Kaloula pulchra Gray, 1831

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Microhylinae > Genus: Kaloula > Species: Kaloula pulchra

Kaloula pulchra Gray, 1831, Zool. Misc., Part 1: 38. Type(s): Not designated; presumably BMNH, but not identified by Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 86, or current museum records. Type locality: "China".

Hylaedactylus bivittatus Cantor, 1847, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 16: 1064. Holotype: Presumably ZRC or BMNH but not mentioned by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 171, or current museum records. Type locality: "field near Malacca", West Malaysia. Synonymy by Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 123; Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 170; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 487.

Callula pulchra — Günther, 1864, Rept. Brit. India: 437.

Caloula pulchra — Stoliczka, 1870, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 39: 155.

Calohyla pulchra — Peters and Doria, 1878, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, 13: 429.

Callula macrodactyla Boulenger, 1887, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, Ser. 2, 5: 485. Holotype: MSNG 29467, according to Capocaccia, 1957, Ann. Mus. Civ. Stor. Nat. Genova, Ser. 3, 69: 219. Type locality: "Kaw-ka-riet, about 30 miles from Moulmein, at the foot of the Dawn Chain", Tenasserim, Myanmar. Synonymy by Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 85; Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 488.

Kaloula pulchra — Barbour, 1909, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 61: 405.

Callula (Kallula) pulchra — Bourret, 1927, Fauna Indochine, Vert., 3: 263.

Kaloula pulchra pulchra — Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 33–34, 85.

Kaloula pulchra hainana Gressitt, 1938, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 51: 127. Holotype: MVZ 23189, by original designation. Type locality: "Kachek [= Qionghai County], alt. 25 meters, east central Hainan Island, South China Sea (lat. 18° 50′ N., long. 110° 30′ E.)", China.

Kaloula pulchra macrocephala Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 490. Syntypes: Lab. Sci. Nat. Univ. Hanoi 35–36, now presumably in MNHNP. Type locality: "Tonkin: ? (pas de localité indiquée)".

Kaloula macrocephala — Ohler, 2003, Alytes, 21: 100. See comment.

English Names

Beautiful Kaloula (Kaloula pulchra: Gray, 1831, Zool. Misc., Part 1: 38).

Malaysian Narrowmouth Toad (Kaloula pulchra: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 90).

Asiatic Painted Frog (Kaloula pulchra pulchra: Karsen, Lau, and Bogadek, 1986, Hong Kong Amph. Rept.: 34).

Malayan Bullfrog (Kaloula pulchra: Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 97).

Ceylon Kaloula (Kaloula pulchra: Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 97).

Digging Frog (Kaloula pulchra: Ananjeva, Borkin, Darevsky, and Orlov, 1988, Dict. Amph. Rept. Five Languages: 97).

Hainan Digging Frog (Kaloula pulchra hainana: Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 298).

Piebald Digging Frog (Kaloula pulchra pulchra: Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 300).

Painted Bullfrog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 64).

Banded Bullfrog (Lim and Lim, 1992, Guide Amph. Rept. Singapore: 39; Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 100; Grismer, 2012, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Seribuat Arch.: 55).

Malaysian Bullfrog (Schleich, Anders, and Kästle, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 79).

Painted Frog (Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 72; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 52).

Painted Burrowing Frog (Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 159; Niyomwan, Srisom, and Pawangkhanant, 2019, Field Guide Amph. Thailand: 216).

Common Asian Bullfrog (Neang and Holden, 2008, Field Guide Amph. Cambodia: 60).

Painted Balloon Frog (Ahmed, Das, and Dutta, 2009, Amph. Rept. NE India: 32).

Painted Microhylid Frog (Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 64).

Painted Bullfrog (Zug and Mulcahy, 2020 "2019", Amph. Rept. S. Tanintharyi: 44). 

Asian Painted Frog (Niyomwan, Srisom, and Pawangkhanant, 2019, Field Guide Amph. Thailand: 216; Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 30).

Beautiful Painted Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 7).

