Amolops marmoratus (Blyth, 1855)

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

Polypedates (?) marmoratus Blyth, 1855, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 24: 187-188. Type(s): ZSIC (1 specimen) according to Anderson, 1871, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1871: 209, but presumed lost by Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012, Copeia, 2012: 66. CAS 240603 designated neotype by Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012, Copeia, 2012: 63. Type locality: "Schwe Gyen, Pegu [= Bago]", Myanmar, apparently in error according to Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012, Copeia, 2012: 66. Neotype from "Myanmar, Mon State, Thaton District, Kyaikhto Township, 10 Minutes Camp, along YeTakon Chaung, 17° 26′ 38.5″ N, 97° 5′ 57.3″ E".

Amolops (Amolops) marmoratus — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 321.

Common Names

Marbled Sucker Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 97; Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 56).

Marbled Cascade Frog (Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 73; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 10).

Pegu Torrent Frog (Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 410).

Afghan Frog (Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 56).

Northern Cascade Frog (Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 106).

Marbled Torrent Frog (Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 35).

Distribution

Known with certainty only from the Myanmar states of Mon, Shan, and likely Kayin and Kayah states and the northern Tanintharyi Division. Records from India, Bhutan, Nepal, northern Thailand, Bangladesh, and China should be treated as Amolops cf. marmoratus, Amolops cf. gerbillus, or Amolops afghanus. See comment. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bangladesh, China, People's Republic of, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand

Comment

Populations from the eastern Himalayan region of India (Himanchal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, West Bengal, Meghalaya, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Tripura), Nepal, adjacent China (southeastern Xizang), and eastern borderlands of Bangladesh, formerly assigned to this name have either been reassigned to other names or not been studied and although there are names available for these populations, their range(s) and status remains problematic. Therefore this literature should be employed with great caution. Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 34, briefly discussed identification, habitat, and range in Myanmar. 

See Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 340, for a discussion of the nomenclature of this species although this is now currently far out of date. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 50–53 (as Amolops afghanus) and 133–134 (Rana senchalensis) provided brief accounts. See brief account by Zhao and Yang, 1997, Amph. Rept. Hengduan Mountains Region: 107–108. Sarkar, Biswas, and Ray, 1992, State Fauna Ser., 3: 77, 81, provided brief accounts (as Amolops afghanus and Rana senchalensis) for West Bengal, India, and Sarkar and Ray, 2006, In Alfred (ed.), Fauna of Arunachal Pradesh, Part 1: 293, reported on nominal Amolops afghanus in Arunachal Pradesh, India. Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 108–109, provided a very brief account, map for Thailand, and photograph, although the status of these populations is unclear. See comment under Amolops formosus. Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 111–112, provided partial bibliography, systematic comments, and range. Ao, Bordoloi, and Ohler, 2003, Zoos' Print J., 18: 1117–1125, provided a specific locality for Nagaland, northeastern India. Das and Palden, 2000, Herpetol. Rev., 31Das & Palden 2000, provided a record of Amolops marmoratus for Bhutan, but this was rejected by Mahony, Nidup, Streicher, Teeling, and Kamei, 2022, Herpetol. J., 32: 166, who referred the record to Amolops cf gerbillus. Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 214–216, provided an account for the Nepal population (as Amolops nepalicus). Devi and Shamungou, 2006, J. Exp. Zool. India, 9: 317–324, provided a record (as Amolops afghanus) for Manipur, northeastern India. Yang, 2008, in Yang and Rao (ed.), Amph. Rept. Yunnan: 92–93, provided a brief account (as Amolops afghanus) for Yunnan, China. Mehta, 2005, in Alfred (ed.), Fauna W. Himalaya, Part 2: 270, reported the species (as Amolops afghanus) in Himanchal Pradesh, India, without noting specific localities. Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 73, provided a brief characterization and photographs. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted a number of larval descriptions in the literature of varying completeness. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 3: 1549–1552, provided an account, figures, and range map, and included the species in their Amolops chapaensis group. (Given that Amolops chapaensis is now in Odorrana, one must presume that the generic assignment of this species should be reevaluated—DRF.) Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 410, provided a brief account for China including photographs of specimens. Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 56, provided an account for Xizang, China. Dever, Fuiten, Konu, and Wilkinson, 2012, Copeia, 2012: 57–76, most recently revised and delimited the species, effectively leaving the populations in India, Nepal (now mostly Amolops nepalicus and Amolops mahabharatensis), and Bangladesh without names. See comment under Amolops indoburmanensis. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 426, provided an account, photographs, and a range map for China. Mulcahy, Lee, Miller, Chand, Thura, and Zug, 2018, ZooKeys, 757: 95, provided a record from Taninthary Division, southern Myanmar. Niyomwan, Srisom, and Pawangkhanant, 2019, Field Guide Amph. Thailand: 322–323, provided a brief account (description, photographs, habitat, and range) for Thailand (in Thai). Tshewang and Letro, 2018, J. Threatened Taxa, 10: 12493, reported this species from Jigme Singye Wangchuck National Park in central Bhutan; this identification was rejected by Mahony, Nidup, Streicher, Teeling, and Kamei, 2022, Herpetol. J., 32: 167. Lyu, Zeng, Wan, Yang, Li, Pang, and Wang, 2019, Zootaxa, 4609: 247–268 (who noted that records of Amolops marmoratus from Yunnan, China, should be referred to Amolops afghanus and  "the exact status of the populations recorded as A. marmoratus or A. afghanus in India, Nepal and Xizang, China remains unresolved"), 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, relegated the populations in western Yunnan, China, on the basis of molecular data, to Amolops afghanus. Gautam, Chalise, Thapa, and Bhattarai, 2020, IRCF Rept. & Amph., 27: 18–28, briefly discussed abundance and elevational range in the Ghandruk region of central Nepal. Lalronunga, Vanramliana, Lalrinchhana, Vanlalhrima, Sailo, Lalnunhlua, Sailo, Zosangliana, Lalhmangaiha, and Lalhmingliani, 2020, Sci. Vision, 20: 106–117, suggested that records from Mizoram, India, require confirmation with genetic analysis. See Shah and Tiwari, 2004, Herpetofauna Nepal: 48, for a brief account for Nepal. See account by Che, Jiang, Yan, and Zhang, 2020, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 210–212, for an account of the Tibet populations as Amolops cf. marmoratus, in the sense of including Amolops nepalicus but implying that dense genetic sampling is required. Wang, Bhattarai, Wu, Che, and Siler, 2020, Zootaxa, 4819: 143–158, addressed some of the problems but way more needs to be done. In the Amolops marmoratus 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. Makchai, Chuaynkern, Safoowong, Chuachat, and Cota, 2020, Amph. N. Thailand: 128, provided a brief account, photographs, and a range map for Thailand. In the Amolops marmoratus group of Jiang, Ren, Lyu, Wang, Wang, Lv, Wu, and Li, 2021, Zool. Res., Kunming, 42: 574–591. Tachamo-Shah, Shah, Sharma, Sharma, Adhikari, and Rijal, 2023, J. Threatened Taxa, 15: 24299–24320, provided a record from Ramaroshan Rural Municipality in the Achham District of Sudurpaschim Province, western Nepal, but this was doubted by Aryal, 2024, J. Threatened Taxa, 16: 25117–18.

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