The frog family Rhacophoridae recently underwent notable reorganization and taxonomic rearrangement. Several new genera were erected to reflect evolutionary history, including Ghatixalus, Gracixalus, Feihyla, Liuixalus and Raorchestes. Herein, we reviewed the systematics and phylogeny of the rhacophorids, the definition of the family Rhacophoridae and its tribes, and the taxonomic history and diagnoses of the genera of this family. Also, we suggest future directions for research.
Jiatang LIYueying CHENShengquan LIKe LVYuezhao WANG
Mitochondrial gene fragments of 16S rRNA gene of four species （Rhacophorus rhodopus, R. reinwardtii, Philautus albopunctatus and P. rhododiscus ） from 11 populations were sequenced in this study. Homologous sequences of R. bipunctatus, Theloderma asperum, T. corticale and Buergeria japonica were obtained by screening the GenBank database. After excluding all gaps and ambiguous positions, aligned sequences were 500 bp in length with 115 variable sites and 92 parsimony-informative sites. Using B .japonica as an outgroup, phylogenetic relationships were analyzed using Bayesian inference, maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods. Our results indicated that neither of R. rhodopus and P. albopunctatus were monophyletic at the species level. The population of R. rhodopus from Hainan Island was more close to R. bipunctatus than to populations of R. rhodopus from Yunnan Province. Furthermore, the populations of R. rhodopus from Yunnan Province can be divided into two main lineages. Theloderma corticale and P.rhododiscus were clustered together and T. asperum was nested in P.albopunctatus. We considered that P. albopunctatus Liu and Hu, 1962, was the synonymy of T. asperum Boulenger, 1886, and suggested removing P. rhododiscus from Philautus into the genus Theloderma.
A new species of rhacophorid of the genus Rhacophorus is described from the Dabie Mountains of west Anhui, east China. The new species, Rhacophorus zhoukaiyae sp. nov. is distinguished from its congeners by a combination of the following characters： 1） the ventral surface and front-and-rear of the femur is paler yellowish and decorated with irregular grayish blotching, and without obvious spots on the dorsum of the hand and foot webbing; 2） the outer metatarsal tubercle is small; 3） outer fingers are half-webbed and outer toes two third webbed; 4） the skin on the dorsum is smooth and without compressed warts; 5） the throat, chest and belly are pure paler yellowish; 6） the dorsal part of the fingers and toes are grayish-white; 7） the iris is golden-yellow. In addition, the phylogenetic tree showed that all the individuals of R. zhoukaiyae sp. nov. clustered into one distinct clade which suggested the validity of this species. This results could also be used to the support of species delimitation. Currently, this species is known only from mid-elevation montane evergreen forest in the Dabie Mountains of west Anhui, China.
