Running log of additions and changes, 2025

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

I attempt to summarize here what work I have done on ASW starting 1 January 2025. This log does not include error corrections and the like and I cannot promise that there will not be errors of omission or commission inasmuch as this log is not constructed automatically.

18 January 2025: Added Leptobrachella yongshunensis (Megophryidae), named by Huang, Wu, Jiang, and Zhang in Huang, Zhang, Jiang, Tian, Huang, Xu, Liu, Li, Zhang, and Wu, 2025, Zoosyst. Evol., 101: 103–117, from Hunan Xiaoxi National Nature Reserve, Yongshun County, Hunan, China.

17 January 2025: Added Limnonectes splendissimus (Dicroglossidae), partitioned from Limnonectes poilani by Le, Nguyen, Murphy, Tran, Nguyen, and Che, 2025, Zootaxa, 5570: 57–80, for southern Vietnam populations.

16 January 2025: Added Scutiger wolong (Megophryidae), named by Lyu, Gao, Huang, Wu, Jiang, Jiang, and Li, 2025 "2024", Asian Herpetol. Res., 16: 20–35. Known only from Wolong Town, ca 2414 m elevation, Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, China. Note that without any kind of zoobank registration this name will take its date of publication from the date of general distribution of paper copies to libraries. The publication date of 13 December 2024 given in the PDF is demonstrably not the formal date of publication, which presumably will be sometime in 2025 (DRF).

15 January 2025: Added a comment under Hydrolaetare schmidti (Leptodactylidae), noting the publication of Vilela, Costa-Campos, Sousa, and Carvalho, 2024, Zootaxa, 5538: 497–500, who reported on defensive and reproductive calls.

15 January 2025: Added Rhacophorus boeadii (Rhacophoridae), named by Hamidy, Riyanto, Munir, Gonggoli, Trilaksono, and McGuire, 2025, Zootaxa, 5569: 201–230, from Sulawesi, Indonesia, along with a substantial discussion of the comparative morphology, calls, and molecular markers distinguishing the other members of Rhacophorus on Sulawesi. The authors also provided a tree (453 bp of 16S rRNA) that suggested that both Rhacophorus is paraphyletic with respect to Leptomantis, and nominal Leptomantis with respect to Zhangixalus, but due to this based on less evidence than upon which (1972 bp) the original partition proposed by Jiang, Jiang, Ren, Wu, and Li, 2019, Asian Herpetol. Res., 10: 1–12, they did not suggest any taxonomic change beyond noting that further scrutiny is deserved.

14 January 2025: Added comments under Dendropsophus (Hylidae) and most of its species, noting the publication of Whitcher, Orrico, Ron, Lyra, Cassini, Ferreira, Nakamura, Peloso, Rada, Rivera-Correa, Sturaro, Valdujo, Haddad, Grant, Faivovich, Lemmon, and Lemmon, 2025, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 204 (108275): 1–18, who reported on phylogenetics, biogeography, and life history evolution within the group.

13 January 2025: Added Urkuphryne (Strabomantidae), new genus, and Ukurphryne merinoi new species, as well as Phyllonastes cerrogolondrina, Phyllonastes ecuadoriensis, Phyllonastes dicaprioi, Phyllonastes macuma, Phyllonastes plateadensis, and Phyllonastes sardinayacu, all named by Ortega, Cisneros-Heredia, Camper, Romero-Carvajal, Negrete, and Ron, 2025, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 203: 1–60, all from Ecuador, as part of a larger discussion of phylogenetics and morphology of holoadenine strabomantid frogs. The authors also returned Phyllonastes duellmani to Noblella on the basis of shared-derived morphological characteristics.

13 January 2025: Modified the range statement for Microhyla mantheyi and Microhyla butleri (Microhylidae) and noted the publication of Atmaja, Eprilurahman, Munir, Smith, Arisuryanti, Ubaidillah, and Hamidy, 2024, Taprobanica, 13: 80–100, who provided genetically-confirmed records from Sumatra, Indonesia.

12 January 2025: Added comments under Thoropa miliaris and Thoropa taophora (Cycloramphidae), noting the publication of Sabbag, Carvalho, Brasileiro, Consolmagno, and Haddad, 2025 "2024", Herpetologica, 80: 321–332, who discussed inter-lineage acoustic divergence in these species.

