6 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.Includes bibliographical references (p. 6)

Hoogland, R. D. (Ruurd D.)

Zweifel, Richard George, 1926-

American Museum of Natural History Scientific Publications

1ox4tatesPUBLISHED BY THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORYCENTRAL PARK WEST AT 79TH STREET, NEW YORK, N. Y. I0024NUMBER 2309 NOVEMBER 30, I967A New Species of Microhylid Frog(Genus Sphenophryne) fromNew GuineaBY RICHARD G. ZWEIFEL1In 1966, while engaged principally in botanical studies in the middleSepik region of the Territory of New Guinea, Dr. R. D. Hoogland ofthe Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization(Canberra, Australia) assembled collections of reptiles and amphibiansat Ambunti and on Mt. Hunstein. Hoogland's excellently prepared andwell-documented material adds significantly to our meager knowledgeof the herpetofauna of this little-known region. The collections fromMt. Hunstein are of particular interest because, so far as I have beenable to determine, no herpetological collections had been made beforeon this relatively low, northern outlier of the Central Range. Amongthe specimens Hoogland captured on Mt. Hunstein are six frogs thatevidently belong to an undescribed species. The purpose of the presentpaper is to describe the species.Measurements of specimens were made with vernier calipers or withan ocular micrometer in a binocular dissecting microscope: length fromsnout to vent (S-V); length of tibia (from heel to fold of skin at knee,TL); head width (taken at widest part, HW); eye length (from cornerto corner, EYE); internarial distance (IN); distance from eye to naris(E-N); snout length, anterior corner of eye to tip of snout (SN); width1 Curator, Department of Herpetology, the American Museum of Natural History.AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATESof finger and toe discs; and width of penultimate phalanges. Measure-ments involving the nares were taken from the center of the naris.I thank Mrs. Frances W. Zweifel for preparing the illustrations. Sup-port of National Science Foundation Grant GB-2217 is gratefullyacknowledged.Sphenophryne hooglandi, new speciesHOLOTYPE: A.M.N.H. No. 77597, obtained by R. D. Hoogland onMt. Hunstein, Sepik District, Territory of New Guinea, at an elevationof 4000 feet on August 13, 1966.PARATYPES: A.M.N.H. Nos. 77592-77596, collected by Hoogland atthe type locality on August 12-14, 1966.DIAGNOsIS: The following combination of characters is unique to thisspecies and thus serves to differentiate it from all other species ofSphenophryne: body size moderate, up to at least 42 mm. snout to ventlength; fingers and toes with terminal discs; toes without webs or lateralfringes; upper eyelids without cutaneous projections; legs of moderatelength, TL/S-V ranges from 0.36 to 0.43; skin of dorsal surface ofbody and legs smooth, lacking folds except for a weak supratympanicfold. Comparisons with individual species are in a following section.DESCRIPTION OF TYPE SPECIMEN (FIG. 1): The type is an adult malewith the following measurements (given in millimeters): S-V, 40.7; TL,15.2; HW, 14.7; EYE, 3.7; E-N, 3.0; IN, 4.0; SN, 5.5; disc of third finger,1.1; penultimate phalanx of third finger, 0.7; disc of fourth toe, 1.5;penultimate phalanx of fourth toe, 0.9.The maxillary bones are eleutherognathine, with their anterior endsfalling far short of contact. There are no teeth. The pectoral girdle in-cludes long, nearly straight clavicles that reach from the scapula tonear the midline in the manner typical of Sphenophryne (Parker, 1934,fig. 54).The snout is acute but blunt and projects well beyond the anteriormargin of the lip (fig. 2). The head is narrower than the body, and itswidth is slightly more than one-third of the body length (HW/S-V= 0.36).The eyes are relatively small (EYE/S-V=0.09), and the interorbital dis-tance is almost twice the width of an eyelid. The snout is one and one-half times the length of the eye (SN/EYE = 1.5). The loreal region isnearly vertical and shallowly concave, the canthal angle rounded butnot obscure. The nostrils are directed laterally, and the distance