Spicicalyx genimaculata (Horst, 1883)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Pelodryadidae > Genus: Spicicalyx > Species: Spicicalyx genimaculata

Hyla genimaculata Horst, 1883, Notes Leyden Mus., 5: 240. Holotype: RMNH 4420 according to Gassó Miracle, van den Hoek Ostende, and Arntzen, 2007, Zootaxa, 1482: 43. Type locality: "Gebeh (= Gagie?) [I.]", west of Waigeo I., Indonesia.

Hyla papua Van Kampen, 1909, Nova Guinea, 9: 33. Holotype: ZMA 5679, according to Van Tuijl, 1995, Bull. Zool. Mus. Univ. Amsterdam, 14: 127. Type locality: "Noord-Fluss, bei Bivak-Insel", Lorentz River, Southern Lowlands, New Guinea (Indonesia). A secondary homonym of Nyctimantis papua Boulenger. See comment. 

Litoria genimaculata — Tyler, 1971, Univ. Kansas Publ. Mus. Nat. Hist., 19: 353.

Litoria papua — Richards, Hoskin, Cunningham, McDonald, and Donnellan, 2010, Zootaxa, 2391: 42. Disclaimed resurrection of name, although noted distinct species status.

Dryopsophus genimaculatus — Duellman, Marion, and Hedges, 2016, Zootaxa, 4104: 40.

Ranoidea genimaculata — Dubois and Frétey, 2016, Dumerilia, 6: 21. 

Spicicalyx genimaculata — Donnellan, Mahony, and Richards in Donnellan, Mahony, Esquerré, Brennan, Price, Lemmon, Lemmon, Günther, Monis, Bertozzi, Keogh, Shea, and Richards, 2025, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 204(2: zlaf015): 71.

Common Names

Brown-spotted Treefrog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 59).

New Guinea Tree Frog (Barker, Grigg, and Tyler, 1995, Field Guide Aust. Frogs., Ed. 2: 50; Tyler and Knight, 2009, Field Guide Frogs Aust.: 64 [construed by these authors to populations how transferred to Litoria serrata).

Distribution

Throughout New Guinea, 0–1500 m elevation,.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Indonesia, Indonesia - Papua Region, Papua New Guinea

Comment

See Tyler, 1968, Zool. Verh., Leiden, 96: 94. In the Litoria eucnemis group of Tyler and Davies, 1978, Aust. J. Zool., Suppl. Ser., 27 (63): 24. Ingram and Covacevich, 1981, Mem. Queensland Mus., 20: 291–306; without discussion, regarded Australian specimens of Litoria eucnemis as representing this species, but this view was disputed by Tyler and Watson, 1986, Trans. R. Soc. S. Aust., 110: 193–194. Richards, McDonald, and Ingram, 1993, Mem. Queensland Mus., 34: 94, discussed the distribution and diagnosis of this and other members of Litoria similar to Litoria eucnemis. Günther, 2003, Faun. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd., Dresden, 24: 211, provided a record from Yapen I., Papua, Indonesia. Kraus and Allison, 2006, Herpetol. Rev., 37: 364–368, provided a record for West Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea. Menzies, 2006, Frogs New Guinea & Solomon Is.: 112–113, provided a brief account for this species which he included in his Litoria thesaurensis complex. Hoskin, 2007, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 91: 549–563, reported on relationships, comparative morphology, and advertisement calls of this species and its very close relative, Litoria myola. See brief account by Tyler and Knight, 2009, Field Guide Frogs Aust.: 64–65. Richards, Hoskin, Cunningham, McDonald, and Donnellan, 2010, Zootaxa, 2391: 33–46, redelimited the species by transferring the Australian records to Litoria serrata, and noted that molecular evidence suggests that this is a species complex. and Wiens, Kuczynski, Hua, and Moen, 2010, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 5555: 871–882, rejected placement of this species in the Litoria eucnemis group.

The status of Hyla papua Van Kampen is curious: Noted as being a distinct species from Litoria genimaculata by Richards, Hoskin, Cunningham, McDonald, and Donnellan, 2010, Zootaxa, 2391: 33-46, in whose synonymy it had been placed by Tyler, 1964, Zool. Abh. Staatl. Mus. Tierkd. Dresden, 27: 266. The resurrection of the species name was disclaimed pending either coining of a replacement name or, presumably, the partition of nominal Litoria (which has now, 2025, been accomplished without reference to this name). Also some specimens were referred to in this paper as "Hyla 'papua'" from various localities in Papua, Indonesia, and Papua New Guinea, suggesting that the delimitation of this species is not clear. 

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