Amolops formosus (Günther, 1876)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Ranidae > Genus: Amolops > Species: Amolops formosus

Polypedates formosus Günther, 1876 "1875", Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1875: 570. Holotype: BMNH, by original designation; this being BMNH 1947.2.4.18 (formerly registered as 1874.4.17.281) according to Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 68, and museum records. Type locality: "Khassya" (= Khasi Hills), Assam, India.

Rana formosaBoulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 70.

Rana (Hylorana) formosaBoulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 220.

Amolops formosusDubois, 1974, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 3, Zool., 213: 357.

Amolops (Amolops) formosusDubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 321.

Amolops gyirongensis Jiang, Wang, Wang, Pan, and Che in Che, Jiang, Yan, and Zhang, 2020, Amph. Rept. Tibet: 201. Holotype: KIZ 012536, by original designation. Type locality: "Jingcun, Gyirong, Tibet (28.324503° N, 85.339882° E, 2007 m)". Synonymy by Mahony, Nidup, Streicher, Teeling, and Kamei, 2022, Herpetol. J., 32: 154. 

English Names

Assam Sucker Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 97; Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 90).

Beautiful Stream Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 64; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 68).

Assam Cascade Frog (Schleich, Anders, and Kästle, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 79; Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 70).

Hill Stream Frog (Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 90).

Khasi Hill Cascade Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 10).

Distribution

High gradient streams in northern India (Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Sikkim, Himanchal Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, West Bengal), northern Bangladesh, and Nepal and nearby Jingcun, Gyirong, Tibet, China, 2007 m elevation; possibly into adjacent Bhutan (but see comment).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bangladesh, China, People's Republic of, India, Nepal

Likely/Controversially Present: Bhutan

Comment

See comment under Amolops himalayanus. See account (as Rana formosa) by Boulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 220. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 53, provided a brief account. Ray, 1999, Mem. Zool. Surv. India, 18: 21–24, provided an account. Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 204–207, provided an extensive account for the Nepal population. See brief account by Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 90. Sarkar, Biswas, and Ray, 1992, State Fauna Ser., 3: 77, provided a brief account for West Bengal, India. Dubois, 2004, Alytes, 21: 175, noted that the account by Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 212-214, under the name Amolops monticola, actually applies to this species. Devi and Shamungou, 2006, J. Exp. Zool. India, 9: 317-324, and Ningombam and Bordoloi, 2007, Zoos' Print J., 22: 2688-2690, provided a record for Manipur, northeastern India. Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 70-72, provided a brief characterization and photographs. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted no larval descriptions in the literature. See Shah and Tiwari, 2004, Herpetofauna Nepal: 47, for brief account for Nepal. Nidup, Gyeltshen, Penjor, Dorji, and Pearch, 2016, Herpetol. Bull., London, 136: 13–16, discussed identification of Amolops himalayanus in Bhutan, with which Amolops formosus has been confused. (This population is now referred to Amolops sp. 1, by Mahony, Nidup, Streicher, Teeling, and Kamei, 2022, Herpetol. J., 32: 142–175.) Shrestha and Gurung, 2019, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 13 (2: e198): 152–159, for comments on life history in Manaslu Conservation Area, Nepal. Gautam, Chalise, Thapa, and Bhattarai, 2020, IRCF Rept. & Amph., 27: 18–28, briefly discussed abundance and elevational range in the Ghandruk region of central Nepal. Khatiwada, Wang, Zhao, Xie, and Jiang, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 1–35, discussed the genetics of the Nepal population. In the Amolops viridimaculatus group of Jiang, Ren, Lyu, Wang, Wang, Lv, Wu, and Li, 2021, Zool. Res., Kunming, 42: 574–591. Rahman, Nneji, and Hossain, 2022, J. Asia-Pacific Biodiversity, 15: 147–156, excluded this species from the Bangladesh fauna without comment, suggesting earlier misidentifications. Mahony, Nidup, Streicher, Teeling, and Kamei, 2022, Herpetol. J., 32: 154, placed this species in the Amolops viridimaculatus group and discussed their rationale for placing Amolops gyirongensis into the synonymy of Amolops formosus as well as reidentifying the record of Amolops formosus from Bhutan by Tshewang and Letro, 2018, J. Threatened Taxa, 10: 12493, as “Amolops sp. 1. (viridimaculatus group)”. 

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