fromeye to naris is less than the internarial distance (E-N/IN=0.75). Thetympanum is scarcely visible externally and has a diameter of approxi-mately 2.2 mm.NO. 23092ZWEIFEL: NEW FROGAll fingers and toes bear distinct discs with marginal grooves. Thediscs of the toes are slightly larger than those of the fingers; the ratioof the width of the disc of the third finger to that of fourth toe is 0.73.The discs of the third finger and fourth toe are slightly more than oneand one-half times the width of their penultimate phalanges (1.6 and14 .4FIG. 1. Dorsal view of holotype of Sphenophgyne hooglandi (A.M.N.H. No.77597). XiS.51.7, respectively). The order of length in the fingers is 3>4>2>1, and,in the toes, 4>3>5>2>1. There are no distinct subarticular or othertubercles on the hands and feet; only low, rounded elevations arepresent. There is no trace of webbing on the hands or feet, and the toesare without fringes. The ratio of tibia length to length from snout tovent is 0.37.The skin of the eyelids and of the top of the head (but not the endof the snout) is slightly roughened, but all other surfaces, both dorsaland ventral, are smooth. There is a weak fold passingy from the posterior1967 3AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATEScorner of the eye above and down behind the tympanum; no other skinfolds are present.The tongue is half free behind. A single serrate palatal ridge ispresent. Paired vocal slits in the floor of the mouth open into a singlesubgular vocal sac.The dorsal ground color of body and limbs (in preservative) is palepinkish brown. The darker markings, flecks, and mottling (fig. 1) aredark brown. The tip of the snout is white. The groin, anterior andposterior sides of the thigh, and inside of the shank are light peachcolor. To judge from the intensity of the color in specimens preservedfor several months, it was probably quite bright and possibly redderin life. The ventral surfaces are pale tan, almost white. The chin andhind limbs are lightly spotted and mottled with brown; the chest andabdomen are immaculate.VARIATION IN THE TYPE SERIES: The largest of the six specimens is agravid female with a length from snout to vent of 42.4 mm. A female36.0 mm. in length shows no sign of sexual maturity. The means andranges (in parentheses) for several proportions of the six specimens areas follows: TL/S-V, 0.39 (0.36-0.43); HW/S-V, 0.37 (0.33-0.41);EYE/S-V, 0.10 (0.09-0.12); EN/IN, 0.74 (0.63-0.80); SN/EYE, 1.4(1.2-1.5); third finger disc/fourth toe disc, 0.80 (0.72-0.94).The paratypes closely resemble the holotype in color. Some specimenshave more dark pigment on the sides than the holotype, though thecolor is still in the form of discrete flecks, and the middorsal area maybe darker or more mottled. Three specimens show traces of a narrow,light, midvertebral line.Parker (1940, p. 259) observed that males and females of Sphenophrynemacrorhyncha differ in the shape of the snout: ". . . in the male the snoutis strongly prominent, acutely pointed, and longer (1.3) than the eye,whereas in the female and juvenile it is markedly less prominent, lesspointed, and only as long as the orbital diameter." Similar dimorphismexists in S. hooglandi. In three males the snout is more pointed, longer,and conspicuously whitened. Two females (one subadult) and a juvenilehave blunter snouts, with little or no trace of whitening.COMPARISONS WITH OTHER SPECIES: Parker (1934) recognized 10species of Sphenophryne, and subsequent revisionary work increased thetotal to 13 (Zweifel, 1956, 1962, 1965). The Australian species S. fryi,S. pluvialis, and S. robusta (the last reaches southern New Guinea, op-posite Cape York) are most easily diagnosed as being much smallerthan S. hooglandi though they differ in other ways as well; the largestof the Australian species is less than 30 mm. from snout to vent, inNO. 23094ZWEIFEL: NEW FROGcontrast to 42 mm. for S. hooglandi. Three Papuan species that alsodiffer in their smaller size (maximum, 30 mm.) are S. brevicrus, S. brevi-ceps, and S. crassa. These three also are distinguished by a lack of fingerdiscs.The two little-known species Sphenophryne