Distribution

Northeastern India (Meghalaya, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, and Manipur) east through Bangladesh (southeastern to northeastern) and Myanmar (Ayeyarwady, Bago, Kachin, Kayah, Kayin, Magway, Mandalay, Rakhine, Sagaing, Shan, Yangon, Mon, Tanintharyi) and Thailand to southern China (southern Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, and Guangdong), Cambodia, and Vietnam, south to Singapore; Sumatra; Borneo; Sulawesi; introduced into southwestern Taiwan and Philippines (Boracay, Cebu, Luzon, Leyte, Mindanao, Mindoro, Negros, Palawan, and Samar). Apparently isolated population in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala of South India. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, People's Republic of, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Macao, Malaysia, Malaysia, East (Sarawak and/or Sabah), Malaysia, West (Peninsular), Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam

Introduced: Philippines, Taiwan

Comment

Apparently introduced into Borneo and Sulawesi according to to Inger, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 384, and Lever, 2003, Naturalized Rept. Amph. World: 200–201. See Berry, 1975, Amph. Fauna Peninsular Malaysia: 114–116, for account of Malayan population. Chinese population discussed by Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 293–295; see also Liu, Hu, Fei, and Huang, 1973, Acta Zool. Sinica, 19: 400–401, for Hainan population. Thailand population discussed by Taylor, 1962, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 43: 563–566. See also account for Indonesian populations by Mertens, 1930, Abh. Senckenb. Naturforsch. Ges., 42: 236. See comment under Kaloula taprobanica. Heyer, 1971, Fieldiana, Zool., 58: 851, commented on tadpole morphology compared with Kaloula mediolineata from Thailand. See accounts by Yang, 1991, Amph. Fauna of Yunnan: 231–233; Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 349; and Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 298–302. See Dey and Gupta, 2001 "2000", Hamadryad, 25: 214–215, for Assam record. Lim and Lim, 1992, Guide Amph. Rept. Singapore: 39, suggested that the population in Singapore is introduced. Karsen, Lau, and Bogadek, 1986, Hong Kong Amph. Rept.: 34, provided a brief account. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 35, provided a brief account. See brief account and photo by Manthey and Grossmann, 1997, Amph. Rept. Südostasiens: 56–58. Zhang and Wen, 2000, Amph. Guangxi: 141, provided an account for Guangxi. Orlov, Murphy, Ananjeva, Ryabov, and Ho, 2002, Russ. J. Herpetol., 9: 99, provided a statement for the range in Vietnam. See also brief account by Zhao and Yang, 1997, Amph. Rept. Hengduan Mountains Region: 134–135. Hooroo, Khongwir, and Gupta, 2003 "2002", Hamadryad, 27: 147–148, reported the species for Meghalaya, northeastern India. Reported for southwestern Cambodia by Ohler, Swan, and Daltry, 2002, Raffles Bull. Zool., 50: 465–481. Nutphund, 2001, Amph. Thailand: 159, provided a brief characterization and photograph. Malkmus, Manthey, Vogel, Hoffmann, and Kosuch, 2002, Amph. Rept. Mount Kinabalu:126–127, provided an account. Stuart, 1999, in Duckworth et al. (eds.), Wildlife in Lao PDR: 49, reported the species in Laos. Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 100–101, provided a very brief account, map for Thailand, and photograph. Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 43, provided specific localities for Vietnam. Lue, Tu, and Hsiang, 1999, Atlas Taiwan Amph. Rept.: 54–55, provided a brief account for Taiwan. Kanamadi, Kadadevaru, and Schneider, 2002, Herpetol. Rev., 33: 19–21, reported on the advertisement call of the population in the Western Ghats of South India. Devi and Shamungou, 2006, J. Exp. Zool. India, 9: 317–324, provided a record for Manipur, northeastern India. Sailo, Kharbuli, and Hooroo, 2005, Cobra, Chennai, 62: 25–28, provided a record for Mizoram, northeastern India. Neang and Holden, 2008, Field Guide Amph. Cambodia: 60, provided a photograph, brief account of identification, ecology, and range in Cambodia. Yang, 2008, in Yang and Rao (ed.), Amph. Rept. Yunnan: 121–122, provided a brief account for Yunnan, China. Charles, 2008, Herpetol. Rev., 39: 478–479, provided the first record for Brunei. