Amolops mantzorum (David, 1872)

Common Names

Sichuan Torrent Frog (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 238).

Mouping Sucker Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 97).

Moupin Torrent Frog (Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 34).

四川湍蛙 (Chinese: Wang, Ren, Chen, Lyu, Guo, Jiang, Chen, Li, Guo, Wang, and Che, 2020, Biodiversity Sci., 28: App. 1: 8).

Kangting Sucker Frog (Amolops kangtingensis [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 97).

绿点湍蛙 (Chinese: Amolops xinduqiao [no longer recognized]: Wang, Ren, Chen, Lyu, Guo, Jiang, Chen, Li, Guo, Wang, and Che, 2020, Biodiversity Sci., 28: App. 1: 9).

Distribution

Southern-most Gansu (Wenxian), through central Sichuan, to northwestern, central, and southwestern Yunnan, 900–2900 m elevation, China; expected in adjacent northeastern Myanmar. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: China, People's Republic of

Likely/Controversially Present: Myanmar

Endemic: China, People's Republic of

Comment

See accounts by Liu, 1950, Fieldiana, Zool. Mem., 2: 330–337, and Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 239 (including Amolops kangtingensis as a synonym). See accounts by Yang, 1991, Amph. Fauna of Yunnan: 180–182; Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 306; and Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 238–239. Fei and Ye, 2001, Color Handbook Amph. Sichuan: 206–207, provided a brief account and illustration. See also brief account by Zhao and Yang, 1997, Amph. Rept. Hengduan Mountains Region: 113–114. Amolops mantzorum was removed from the synonymy of Rana livida by Bain, Lathrop, Murphy, Orlov, and Ho, 2003, Am. Mus. Novit., 3417: 30-32 (who implied a close relationship to Rana chloronota), where it was provisionally placed by Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 371. Jin, Jiang, Xie, Zheng, and Xu, 2005, Zool. Res., Kunming, 26: 61–68, suggested on the basis of molecular evidence that Amolops mantzorum is a composite of at least two species. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 3: 1538–1545, provided an account, figures, and range map, and included the species in their Amolops mantzorum group. Yang, 2008, in Yang and Rao (ed.), Amph. Rept. Yunnan: 99, provided a brief account (as Amolops tuberodepressus) for Yunnan, China. See (as Amolops tuberodepressus) map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 477. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 408–409, provided a brief account including photographs of specimens and habitat. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 422–423, provided an account, photographs, and a range map. Wangyal, 2013, J. Threatened Taxa, 5: 4777, provided a record for Trashiyangtse District, eastern Bhutan, although this identification of this specimen was subsequently changed to Amolops wangyali by Mahony, Nidup, Streicher, Teeling, and Kamei, 2022, Herpetol. J., 32: 166. Lu, Bi, and Fu, 2014, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 73: 40–52, suggested on molecular grounds that the nominal species is composed of two cryptic species, which they termed the "northern lineage" (which remains unnamed) and the "central lineage" (which retains the name Amolops mantzorum). Records from southwestern Yunnan, China, likely apply to Amolops tuberodepressus (DRF). See comments under Amolops xinguqiao with which this species has been confused due to a mixed paratypic series of Staurois kangtingensis. Yao and Gong, 2012, Amph. Rept. Gansu: 48–49, provided a brief account and photographs. Liu, Song, Luo, Xia, and Zeng, 2019, Cytogenet. Genome Res., 157: 172–178, reported on this species as part of a report on the chromosomal evolution in the Amolops mantzorum species group and provided karyological evidence for the exclusion of Amolops kangtingensis (= Amolops xindaqiao) from synonymy.  In the Amolops mantzorum group of Zeng, Liang, Li, Lyu, Wang, and Zhang, 2020, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 146 (106753): 1–9, and Wu, Yan, Stuart, Prendini, Suwannapoom, Dahn, Zhang, Cai, Xu, Jiang, Chen, Lemmon, Lemmon, Raxworthy, Orlov, Murphy, and Che, 2020, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 144 (106701): 1–13, who discussed molecular phylogenetics. In the Amolops mantzorum group of Jiang, Ren, Lyu, Wang, Wang, Lv, Wu, and Li, 2021, Zool. Res., Kunming, 42: 574–591. Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 34, briefly discussed identification, habitat, and possible range in Myanmar.  Dufresnes and Litvinchuk, 2022, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 195: 721, discussed the relationship of Amolops mantzorum and Amolops xinduqiao from a molecular perspective. Li, Xiao, Zhao, Wu, Jin, Yan, and Liao, 2025, Biology, 14(614): 1–12, reported the species from, and its habitat preference in, Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve, in the Minshan Mountain range, northern Sichuan, China. Liu, Bu, Feng, Hou, Rao, and Li, 2026, ZooKeys, 1275: 55, suggested on the basis of morphology that Rana sinica is a member of Amolops, possibly a synonym of another species of Amolops, noting that molecular work is warranted. Nguyen, Ren, Duong, Orlov, Poyarkov, and Ohler, 2026, Zootaxa, 5796: 381–392, reassessed the status of Rana sinica Ahl, 1927, discussed the identity and morphology of the types and placed it into the synonymy of Amolops mantzorum. 