12 January 2025: Added Nyctimantis diadorim (Hylidae), named by Brandão, Queiroz, Ferreira, Álvares, Blotto, Garda, Gedraite, Santoro, and Faivovich, 2025 "2024", Herpetologica, 80: 347–357, from Grande Sertão Veredas National Park, Chapada Gaúcha municipality, Minas Gerais state, Brazil (unpublished according to Zoobank as of 12 Jan 2025; moreover no. 4 of the 2024 volume Herpetologica did not appear online until 12 January 2025: DRF).

10 January 2025: Placed Duttaphrynus bengalensis (Bufonidae) into the synonymy of Duttaphrynus melanostictus, following Dufresnes, Jablonski, Ambu, Prasad, Gautam, Kamei, Mahony, Hofmann, Masroor, Alard, Crottini, Edmonds, Ohler, Jiang, Khatiwada, Gupta, Borzée, Borkin, Skorinov, Melnikov, Milto, Konstantinov, Künzel, Suchan, Arkhipov, Trofimets, Nguyen, Suwannapoom, Litvinchuk, and Poyarkov, 2025, Nature Commun., 16(298): 1–14. I still have not completely digested this paper, which is easily the most interesting one I've read in a long time, touching on old introductions, conflicts between nu- and mt-DNA, and the difficulty of applying old and obscure taxonomic names. The authors' demonstrate that Duttaphrynus melanostictus is at least two species but pending resolution of name application have left them as Duttaphrynus melanostictus (resident on the Indian subcontinent but invasive in Wallacea) and Duttaphrynus cf. melanostictus (diversified throughout Southeast Asia and introduced into Madagascar). I am impressed.

9 January 2025: Added comments under Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Bufonidae), Fejervarya limnocharis (Dicroglossidae), Limnonectes shompenorum (Dicroglossidae), and Hylarana nicobariensis (Ranidae), noting the publication of Atmaja, Putra, Lestari, and Silaban, 2024, J. Pembelajaran Dan Biol. Nukl., 10: 831–844, who reported these species on Enggano I., Bengkulu, Indonesia.

9 January 2025: Added Microhyla roedderi (Microhylidae), named by Hoang, Pham, Nguyen, Phan, Ziegler, Orlov, Jiang, and Do, 2025, Zootaxa, 5566: 347–369, from Deo Ca Mountain, Khanh Hoa and Phu Yen Provinces, south-central Vietnam, at elevations between 433 and 784 m.

7 January 2025: Modified the range statement for Leucostethus bilsa (Dendrobatidae) and added a comment noting the publication of. Jones, Franco-Mena, Zambrano Cantos, Loor Vélez, Aulestia, Zahawi, and Guayasamin, 2024, Check List, 20: 853–858, who provided new records from the Fundación para la Conservación de los Andes Tropicales (FCAT) Forest Reserve, Esmeraldas Province, Ecuador, and provided a dot map of the known localities.

7 January 2025: Added a comment under Rana kukunoris (Ranidae), noting the publication of Chen, Chen, Liao, Tang, Qin, Zhao, Liu, Wu, Jiang, Zhang, Fang, Feng, Zhang, Reid, and Merilä, 2023, Frontiers Zool., 20(1): 1–12, who reported on a high-quality chromosome-level genome assembly.

7 January 2025: Added comments under Hyperolius endjami, Hyperolius ocellatus, and Hyperolius fusciventris (Hyperoliidae), noting the publication of Nguyen, McLaughlin, Irian, Scheinberg, and Bell, 2024, Herpetol. J., 34: 211–220, who provided genetically-confirmed records from Bioko I., Equatorial Guinea, and provided advertisement call descriptions for Hyperolius endjami and Hyperolius ocellatus.

7 January 2025: Added a comment under Siphonops paulensis (Siphonopidae), noting the publication of Malheiro, Cardoso, Wachlevski, and Coelho-Lima, 2024, Herpetol. Rev., 55: 38, who reported the species from Moita dos Porcos, Municipality of Caetité, Bahia, Brazil, 1018 m elevation.