mehelyi and S. polysticta pos-sibly differ from S. hooglandi in size (20 mm. S-V in mehelyi, 16.5 mm.in polysticta), but Parker (1934), on whom I depend for information onthese species, examined only two specimens of the first and one of thesecond. Parker (1934, pp. 153, 156, 157) indicated that in mehelyi andpolysticta the snout is as long as or shorter than the eye, whereas it isclearly longer in hooglandi.FIG. 2. Lateral view of head of holotype of Sphenophryne hooglandi (A.M.N.H.No. 77597), to show projecting snout. X5.Sphenophryne cornuta resembles S. hooglandi in size but is distinctive in,among other differences, usually possessing a spinelike tubercle on eachupper eyelid. Sphenophryne palmipes also is approximately the same sizeas S. hooglandi but has webbed toes and a prominent spike on eachvomerine bone. Sphenophryne macrorhyncha usually has at least a trace ofwebbing on the toes, and, if the webbing is greatly reduced, a fringepersists. This species is sympatric with S. hooglandi.The species remaining to be discussed are Sphenophryne rhododactyla andS. schlaginhaufeni. The latter is sympatric with S. hooglandi and differs inmany respects. Perhaps most useful as a key character is the presenceof convergent skin folds in the scapular region, where hooglandi is smooth.This feature is well shown in Boulenger's (1914, pl. 28, fig. 3) illustra-tion of the type of Sphenophryne klossi (a synonym of S. schlaginhaufeni).Sphenophryne rhododactyla evidently is a much larger frog than S. hooglandi,for it reaches at least 60 mm. from snout-to-vent length (Parker, 1934,51967AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATESp. 156). The lengths of the eye and snout are the same (snout longer inhooglandi), and there are differences in coloration that may be consistentenough to, be diagnostic. The ventral surfaces of rhododactyla are darkbrown, with light spots, in contrast to the pale and largely unmarkedventer of hooglandi.REMARKS: Hoogland collected frogs of 10 species in addition toSphenophryne hooglandi at the type locality. The fauna is for the mostpart composed of species that are found in foothill and low mountainregions on both sides of the central mountainous spine of New Guinea.Included in this category are Rana grisea and Metopostira ocellata, bothof very wide distribution, Cophixalus oxyrhinus, Sphenophryne macrorhyncha,Sphenophryne schlaginhaufeni, and Asterophrys valvifera. Two species of Oreo-phryne were collected, but I have not established their identity. The onlyHyla are two species, one of small and one of moderate size, possiblyrelated to the confusing Hyla becki complex.The Hyla are the only frogs in the collection at all indicative of azoogeographic relationship with the higher mountains of New Guinea,unless one species or both of the Oreophryne should prove to fall into thiscategory. The lack of a strong montane element is not astonishing, forthe Hunstein Range is somewhat isolated and the maximum elevationis only 5000 feet (as mapped on the Fly River Sheet of the AustralianGeographical Series).BIBLIOGRAPHYBOULENGER, G. A.1914. An annotated list of the batrachians and reptiles collected by theBritish Ornithologists' Union Expedition and the Wollaston Ex-pedition in Dutch New Guinea. Trans. Zool. Soc. London, vol. 20,pp. 247-265, pls. 27-30.PARKER, H. W.1934. A monograph of the frogs of the family Microhylidae. London,British Museum (Natural History), viii+208 pp., figs. 1-67, 2 maps.1940. Undescribed anatomical structures and new species of reptiles andamphibians. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 11, vol. 5, pp. 257-274,figs. 1-3.ZWEIFEL, RICHARD G.1956. Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 72. Microhylid frogs fromNew Guinea, with descriptions of new species. Amer. Mus. Novi-tates, no. 1766, pp. 1-49, figs. 1-9, tables 1-4.1962. A systematic review of the microhylid frogs of Australia. Ibid., no.2113, pp. 1-40, figs. 1-13, table 1.1965. Revisionary notes on Australian microhylid frogs of the genusSphenophryne. Ibid., no. 2214, pp. 1-9, figs. 1-3, tables 1-2.6 NO. 2309

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