Micryletta inornata (Boulenger, 1890)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Microhylinae > Genus: Micryletta > Species: Micryletta inornata

Microhyla inornata Boulenger, 1890, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1890: 37. Syntypes: including BMNH 1889.11.12.30 (now reregistered 1947.2.11.74 by museum records) according to Parker, 1934, Monogr. Frogs Fam. Microhylidae: 145) and BMNH 1889.11.12.4 (according to Inger, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 386). BMNH 1947.2.11.74 (formerly 1889.11.12.4) designated lectotype by Das, Garg, Hamidy, Smith, and Biju, 2019, PeerJ, 7(e7012): 19, Type locality: "Deli" or "Langahat", Sumatra, Indonesia. Lectotype from "Deli, Sumatra", Indonesia. 

Microhyla inornata inornataTaylor, 1962, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 43: 543.

Micryletta inornataDubois, 1987, Alytes, 6: 4.

English Names

Deli Paddy Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 91; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 8).

Deli Little Pygmy Frog (Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 296).

Inornate Froglet (Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 106).

Plain Narrow-mouthed Frog (Neang and Holden, 2008, Field Guide Amph. Cambodia: 61).

Spot-backed Chorus Frog (Niyomwan, Srisom, and Pawangkhanant, 2019, Field Guide Amph. Thailand: 234).

Striped-backed Chorus Frog (Niyomwan, Srisom, and Pawangkhanant, 2019, Field Guide Amph. Thailand: 234).

Spotted Paddy Frog (Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 33).

Distribution

With the exception of Sumatra (Indonesia) and the Tanintharyi Region of southern Myanmar the the range is highly provisional due to cryptic species and possible misidentification: Tanjung Morawa in Deli Serdang Regency (“Deli”), North Sumatra Province, Indonesia; Suka Makmue in Nagan Raya Regency, Aceh Province, Indonesia; Gumai Pasemah Wildlife Reserve in Lahat Regency, South Sumatra Province, Indonesia; uplands of Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, extreme southern Yunnan (China) to peninsular Myanmar and West Malaysia; isolated population on Taiwan; reported (tentatively, see comment) from South Point on South Andaman Island (India).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Indonesia, Myanmar

Likely/Controversially Present: Cambodia, China, People's Republic of, India, Laos, Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam

