Vertebrate Zoology 64(1): 59-94, doi:

Nine new species of microhylid frogs from the Muller Range in western Papua New Guinea (Anura, Microhylidae)

Rainer Günther^‡§, Stephen Richards, Chris Dahl

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

Corresponding author: Rainer Günther ( rainer.guenther@mfn.berlin )

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, Dahl C (2014) Nine new species of microhylid frogs from the Muller Range in western Papua New Guinea (Anura, Microhylidae). Vertebrate Zoology 64(1): 59-94

Abstract

We describe nine new species of microhylid frogs in the genera Austrochaperina, Cophixalus, Copiula, Hylophorbus, Oreophryne and Xenorhina from the Muller Range in western Papua New Guinea. Each of the new species differs from congeners by a suite of morphological and acoustic characters. The discovery of so many new species during a survey of short duration (three weeks) and limited geographical coverage suggests that many additional species remain to be detected within this poorly known mountainous region.

Keywords

Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae, Austrochaperina, Cophixalus, Copiula, Hylophorbus, Oreophryne, Xenorhina, new species, Papua New Guinea.