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 926–935, provided an account and spot map for China and assigned this species to their Kaloula pulchra group. Christy, Clark, Gee, Vice, Vice, Warner, Tyrrell, Rodda, and Savidge, 2007, Pacific Sci., 61: 469–483, reported incidental specimens from Guam but did not think that the species was established. Das, 2009, Herpetol. Rev., 40: 361, provided a record for Sarawak and commented on the introductions in Borneo. Ahmed, Das, and Dutta, 2009, Amph. Rept. NE India: 32, provided a brief account for northeastern India. Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 52, reported the species to only occur in Meghalaya, India. Fidenci, 2009, Herpetol. Rev., 40: 446, reported the species in Palawan, Philippines, and commented on the range in the Philippines. Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 64, provided a brief characterization and photographs and, without explanation, included southern and eastern India (e.g., Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Orissa) within the range. Mahony, Hasan, Kabir, Ahmed, and Hossain, 2009, Hamadryad, 34: 80–94, discussed the vouchered range in Bangladesh. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 491 (Kaloula pulchra hainana), 492–493 (Kaloula pulchra pulchra), provided brief accounts for China including photographs of specimens. Thong-aree, Chan-ard, Cota, and Makchai, 2011, Thailand Nat. Hist. Mus. J., 5: 99–106, reported the species from Bala Forest, Narathiwat, extreme southern Thailand. Chan-ard, Cota, and Makchai, 2011, Amph. E. Region Thailand: 42–43, provided a photograph and brief account for eastern Thailand. Siler, Welton, Siler, Brown, Bucol, Diesmos, and Brown, 2011, Check List, 7: 182–195, discussed this introduced species in Aurora Province, Luzon Island, Philippines. Shi, 2011, Amph. Rept. Fauna Hainan: 57–58, provided an account for Hainan. Wanger, Motzke, Saleh, and Iskandar, 2011, Salamandra, 47: 17–29, reported the species from central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Pauwels and Chérot, 2006, Hamadryad, 30: 172–175, discussed the synonymy of Kaloula aureata with Kaloula macrocephala, suggested provisionally by Ohler, 2003, Alytes, 21: 100. They did not comment on the suggested species status of Kaloula macrocephala, treating it instead as a subspecies of Kaloula pulchra. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted several larval descriptions in the literature of varying completeness. Chan-ard and Makchai, 2011, Thailand Nat. Hist. Mus. J., 5: 28, provided a record from Koh Man Ni (island), Rayong Province, Thailand. See brief account by Grismer, 2012, Field Guide Amph. Rept. Seribuat Arch.: 55–56, for the Seribuat Archipelago, West Malaysia. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 578–581, provided accounts (as Kaloula pulchra hainana and Kaloula pulchra pulchra), photographs, and range maps for China. Sy, 2013, Herpetol. Rev., 44: 621, provided new records and discussed range in Philippines. Nidup, Wangkulangkul, Satasook, Bates, and Juthong, 2013, Proc. World Biodiversity Congr., 2013: 1–13, reported a population on Tarutao Island, Satun Province, Thailand. Sy and Malabana, 2015, Herpetol. Rev., 46: 212, provided a record for Marinduque Island, Philippines, and briefly discussed the range in that country. Reported from the Phi Phi Archipelago of peninsular Thailand by Milto, 2014, Russ. J. Herpetol., 21: 272. Ziegler, Rauhaus, Tran, Pham, van Schingen, Dang, Le, and Nguyen, 2015, Sauria, Berlin, 37: 11–44, provided a genetically confirmed locality at Vin Phuc