Comment

Prior to the recollection of topotypic material and genetic assay by Alhadi, Hamidy, Farajallah, Munir, Atmaja, Garg, Biju, and Smith, 2019, Zootaxa, 4613: 111–126, the nominal species was thought to be widespread from India to southern China and Taiwan to Malaya and Sumatra. But now almost all literature reports are now referable to unnamed species or to the single synonym from Nakhon Si Thammart, Thailand. The authors (p. 116) provided a molecular tree of the 16S rRNA fragment that suggests that nominal Micryletta inornata is composed of at least five lineages, of which only the Sumatra population is assigned the name Micryletta inornata; other lineages being from (1) northern Vietnam and central Laos; (2) northern Thailand and northern Laos; (3) northern Vietnam; and (4) western Thailand. Pretty obviously this leaves a large amount of territory unassayed genetically (including the type locality region of Miƒcryletta inornata lineata) so get ready for a number of new species to be named in the near future (DRF). Earlier literature should now be used with caution: See (as Microhyla inornataTaylor, 1962, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 43: 543–548; and Berry, 1975, Amph. Fauna Peninsular Malaysia: 122–123. Heyer, 1971, Fieldiana, Zool., 58: 83–91, described the tadpole of nominal Microhyla inornata from Thailand. Heyer, 1971, Fieldiana, Zool., 58: 61–82, reported on the call from Thailand.Yang, 1991, Amph. Fauna of Yunnan: 241–243 (as Microhyla inornata); and Fei, 1999, Atlas Amph. China: 296–297, provided accounts. See comment under Micrhyletta steinegeri. See brief account and photo by Manthey and Grossmann, 1997, Amph. Rept. Südostasiens: 66. Reported for southwestern Cambodia by Ohler, Swan, and Daltry, 2002, Raffles Bull. Zool., 50: 465–481. Stuart, 1999, in Duckworth et al. (eds.), Wildlife in Lao PDR: 49, commented on the range in Laos. Chan-ard, 2003, Photograph. Guide Amph. Thailand: 106–107, provided a very brief account, map for Thailand, and photograph. Nguyen, Ho, and Nguyen, 2005, Checklist Amph. Rept. Vietnam: 47, provided specific localities for Vietnam. Stuart, 2005, Herpetol. Rev., 36: 476, provided specific localities for Laos. Stuart and Emmett, 2006, Fieldiana, Zool., N.S., 109: 7, provided a record for the Cadamom Mountains, southwestern Cambodia. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted several larval descriptions in the literature of varying completeness. Neang and Holden, 2008, Field Guide Amph. Cambodia: 61, provided a photograph, brief account of identification, ecology, and range in Cambodia. Yang, 2008, in Yang and Rao (ed.), Amph. Rept. Yunnan: 125–126, provided a brief account (as Microhyla inornata) for Yunnan, China. Fei, Hu, Ye, and Huang, 2009, Fauna Sinica, Amph. 2: 917–920, provided an account and spot map for China. Fei, Ye, and Jiang, 2010, Colored Atlas of Chinese Amph.: 489, provided a brief account for China including photographs of specimens and habitat. Chan-ard, Cota, and Makchai, 2011, Amph. E. Region Thailand: 42–43, provided a photograph and brief account for eastern Thailand, and (p.129) detailed the distribution in Thailand of nominal Micryletta inornata (identification now suspect). Matsui, Hamidy, Belabut, Ahmad, Panha, Sudin, Khonsue, Oh, Yong, Jiang, and Nishikawa, 2011, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 61: 167–176, suggested on the basis of mtDNA that this nominal species may contain cryptic species, one of which may be more closely related to Microhyla steinegeriFei, Ye, and Jiang, 2012, Colored Atlas Chinese Amph. Distr.: 576, provided an account, photographs, and a range map for China. Guo, Yang, and Li, 2009, Colored Illust. Amph. Rept. Taiwan: 72–73, provided a brief account, photographs, and map. Harikrishnan and Vasudevan, 2018, Alytes, 36: 247–242, who commented on the distribution and natural history in the Andaman Islands, India, and suggested that the Andaman record should be considered tentative inasmuch as the single specimen is a juvenile as well as the more recent result that nominal Micryletta inornata is a species complex. Das, Garg, Hamidy, Smith, and Biju, 2019, PeerJ, 7(e7012): 1–32, described the lectotype and suggested that Micryletta inornata lineata from Myanmar and Thailand, represents a distinct species, most closely related to Micryletta erythropoda, but did not make the taxonomic change. They also noted unnamed species Micryletta cf. inornata A (from Laos, Vietnam, Thailand) and Micryletta cf. inornata B (Laos), both more closely related to Micryletta steinegeri than to Micryletta inornata. See comments by Geissler, Hartmann, Ihlow, Neang, Seng, Wagner, and Böhme, 2019, Cambodian J. Nat. Hist., 2019: 40–63, on specimens (as Micryletta cf inornata) collected in Phnom Kulen National Park, northern Cambodia.  Harikrishnan, Vasudevan, and Dutta, 2017, Das (ed.), Diversity Ecol. Amph. India: 85, doubted the record from the Andaman Island. Poyarkov, Nguyen, Duong, Gorin, and Yang, 2018, PeerJ, 6 (e5771): 17, provided records (as Microhyla cf. inornata) for Cat Ba National Park, Hai Phong Province, and from Cuc Phuong National Park, Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam. Niyomwan, Srisom, and Pawangkhanant, 2019, Field Guide Amph. Thailand: 234–235, provided a brief account (photographs, habitat, and range) for Thailand (in Thai). Makchai, Chuaynkern, Safoowong, Chuachat, and Cota, 2020, Amph. N. Thailand: 121, provided a brief account, photographs, and a range map for Thailand. Le, Nguyen, Pham, Nguyen, Phan, Dang, and Ziegler, 2021, Herpetol. Notes, 14: 317–324, reported the species (clearly one of the associated cryptic species-DRF) from Quang Nam Province, central Vietnam, and described its morphology and coloration. Miller, Zug, Wogan, Lee, and Mulcahy, 2021, Ichthyol. & Herpetol., 109: 245–257, reported on mtDNA phylogenetics and confirmed that nominal Micryletta inornata is composed of multiple cryptic species; they noted a genetically confirmed record of Micryletta inornata from the Tanintharyi Region of southern Myanmar and also suggested that the distinctiveness of Micryletta erythropoda from Micryletta lineata requires genetic confirmation. Zug, 2022, Smithson. Contrib. Zool., 653: 33, briefly discussed identification, habitat, and range in Myanmar. 

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