Zhangixalus puerensis (He, 1999)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Rhacophoridae > Subfamily: Rhacophorinae > Genus: Zhangixalus > Species: Zhangixalus puerensis

Polypedates puerensis He, 1999, Sichuan J. Zool., 18: 99–100. Holotype: YU 96606, by original designation. Type locality: "Banshan, Puer County, Yunnan, China, altitude 2000 m . . . . 22° 54′ N, 101° 21′ E".

Rhacophorus puerensis — Rao, Wilkinson, and Liu, 2006, Zootaxa, 1258: 17, by implication.

Zhangixalus puerensis — Jiang, Jiang, Ren, Wu, and Li, 2019, Asian Herpetol. Res., 10: 7. 

Rhacophorus (Zhangixalus) puerensis — Mahony, Kamei, Brown, and Chan, 2024, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 74: 253, by implication. 

Common Names

Puer Treefrog (Poyarkov, Nguyen, Popov, Geissler, Pawangkhanant, Neang, Suwannapoom, and Orlov, 2021, Russ. J. Herpetol., 28 (3A): 66). 

普洱树蛙 (Chinese: Wang, Ren, Chen, Lyu, Guo, Jiang, Chen, Li, Guo, Wang, and Che, 2020, Biodiversity Sci., 28: App. 1: 14; Yuan, Chen, Wu, Li, and Che, 2022, Biodiversity Sci., 30 (4: 21470): 6).

Distribution

Western, central and southern Yunnan, China; related but potentially specifically distinct population from Lao Cai, Vietnam. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: China, People's Republic of

Likely/Controversially Present: Vietnam

Endemic: China, People's Republic of

Comment

See comments by Orlov, Lathrop, Murphy, and Ho, 2001, Russ. J. Herpetol., 8: 23, who noted that this may be conspecific with Polypedates dugritei. Li, Che, Bain, Zhao, and Zhang, 2008, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 48: 302–312, found on the basis of molecular evidence that Rhacophorus puerensis and Rhacophorus dugritei are distinct. In the Rhacophorus dugritei group of Li, Liu, Chen, Wu, Murphy, Zhao, Wang, and Zhang, 2012, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 165: 143–162, who discussed the range, phylogenetic relationships, and provided records for Vietnam (now Zhangixalus liui). Dufresnes, Ambu, Prasad, Borzée, and Litvinchuk, 2022, Biol. J. Linn. Soc., 135: 40–51, noted that this binomial covers additional cryptic species. See brief account by Che and Yu, 2026, Amph. Mt. Gaoligong: 181–183, for the Mt. Gaoligong area, western Yunnan, China. Liu, Bu, Deng, Bai , Luo, Hou, Li , Zhang, Li, Wang, Feng, Wang, and Rao, 2026, Biodiversity Data J., 14(e204046): 1–26, redelimited the species with the naming of two new cryptic species, Zhangixalus liui and Zhangixalus orlovi, thereby restricting Zhangixalus puerensis to western, central, and southern Yunnan, China. They also noted that the taxonomic status of the populations from Lao Cai, Vietnam, and northwestern Yunnan need further study. They also noted that the populations previously considered to be Zhangixalus dugritei or Zhangixalus hui distributed in central northern and north-eastern Yunnan involve Zhangixalus puerensis sensu lato also requires further study. 

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