief account for Yunnan, China. Neang and Holden, 2008, Field Guide Amph. Cambodia: 67, provided a photograph, brief account of identification, ecology, and range in Cambodia. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 910–916, provided an account, spot map for China, and assigned this species to their Microhyla ornata group. Christy, Clark, Gee, Vice, Vice, Warner, Tyrrell, Rodda, and Savidge, 2007, Pacific Sci., 61: 469–483, reported specimens from Guam but could not determine whether the species was established. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 488, provided a brief account for China including photographs of specimens. Chan-ard, Cota, and Makchai, 2011, Amph. E. Region Thailand: 52–53, provided a photograph and brief account for eastern Thailand, and (p. 132) detailed the distribution in Thailand. Shi, 2011, Amph. Rept. Fauna Hainan: 50–53, provided an account for Hainan. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 574–575, provided an account, photographs, and a range map. Hecht, Pham, Nguyen, Nguyen, Bonkowski, and Ziegler, 2013, Biodiversity J., 4: 507–552, reported a record from Tay Yen Tu Nature Reserve, Bac Giang Province, northeastern Vietnam and discussed the range. Zug, 2013, Rept. Amph. Pacific Is.: 72–73, provided a brief discussion of the introduced Guam population. See account, photograph, and map for Vietnam in Vassilieva, Galoyan, Poyarkov, and Geissler, 2016, Photograph. Field Guide Amph. Rept. Lowland S. Vietnam: 83–84. Pham, An, Herbst, Bonkowski, Ziegler, and Nguyen, 2017, Bonn Zool. Bull., 66: 37–53, provided records for Cao Bang Province, Vietnam, along with observatons on morphology and natural history. Yao and Gong, 2012, Amph. Rept. Gansu: 46–47, provided a brief account and photographs. Shen, 2014, Fauna Hunan, Amph.: 342–344, provided an account for Hunan, China. Li, 2011, Amph. Rept. Guangdong: 75, provided a brief account for Guangdong, China, and photograph. Mulcahy, Lee, Miller, Chand, Thura, and Zug, 2018, ZooKeys, 757: 95, provided a record from Taninthary Division, southern Myanmar. Garg, Suyesh, Das, Jiang, Wijayathilaka, Amarasinghe, Alhadi, Vineeth, Aravind, Senevirathne, Meegaskumbura, and Biju, 2018 "2019", Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 69: 1–71, suggested that earlier records from northeastern India (Dey and Gupta, 2001 "2000", Hamadryad, 25: 214–215) to be doubtful. Niyomwan, Srisom, and Pawangkhanant, 2019, Field Guide Amph. Thailand: 232–233, provided a brief account (photographs, habitat, and range) for Thailand (in Thai). 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 berdmorei group. Pham, Do, Ngo, Tran, Ziegler, and Nguyen, 2020, Check List, 16: 1025–1041, provided a record from Hai Ha District, Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam, on the Guangxi, China, border. Makchai, Chuaynkern, Safoowong, Chuachat, and Cota, 2020, Amph. N. Thailand: 120, provided a brief account, photographs, and a range map for Thailand. Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 32, briefly discussed identification, habitat, and range in Myanmar. Stuart, Seateun, Sivongxay, and Phimmachak, 2025 "2024", in Wildlife Lao PDR: 37, summarized literature, taxonomy, habitat, and detailed range for Laos. Pham, Nguyen, Nguyen, Le, Ziegler, and Tran, 2024, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 18: 20–47, discussed natural history and records from Copia Nature Reserve, Son La Province, Vietnam. Pham, Nguyen, Phan, Le, Pham, and Pham, 2025, Biodiversity Data J., 13 (e159973): 1–25, reported the species from Ha Nam Province, northern Vietnam (south of Hanoi) and briefly discussed the distribution in Vietnam. Makchai, Chuaynkern, Safoowong, Chuachat, Cota, and Pongcharoen, 2025, Amph. N. Thailand, Updated Ed.: 132, provided a brief account summarizing characteristics (including photographs), habitat, and a distribution map within Thailand by province.     

      

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