This Vietnamese mossy frog belongs to a genus ( Theloderma ) first established in 1838 and is currently composed of 26 species distributed in southeast Asia, southern China, and northeast India.
“Vietnam has more species of Theloderma than any other country; a total of 16 species have been recorded to date,” said Tao Thien Nguyen of the Vietnam National Museum of Nature and the Genome Research Institute of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology in his study published in the European Journal . of Taxonomy . “The discovery of an additional species of Theloderma in Vietnam suggests that the current species richness of the genus remains underestimated.”
The new species of frog, which was discovered in June 2020 during fieldwork in Ha Giang province, northeast Vietnam, has been named Theloderma khoii (Khoi mossy frog) and was recorded at elevations between 1,320 and 1,750 meters above sea level.
What does this frog look like?
Apart from its spectacular greenish camouflage, it is a fairly large creature for its species: males measure 52.2 millimeters and females 59.4 millimeters, a little more.
” Theloderma khoii displays the diagnostic characters of the genus Theloderma , for example, a distinct tympanum, a round canthus rostralis , absent bony ridges from the canthus rostralis to the occiput, and non-coosified head skin to the skull,” said the researchers. authors.
Unfortunately, as soon as it was declared a new species, biologists have requested that it be included in the IUCN Red List as an endangered species .
“The new species is likely to be found in a defined threatened location, which has been characterized as an area with a continuing decline in the quality of its habitat due to deforestation,” the scientists conclude.
Referencia: H.T. Ninh et al. 2022. A new species of mossy frog (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from Northeastern Vietnam. European Journal of Taxonomy 794 (1): 72-90; doi: 10.5852/ejt.2022.794.1655
