Liurana kempii (Annandale, 1912)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ceratobatrachidae > Subfamily: Liuraninae > Genus: Liurana > Species: Liurana kempii

Megalophrys kempii Annandale, 1912, Rec. Indian Mus., 8: 20. Holotype: ZSIC 17013 (a 15 mm SVL subadult). Type locality: "Upper Rotung (2,000 ft.)", Abor Hills, Arunachal Pradesh, India (region claimed by Tibet, China).

Panophrys kempii — Rao and Yang, 1997, Asiat. Herpetol. Res., 7: 98-99. Tentative combination. Based on specimens of Xenophrys sp.

Megophrys (Xenophrys) kempii — Dubois and Ohler, 1998, Dumerilia, 4: 14. Based on specimens of Xenophrys sp.

Megophrys kempii — Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 116. Based on specimens of Xenophrys sp.

Xenophrys kempii — Ohler, 2003, Alytes, 21: 23, by implication. Based on specimens of Xenophrys sp.

Philautus kempii — Delorme, Dubois, Grosjean, and Ohler, 2006, Alytes, 24: 17.

Aquixalus kempii — Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 717.

Liuixalus kempii —  Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 512.

Liurana kempii — Boruah, Deepak, and Das, 2025, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 75: 542. 

Common Names

Kemp's Spadefoot Toad (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 86).

Kemp's Horned Toad (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 116).

Kemp's Bush Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 103).

Kemp's Small Treefrog (Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 431).

肯氏小树蛙 (Chinese: Wang, Ren, Chen, Lyu, Guo, Jiang, Chen, Li, Guo, Wang, and Che, 2020, Biodiversity Sci., 28: App. 1: 13). 

Kemp's Shrubfrog (Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 42).

Upper Rotung Shrub Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 12).

Distribution

Arunachal Pradesh, northeastern India, to extreme eastern Xizang, China; possibly in adjacent Myanmar (Kachin or Sagaing).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: China, People's Republic of, India

Likely/Controversially Present: Myanmar

Comment

Delorme, Dubois, Grosjean, and Ohler, 2006, Alytes, 24: 17, noted that the type specimen of this nominal species of Xenophrys is a Philautus, Philautus kempii (Annandale, 1912), leaving the Xenophrys taxon without a name, should that taxon actually be distinct from Xenophrys boettgeri, from which it was was considered doubtfully distinct (Annandale, 1917, Mem. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 6: 155) or a synonym (Gorham, 1974, Checklist World Amph.: 42).. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted no larval descriptions in the literature (as Megophrys kempii). Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 717–719, provided an account for China and a spot map, and implied its inclusion in what is currently referred to as Theloderma (DRF). Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 431, provided a brief account (as Aquixalus kempii). Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 512, provided an account (as Liuixalus kempii), photographs, and a range map for China. See account by Che, Jiang, Yan, and Zhang, 2020, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 110–111 (as Xenophrys kempii). Garg, Suyesh, Das, Bee, and Biju, 2021, PeerJ, 9 (e10791): 2, doubted that either this species is actually a member of Philautus or possibly a synonym of some non-Philautus species; it is unclear which from their statement. Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 42, briefly discussed habitat, possible range, and identification in Myanmar. Boruah, Deepak, and Das, 2025, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 75: 540–542, discussed the systematics, phylogenetics, and distribution of the species and also noted morphological and morphometric characters of the holotype and who suggested that further research is required to assure the correct generic identity of this species.  

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