Vertebrate Zoology 61(3): 343-372, doi:

Five new microhylid frog species from Enga Province, Papua New Guinea, and remarks on Albericus alpestris (Anura, Microhylidae)

Rainer Günther^‡§, Stephen Richards

‡ Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany§ Berlin Museum, Berlin, Germany

Corresponding author: Stephen Richards ( steve.richards@samuseum.sa.gov.au )

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Citation: Günther R, Richards S (2011) Five new microhylid frog species from Enga Province, Papua New Guinea, and remarks on Albericus alpestris (Anura, Microhylidae). Vertebrate Zoology 61(3): 343-372

Abstract

Five new species of microhylid frogs in the genera Albericus, Cophixalus and Oreophryne are described from high altitudes in the Kaijende Highlands of Enga Province, central Papua New Guinea. A population of short-legged, terrestrial Albericus discovered in grasslands on the Kaijende Highlands seems to be very close to the recently described A. alpestris. Because the systematic status of our new frogs is not yet clear, they are referred to as Albericus cf. alpestris in our paper. Information about the advertisement call of this population, its colour in life, and its habitat is presented for the fi rst time and enables possible inferences about Albericus alpestris sensu stricto.

Keywords

Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae, Albericus, Cophixalus, Oreophryne, new species, Papua New Guinea.