First records of the fanged frogs Limnonectes bannaensis Ye, Fei & Jiang, 2007 and L. utara Matsui, Belabut & Ahmad, 2014 (Amphibia: Anura: Dicroglossidae) in Thailand

• Main Authors: Chatmongkon Suwannapoom, Ke Jiang, Yun-He Wu, Parinya Pawangkhanant, Sengvilay Lorphengsy, Tan Nguyen, Nikolay Poyarkov, Jing Che
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pensoft Publishers 2021-07-01
• Series: Biodiversity Data Journal
• Subjects: Nan Province; Yala Province; 16S rRNA; Cryptic spe
• Online Access: https://bdj.pensoft.net/article/67253/download/pdf/
• ISSN: 1314-2828

Taxonomic status of the Limnonectes kuhlii species complex populations from Thailand controversial due to its high morphological similarity and contain many cryptic species consequence still underestimated. Recently, some studies on this group in Thailand have discovered four new species described: L. megastomias, L. jarujini, L. isanensis. Even so, the diversity of this group is still incomplete.Based integrative approach genetic and morphological analyses, we conclude that the Limnonectes populations from Nan Province (northern) and Yala Province (southern) of Thailand are conspecific with L. bannaensis Ye, Fei & Jiang, 2007 and L. utara Matsui, Belabut & Ahmad, 2014, respectively. This is representing the first country records of these species for Thailand. Our study further highlights the importance of using DNA sequence data in combination with traditional morphological characteristics to document species identity and diversity. This is especially important for morphologically cryptic species complexes and sympatrically occurring congeners.