7 January 2025: Modified the range statement for Luetkenotyphlus brasiliensis (Siphonopidae) and added a comment noting the publication of Hudson, Oliveira, Lopez, and Sousa, 2024, Herpetol. Rev., 55: 18, who provided a record from the Municipality of Ritápolis, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and discussed the literature of the known distribution.

7 January 2025: Added a comment under Incilius (Bufonidae), noting the publication of. Babish, Hernández-Morales, and Mendelson, 2024, J. Herpetol., 58: 289–303, who reported on the evolutionary patterns of the auditory system within the genus.

7 January 2025: Added a comment under Salamandra atra (Salamandridae), noting the publication of. Čengić, Huijbregts, Šunje, Bilela, Bonato, Van Damme, and Schipper, 2024, J. Biogeograph., 51: 2469–2483, who reported on niche modelling and the effects of climate change on this species' distribution

7 January 2025: Added a comment under Phytotriades auratus (Hylidae), noting the publication of. Jowers, Muñoz Pajares, Weber, Arenas-Castro, Ho, Rivas-Fuenmayor, Borzée, Pyron, Perez-Losada, Downie, Moreno-Rueda, Forcina, and Sánchez-Ramírez, 2024, J. Biogeograph., 51: 2136–2151, who reported on a molecular calibration for the Trinidad–mainland vicariance.

7 January 2025: Added a comment under Caudata noting the publication of Stewart and Wiens, 2024 "2025", Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 204 (108272): 1–21, who provided a time-calibrated salamander phylogeny including 765 species and 503 genes.

6 January 2025: Added a comment under Ommatotriton (Salamandridae), noting the publication of Kalaentzis, Koster, Arntzen, Bogaerts, France, Franzen, Kazilas, Litvinchuk, Olgun, de Visser, and Wielstra, 2024 "2025", Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 203 (108237): 1–8, who reported on the molecular phylogenetics of the three species and provided a polygon map of their distributions.

6 January 2025: Modified the range statement for Scinax caldarum (Hylidae) and added a comment to the record noting the publication of Pederassi, Caramaschi, Andrade, and Lima, 2025 "2024", Bol. Asoc. Herpetol. Esp., 35: 39–41, who provided a record from Bocaina de Minas municipality, Minas Gerais, Brazil, and provided a distribution map of the species.

4 January 2025: Modified ranges and added comments to records for 42 species found on New Guinea, derived from Table 2 in Oliver, Davie-Rieck, Ramdani, Dashper, Kusuma, Lee, Rittmeyer, Clancy, Hamidy, Thompson, Fouquet, Ferreira, and Richards, 2025, Pacific Conserv. Biol., 31(PC24063): 1–12, who as part of a larger discussion of the role of citizen science in documenting species ranges in Melanesia noted range extensions and who made systematic comments. .

3 January 2025: Added two species, Boana itajahy and Boana quiriri, of the Boana semiguttata clade (Hylidae), from Santa Catarina, Brazil, named by Pinheiro, Dallacorte, Thompson, Comitti, Nakamura, and Garcia, 2024, S. Am. J. Herpetol., 33: 48–69.

2 January 2025: Modified the range statement for Ischnocnema garciai (Brachycephalidae) and added a comment to that record, noting the publication of Assis, Novaes, Mendonça, Dias, Guedes, Silva, and Feio, 2024, Reptiles & Amphibians, 31(e21284): 1–10, who discussed the range and provided a dot map of the distribution.

2 January 2025: Added comments under Eleutherodactylus barlagnei and Eleutherodactylus pinchoni (Eleutherodactylidae), noting the publication of Myers, Alequín, Browne, Mulder, Rivera, Esposito, Bell, and Hedges, 2024, Zool. J. Linn. Soc., 202(4: zlae 128): 1–13, who reported on elevational molecular phylogeography of both species.

1 January 2025: Added Rana minuscula (Ranidae), named by Liu, Wang, Huang, Liu, Yu, and Che, 2024, Asian Herpetol. Res., 15: 232–240, from Junhe Village (27.882815°N,119.127763°E; elevation 723 m a.s.l.), Pingnan Town, Longquan City, Zhejiang Province, China.