Megophrys dzukou
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| Megophrys dzukou | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Missing taxonomy template (fix): | Megophrys |
| Species: | Template:Taxonomy/MegophrysM. dzukou
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| Binomial name | |
| Template:Taxonomy/MegophrysMegophrys dzukou Mahony, Kamei, Teeling & Biju, 2020
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Megophrys dzukou, the Dzukou Valley horned frog, is a small megophryid frog endemic to the Dzukou Valley on the border of the Indian states of Nagaland and Manipur. It was described in 2020 by Stephen Mahony, Rachunliu G. Kamei, Emma C. Teeling and S. D. Biju, alongside two other new species, in a monographic revision of the Asian horned frogs of Northeast India and Bangladesh that had previously been confused under the catch-all name Megophrys parva.[2] The species is known only from four adult male specimens collected from a single locality at about 2,650 m (8,690 ft) above sea level in Kohima district of Nagaland. It is assigned to the Megophrys (Xenophrys) megacephala species group of Mahony, Foley, Biju and Teeling (2017), and is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List on account of its very small known range and the unprotected status of its habitat.[1]
Taxonomy
Discovery
The four type specimens of M. dzukou were collected at the Dzukou Valley in 2007. The material lay undescribed in collections for more than a decade while a wider revision of Northeast Indian Megophrys was prepared; it was eventually published as one of three new species in Mahony, Kamei, Teeling and Biju's 2020 monograph in the Journal of Natural History.[2][1] The paper, which the authors described as the result of fourteen years of museum work and seven years of fieldwork in the wettest and least accessible parts of the region, also redefined four previously named but poorly diagnosed taxa and substantially extended the known ranges of several of them.[3][4]
The holotype, BNHS 6072, an adult male with a snout–vent length of 34.2 mm (1.35 in), is held at the Bombay Natural History Society collection in Mumbai. Three paratypes (BNHS 6073, BNHS 6074 and SDBDU 2007.109), all adult males of comparable size, were taken at the same site.[2]
Etymology
The specific epithet dzukou is a toponym referring to the Dzukou Valley, the species' only known locality, and is treated as a noun in apposition under the ICZN Code[4]. The describers chose the name in the hope that the link to a well-known local landscape would encourage tribal communities, who exercise customary jurisdiction over the valley, to take an interest in the species' protection. The English vernacular name "Dzukou Valley horned frog" was proposed by the same authors.[2]
Classification
M. dzukou is placed by its describers in the subgenus Xenophrys of Megophrys, and more specifically within the Megophrys (Xenophrys) megacephala species group, a clade of small-bodied Northeast Indian and Bangladeshi horned frogs erected by Mahony, Foley, Biju and Teeling in 2017 to accommodate populations previously misidentified as M. parva. The species group comprises eight currently recognised species: M. ancrae, M. awuh, M. dzukou, M. megacephala, M. numhbumaeng, M. oropedion, M. serchhipii and M. zunhebotoensis.[2][5]
A maximum-likelihood phylogeny of the subgenus Xenophrys based on concatenated mitochondrial and nuclear DNA recovers M. dzukou as sister to M. numhbumaeng (from Tamenglong district of Manipur), with the pair in turn close to M. oropedion. Genetic distance to its nearest congeners is sufficient to support recognition at the species level despite morphological similarity within the group.[2] Following Lyu and colleagues (2021), some databases including the AMNH's Amphibian Species of the World treat Xenophrys as a full genus and list the species as Xenophrys dzukou; AmphibiaWeb and the IUCN Red List retain it in Megophrys.[5][6][1]
Description
Megophrys dzukou is a small, slender horned frog. The four known male specimens have snout-vent lengths of 34.2–35.3 mm (1.35–1.39 in), making it among the smaller species in the megacephala group. The head is slightly wider than long, with a bluntly rounded snout that projects somewhat beyond the lower jaw; the canthus rostralis is sharply angular and the loreal region weakly concave. The tympanum is distinctly visible, oval and about half the diameter of the eye. A small triangular tubercle is present at the outer edge of each upper eyelid, giving the genus its common name "horned frog".[2]
Limbs are slender; the heels overlap when the thighs are held at right angles to the body, and the tibiotarsal articulation reaches between the eye and the tip of the snout when the leg is stretched forward. Fingers are unwebbed and lack lateral fringes; the toes bear only rudimentary basal webbing. Two metacarpal tubercles are present on the palm. The dorsal skin is finely tubercular, with a pair of long supra-axillary glandular ridges running back from behind the eye and a weak X-shaped ridge on the mid-back; the ventral surface is smooth.[2]
In preservation, the dorsum is dark brown with a darker interorbital triangle and a poorly defined hourglass-shaped pattern across the shoulders; the limbs carry transverse dark bars. The throat and chest are dark brown with cream marbling, fading to lighter cream on the belly. Colouration in life has not been formally documented because all known specimens were preserved before detailed photography. Females have not yet been reported, and the male advertisement call is unknown.[2][1]
Distribution and habitat
M. dzukou is known only from the Dzukou Valley, on the boundary between Kohima district of Nagaland and Senapati district of Manipur in Northeast India. The type specimens were taken within the Jakhama circle of Kohima district at approximately 25°33′38″N 94°04′50″E / 25.560555°N 94.080555°E
, at an elevation of about 2,650 m (8,690 ft). Although the species has not yet been recorded from the Manipur side of the valley, the IUCN assessment considers occurrence there to be likely.[1][2]
The type locality is a small pool fed by a shallow, slow-moving stream within a mosaic of mixed broadleaf and bamboo forest. The wider valley is dominated by high-elevation grassland surrounded by temperate broadleaf forest on the upper slopes and subtropical broadleaf forest lower down, lying within the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot.[2][1] The frogs were collected from leaf litter beside the pool; like other members of the megacephala group they are presumed to be terrestrial and largely nocturnal.
Ecology
The natural history of M. dzukou is essentially unknown. By inference from congeners, it is presumed to breed by larval development, with eggs deposited in still or slow-flowing water of small forest pools and streams, and tadpoles of the typical Megophrys "umbrella-mouth" funnel-feeding type. No tadpoles or eggs of M. dzukou have been described, and no females have been collected. Male advertisement calls have not been recorded.[2][1]
See also
- Dzukou Valley
- List of amphibians of India
- Xenophrys awuh
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 IUCN SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (2023). "Megophrys dzukou". 2023. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2023-1.RLTS.T181141076A181391525.en. Unknown parameter
|article-number=ignored (help);|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 Mahony, S.; Kamei, R. G.; Teeling, E. C.; Biju, S. D. (2020). "Taxonomic review of the Asian horned frogs (Amphibia: Megophrys Kuhl & Van Hasselt) of Northeast India and Bangladesh previously misidentified as M. parva (Boulenger), with descriptions of three new species". Journal of Natural History. 54 (1–4): 119–194. doi:10.1080/00222933.2020.1736679.
- ↑ Bhattacharya, S. (3 May 2020). "Three new species of horned frogs discovered from the forests of Northeast India". Research Matters. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "3 new species of little horned frogs discovered in Northeast India". EastMojo. 4 May 2020. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Xenophrys dzukou (Mahony, Kamei, Teeling, and Biju, 2020)". Amphibian Species of the World. American Museum of Natural History. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
- ↑ "Megophrys dzukou". AmphibiaWeb. Retrieved 24 June 2026.
External links
- "Megophrys dzukou". AmphibiaWeb.
- "Xenophrys dzukou". Amphibian Species of the World.
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