Comment associated with former Amolops xinduqiao: The naming of Amolops xinduqiao resolves a confusion of names within the Amolops of Sichuan, China. Amolops kangtinensis was originally named as Staurois kangtingensis by Liu, 1950, Fieldiana, Zool. Mem., 2: 349, from "Kangting [=Kangding County], Sikang [now Sichuan], 8000 feet altitude", China, but subsequently placed into the synonymy of Amolops mantzorum by Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: xxx, due to the morphological similarity of the types of the species. However, as background knowledge here, two different species of Amolops were confounded, one found above 3000 m in the Yalong River Basin of Sichuan, and another found at 1200 to 2400 m elevation in the Dadu River basin. Fei, Ye, Wang, and Jiang, 2017, Zool. Res., Kunming, 38: 138–145. reexamined the types of Staurois kangtingensis and, more importantly, noted that the original type locality had to be corrected to "Yalagou of Kangding (in the Dadu River Basin:, meaning that the name Amolops kangtinensis applied not to the high-elevation population has had been thought by Wu, Tan, and Zhao, 1987, Acta Herpetol. Sinica, Chengdu, N.S.,, 6 (4): 39–41, Wu, Tan, and Zhao, 1987, Acta Herpetol. Sinica, Chengdu, N.S.,, 6 (4): 39–41; Lu, Bi, and Fu, 2014, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 73: 40–52 (who found nominal Amolops mantzorum to be a complex of species and explicitly retained Amolops kangtingensis, but seemingly from a population not conspecific with the holotype bearing that name); and Zhang, Yuan, Xia, and Zeng, 2015, Sichuan J. Zool., 34: 801–809.  Fei, Ye, Wang, and Jiang, 2017, Zool. Res., Kunming, 38: 138–145, discussed the problem and noted that the precise type locality of Amolops kangtingensis, places Amolops kangtingensis into the synonymy of Amolops mantzorum; to resolve this they named Amolops xinduqiao for the high-elevation population formerly incorrectly assigned the name Amolops kangtingensis. In the Amolops mantzorum group of Zeng, Liang, Li, Lyu, Wang, and Zhang, 2020, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 146 (106753): 1–9, and Wu, Yan, Stuart, Prendini, Suwannapoom, Dahn, Zhang, Cai, Xu, Jiang, Chen, Lemmon, Lemmon, Raxworthy, Orlov, Murphy, and Che, 2020, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 144 (106701): 1–13, who discussed molecular phylogenetics. In the Amolops mantzorum group of Jiang, Ren, Lyu, Wang, Wang, Lv, Wu, and Li, 2021, Zool. Res., Kunming, 42: 574–591.

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.

• For access to general information see Wikipedia
• For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
• For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
• For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
• To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
• For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
• For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
• For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
• For additional information specific to China see Amphibia China