Amolops afghanus (Günther, 1858)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ranidae > Genus: Amolops > Species: Amolops afghanus

Polypedates afghana Günther, 1858, Arch. Naturgesch., 24: 325. Syntypes: BM (1 adult, 2 larvae) according to Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 81.BM 1947.2.27.93 designated lectotype by Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012, Copeia, 2012: 67. Type locality: "Afghanistan" (in error; see comments by Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012, Copeia, 2012: 69-70).

Amolops afghanus — Cope, 1865, Nat. Hist. Rev., N.S., 5: 117.

Ixalus kakhienensis Anderson, 1879 "1878", Anat. Zool. Res.: 845. Holotype: Presumably originally in the ZSIC; probably lost, according to Bossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 28. Type locality: "In field, in the Nampoung valley, 1,000 feet", Myanmar. Tentative synonymy by Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012, Copeia, 2012: 69.

Rana afghana — Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 69.

Rana (Polypedates) afghana —Boulenger In Mason, 1882, Burma, Ed. 3: 499. Boulenger, 1887, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, Ser. 2, 5: 420, noted that marmoratus is preoccupied in Rana by Pyxicephalus marmoratus Peters, 1855 (= Tomopterna marmorata).

Staurois afghanus — Pope and Boring, 1940, Peking Nat. Hist. Bull., 15: 47. Liu, 1950, Fieldiana, Zool. Mem., 2: 358.

Amolops afghanus — Inger, 1966, Fieldiana, Zool., 52: 256, by implication; Tian, Jiang, Wu, Hu, Zhao, and Huang, 1986, Handb. Chinese Amph. Rept.: 62; Fei, Ye, and Huang, 1990, Key to Chinese Amph.: 166.

English Names

Meghalaya Stream Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 64 [probably not based on Amolops afghanus, DRF]).

Afghan Frog (Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 90 [probably not based on Amolops afghanus, DRF]).

Cascade Frog (Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 90 [probably not based on Amolops afghanus, DRF]).

Torrent Frog (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 236 [probably not based on Amolops afghanus, DRF]).

Günther's Stream Frog (Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 50 [probably not based on Amolops afghanus, DRF]).

Ang-ka Pad-disced Frog (Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 99 [probably not based on Amolops afghanus, DRF]).

Distribution

Known with certainty only from Kachin state, northern Myanmar, and Yunnan Province, China; records for other nations (e.g., Nepal and India) are problematic and apply to other species.

Comment

Resurrected from the synonymy of Amolops marmoratus by Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012, Copeia, 2012: 69, where it had been placed by Anderson, 1871, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1871: 209; Anderson, 1879 "1878", Anat. Zool. Res.: 842; Mason, 1882, Burma, Ed. 3: 294; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 69; and Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 390, but this was disputed by later authors. Most recently placed in the synonymy of Amolops marmoratus by Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 340, although this synonymy without discussion not followed by Liu, Yang, Ferraris, and Matsui, 2000, Copeia, 2000: 536-541. With respect to Polypedates afghana, no Amolops species has subsequently been collected in Afghanistan and Boulenger, 1890, Fauna Brit. India, Rept. Batr.: 462-463, considered Günther's Polypedates afghana to be conspecific with Boulenger's Rana latopalmata (currently residing with some difficulty in the synonymy of Amolops marmoratus, although clearly not the same species) which he regarded as not occurring in Afghanistan. Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012, Copeia, 2012: 57-76, most recently revised and delimited the species. Subba, Aravind, and Ravikanth, 2016, Check List, 13(1: 2033): 12, considered the presence of this species in Sikkim, India, to be doubtful. Lyu, Zeng, Wan, Yang, Li, Pang, and Wang, 2019, Zootaxa, 4609: 247–268, and Wang, Bhattarai, Wu, Che, and Siler, 2020, Zootaxa, 4819: 143–158, discussed the application of the name Amolops afghanus, confusion with Amolops marmoratus, and the range of Amolops afghanus. Lalronunga, Vanramliana, Lalrinchhana, Vanlalhrima, Sailo, Lalnunhlua, Sailo, Zosangliana, Lalhmangaiha, and Lalhmingliani, 2020, Sci. Vision, 20: 106–117, regarded records from Mizoram, northeastern India, as doubtful and needing genetic confirmation. 

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