"Theloderma" moloch (Annandale, 1912)
Phrynoderma moloch Annandale, 1912, Rec. Indian Mus., 8: 18. Syntypes: ZSIC 16951-52, by original designation. Type locality: "Upper Renging, 2,150 ft.)", Abor country, Arunachal Pradesh, India (in region claimed by China)].
Rhacophorus (Phrynoderma) moloch — Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 60.
Rhacophorus (Rhacophorus) leprosus moloch — Wolf, 1936, Bull. Raffles Mus., 12: 158.
Nyctixalus moloch — Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 257. Provisional transfer to Nyctixalus.
Theloderma moloch —Inger In Frost, 1985, Amph. Species World: 550. Fei, Ye, and Huang, 1990, Key to Chinese Amph.: 183; Zhao and Adler, 1993, Herpetol. China: 160; Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 67; Orlov, Dutta, Ghate, and Kent, 2006, Russ. J. Herpetol., 13: 174.
English Names
Assam Indonesian Treefrog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 111; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 122; Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 73).
Eerie Tree Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 67; Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 121; Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 73).
Xizang Warty Treefrog (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 266-267).
Black-spotted Frog (Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 182).
Distribution
Isolated populations in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, northeastern India and adjacent Xizang, China, possibly extending into Myanmar.
Comment
Possibly a member of Hazelia (= Nyctixalus) according to Liem, 1970, Fieldiana, Zool., 57: 96, but he noted that the situation required more study. Provisionally transferred to Nyctixalus by Dubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 257. This transfer not recognized implicitly by Zhao and Adler, 1993, Herpetol. China: 160. Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 266-267, provided a brief account (as Theloderma moloch), a map, and figure. Li, Che, Murphy, Zhao, Zhao, Rao, and Zhang, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 53: 520, suggested on the basis of molecular evidence that this species is not a Theloderma, but more likely close to Philautus, although they refrained from providing a taxonomic remedy. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 182, and Sarkar and Ray, 2006, In Alfred (ed.), Fauna of Arunachal Pradesh, Part 1: 301, provided brief accounts. Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 72-73, provided relevant literature and range, and suggested the presence of this species in adjacent Myanmar and Xizang, China. See Orlov, Dutta, Ghate, and Kent, 2006, Russ. J. Herpetol., 13: 155-175, for brief comments. See map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Nyctixalus moloch) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 517. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 750-752, provided an account and a spot map for China. Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 122-123, provided a brief characterization and photographs. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 445, provided a brief account. Li, Rao, Murphy, and Zhang, 2011, Asian Herpetol. Res., Ser. 3, 2 (1) : 7, suggested that inclusion of this species within Theloderma rendered Theloderma non-monophyletic. Li, Zhao, and Dong, 2010, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 73, provided an account for Xizang, China. Rowley, Le, Hoang, Dau, and Cao, 2011, Zootaxa, 3098: 1-20, noted that at least based upon the existing molecular evidence "Theloderma" moloch is not a member of Theloderma. Pyron and Wiens, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 543-583, confirmed this result in their molecular tree based on Genbank sequences, placing “Theloderma” moloch as the sister taxon of Kurixalus + (Raorchestes + Pseudophilautus). For purposes of this catalogue, transferred out of Theloderma as incertae sedis within Rhacophorinae (DRF). Given that the type species of Theloderma, Theloderma leporosum, has not been included in any analysis (as well as several other species), this may be in error, and the exclusion of Theloderma leporosum is provisional.
External Links
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- For additional sources of information from other sites search Google
- For images search Arkive, CalPhoto Images and Google Images
- To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
- For information aggregation from other sites and some original accounts see AmphibiaWeb report
- For further information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
- For related information on conservation and images as well as observation see iNaturalist;
- for a quick link to their maps see iNaturalist KML