Province, Vietnam Sy, Cielo, Soniega, Hulog, Bacalando, and Quibod, 2016, Herpetol. Rev., 47: 248, provided a record from Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro Province, Mindanao, Philippines. Quibod and Sy, 2018, Herpetol. Rev., 49: 69–70, provided a record for Boracay Island, Anklan Province, Philippines. See account, photograph, and map for Vietnam in Vassilieva, Galoyan, Poyarkov, and Geissler, 2016, Photograph. Field Guide Amph. Rept. Lowland S. Vietnam: 70–71. Guo, Yang, and Li, 2009, Colored Illust. Amph. Rept. Taiwan: 74–75, provided a brief account, photographs, and map. Li, 2011, Amph. Rept. Guangdong: 76, provided a brief account for Guangdong, China, and photograph.  Somaweera, Azis, Resa, Panggur, Saverinus, and Muga, 2018, Amph. Rept. Komodo Natl. Park: 6, provided a brief characterization and photograph for the associated population on Komodo, Indonesia. Lalremsanga, Sailo, and Hooroo, 2017, Sci. Technol. J., Mizoram, 5: 97–103, reported on larval external morphology, oral structure, and feeding behavior. Mulcahy, Lee, Miller, Chand, Thura, and Zug, 2018, ZooKeys, 757: 95, provided a genetically confirmed record from Taninthary Division, southern Myanmar. Niyomwan, Srisom, and Pawangkhanant, 2019, Field Guide Amph. Thailand: 216–217, provided a brief account (photographs, habitat, and range) for Thailand (in Thai). Ahmad and Mim, 2020, IRCF Rept. & Amph., 27: 36–41, reported specimens from the Bandarban District, southeastern Bangladesh. Zug and Mulcahy, 2020 "2019", Amph. Rept. S. Tanintharyi: 44–45, provided a brief account for South Tanintharyi, peninsular Myanmar. Purkayastha, Khan, and Roychoudhury, 2020, in Roy et al. (eds.), Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions in Resource use and Conservation, Environmental Science and Engineering: 225–233, provided a record for Rowa Wildlife Sanctuary, Tripura, India. Makchai, Chuaynkern, Safoowong, Chuachat, and Cota, 2020, Amph. N. Thailand: 115, provided a brief account, photographs, and a range map for Thailand. Hui, Ngadi, Md-Zain, Md-Zairi, and Abdul-Latiff, 2020, Biodiversitas, 21: 2425–2429, reported the species from Pulau Tinggi, off the southeastern coast of peninsular Malaysia. See comments by Hakim, Trageser, Ghose, Das, Rashid, and Rahman, 2020, Check List, 16: 1239–1268, who reported the species from Lawachara National Park, Sylhet Division, Bangladesh. Fatihah-Syafiq, Badli-Sham, Fahmi-Ahmad, Aqmal-Naser, Rizal, Azmi, Grismer, and Ahmad, 2020, ZooKeys, 985: 143–162, reported the species from Bidong Island, Terengganu, Malaysia.  Shah and Tiwari, 2004, Herpetofauna Nepal: 37, in their brief account for Nepal, noted that the record by Dubois, 1978, Senckenb. Biol., 59: XXX, requires re-examination. Indeed, all records from Nepal (e.g., Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 72–73) require confirmation and the species was not included in the faunal list by Khatiwada, Wang, Zhao, Xie, and Jiang, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 1–35. Vassilieva, 2021, Zootaxa, 4952: 71–86, described larval morphology. Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 30, briefly discussed identification, habitat, and range in Myanmar. Pankaj and Nath, 2022, Reptiles & Amphibians, 29: 275–276, provided a record from Jharkhand, India.. Haas, Das, Hertwig, Bublies, and Schulz-Schaeffer, 2022, Guide to the Tadpoles of Borneo: 298–300, summarized the knowledge of habitat, reproduction, larval morphology and coloration. Duong and Ngo, 2022, Herpetol. Notes, 15: 751–762, discussed range in Vietnam and provided records for Binh Dinh Province. Figueroa, Low, and Lim, 2023, Zootaxa, 5287: 1–378, provided records, literature, and conservation status for Singapore. Venturina, Diesmos, Maglangit, del Prado, Ordas, Fernandez, Dans, Warguez, and Diesmos, 2023, Philipp. J. Sci., 152: 2031–2048, reported on the presence in central Mindanao, Philippines. 

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