Zhangixalus dennysi (Blanford, 1881)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Rhacophoridae > Subfamily: Rhacophorinae > Genus: Zhangixalus > Species: Zhangixalus dennysi

Rhacophorus dennysi Blanford, 1881, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1881: 224. Holotype: ZRC according to the original publication; RMNH, according to Stejneger, 1925, Proc. U.S. Natl. Mus., 66: 31, apparently in error. Type locality: "China; but the precise locality is unknown".

Rhacophorus exiguus Boettger, 1894, Ber. Senckenb. Naturforsch. Ges., 1894: 148. Types: Not stated; SMF 6987 is holotype according to Mertens, 1967, Senckenb. Biol., 48(A): 49. Type locality: "Chinhai bei Ningpo", China. Considered a subspecies of Rhacophorus schlegelii by Wolf, 1936, Bull. Raffles Mus., 12: 194, but this is currently untenable. Synonymy by Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 258; Zhao and Adler, 1993, Herpetol. China: 155.

Polypedates dennysiStejneger, 1925, Proc. U.S. Natl. Mus., 66: 31; Fei, Ye, and Huang, 1990, Key to Chinese Amph.: 184.

Hyla albotaeniata Vogt, 1927, Zool. Anz., 69: 287. Holotype: ZMB 24118, according to Pope, 1931, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 61: 462. Type locality: "Südchina". Probably Yunnan Province, according to Zhao and Adler, 1993, Herpetol. China: 155. Synonymy by Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 258;.

Polypedate feyi Chen, 1929, China J. Sci. Arts, Shanghai, 10: 198. Holotype: Sun Yat-sen Univ. Collection 1205, by original designation. Type locality: "Yaoshan [= Dayao Shan], Kwangsi [= Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region]", China. Original spelling error of generic name. Synonymy by Pope, 1931, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 61: 563, and Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 258.

Rhacophorus (Rhacophorus) exiguusAhl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 113.

Rhacophorus (Rhacophorus) dennysiiAhl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 162; Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 77.

Rhacophorus nigropalmatus exiguusWolf, 1936, Bull. Raffles Mus., 12: 201.

Rhacophorus nigropalmatus dennysiiWolf, 1936, Bull. Raffles Mus., 12: 201.

Rhacophorus dennysi — Inger, 1966, Fieldiana, Zool., 52: 321; Wilkinson, Drewes, and Tatum, 2002, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 24: 272.

Polypedates dennysiLiem, 1970, Fieldiana, Zool., 57: 98.

Rhacophorus (Rhacophorus) dennysiiDubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 77.

Zhangixalus dennysi — Jiang, Jiang, Ren, Wu, and Li, 2019, Asian Herpetol. Res., 10: 7. 

English Names

Blanford's Whipping Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 113).

Large Treefrog (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 276–277).

Denny's Whipping Frog (Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 36).

Dennys' Large Treefrog (Poyarkov, Nguyen, Popov, Geissler, Pawangkhanant, Neang, Suwannapoom, and Orlov, 2021, Russ. J. Herpetol., 28 (3A): 64). 

Dennys' Gliding Treefrog (Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 46).

Distribution

Southeastern China from southern Henan south to northern Guangdong, and through central Guangxi to Vietnam; northern and northeastern Vietnam east of the Red River (Cao Bang, Bac Thai, Lang Son, Vinh Phu, Hai Hung, Quang Ninh, and Ha Bac provinces, 200–1500 m elevation); Khammouan Province, Laos; Hainan I., China; northwestern Myanmar (see comment).  

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: China, People's Republic of, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam

Comment

Discussed (as Rhacophorus dennysii) by Liu and Hu, 1961, Tailless Amph. China: 258–261. In the Rhacophorus (Rhacophorus) dennysii group of Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 77 (see comment under Rhacophorus for dissenting opinion regarding the recognition of this group). See account by Ye, Fei, and Hu, 1993, Rare and Economic Amph. China: 327; and Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 277–278 (who excluded China adjacent to Myanmar). Ohler, Marquis, Swan, and Grosjean, 2000, Herpetozoa, Wien, 13: 71–87, reported the Lao Cai Province, Vietnam record. Fei and Ye, 2001, Color Handbook Amph. Sichuan: 204–205, provided a brief account and illustration (as Rhacophorus dennysi). Wilkinson, Drewes, and Tatum, 2002, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 24: 265–273, provided molecular and morphological evidence for retaining this species in Rhacophorus and not in Polypedates. Huang, 1990, Fauna Zhejiang, Amph. Rept.: 85–86, provided an account for Zhejiang populations. Zhang and Wen, 2000, Amph. Guangxi: 124, provided an account for Guangxi. Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 37, provided specific localities for Vietnam and (p. 150) a photograph. Stuart, 2005, Herpetol. Rev., 36: 478, provided a specific locality for Laos. Wilkinson, Thin, Lwin, and Shein, 2005, Proc. California Acad. Sci., Ser. 4, 56: 49, provided records from Putao District, northwestern Myanmar (DRF: note that these specimens, in CAS, are currently identified in VertNet as Rhacophorus maximus) so these far isolated records may rest on misidentifications. Orlov, Nguyen, and Ho, 2008, Russ. J. Herpetol., 15: 67–84, provided a photograph and a key to differentiate this species from others in Vietnam. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 789–795, provided an account and a spot map for China and assigned this species to their Rhacophorus maximus group. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 454–455, provided a brief account for China including photographs of specimens. Shi, 2011, Amph. Rept. Fauna Hainan: 65–66, provided an account for Hainan. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 537–538, provided an account, photographs, and a range map. Pham, An, Herbst, Bonkowski, Ziegler, and Nguyen, 2017, Bonn Zool. Bull., 66: 37–53, provided records for Cao Bang Province, Vietnam, along with observatons on morphology and natural history. Shen, 2014, Fauna Hunan, Amph.: 316–321, provided an account for Hunan, China. Li, 2011, Amph. Rept. Guangdong: 71, provided a brief account for Guangdong, China, and photograph. Zhang, 2017, Amph. Rept. Fanjing Mts.: 172–175, provided taxonomic and natural history information for the Fanjing Mountains population in northeastern Guizhou, China. Pham, Do, Ngo, Tran, Ziegler, and Nguyen, 2020, Check List, 16: 1025–1041, provided a record from Hai Ha District, Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam, on the Guangxi, China, border. Li, Zhang, Wu, Li, Yan, and Wu, 2021, Pakistan J. Zool., 53: 2013–2019, reported on the complete mtDNA genome (as Rhacophorus dennysi) and discussed the phylogenetic implications. Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 46, briefly discussed identification, habitat, and range in Myanmar. Kohler, Zhang, Messenger, An, Ghosh, Othman, Wang, Amin, Prasad, Wu, and Borzée, 2024, Herpetozoa, Wien, 37: 85–93, provided new records from Jiangsu, China, as well as a dot map for the species range.         

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