New Species of Platymantis (Anura: Ranidae) from New Ireland

We describe a new species of Platymantis from the Weitin River Valley on the southern tip of New Ireland in the southwest Pacific, bringing to seven the number of native frogs known from that island. We also briefly report on the ecology of the four species of Platymantis occurring on New Ireland and comment on the biogeography of the frog fauna.

Fig. 1.

Platymantis browni sp. nov., paratype (BPBM 12090 (field no. AA 14278) from Weitin River Valley, 8 km north, 7 km west of river mouth, 4.554°S, 152.964°E, 150 m elev., New Ireland, PNG collected on 11 February 1994. Male, SV = 19.3 mm. Photograph by Allen Allison

Fig. 2.

Palmar views of right hands of Platymantis (scale in mm): (A) Platymantis browni sp. nov., holotype, BPBM 11954 (Field no. AA14140); (B) Platymantis guppyi, BPBM 3275; (C) Platymantis schmidti, BPBM 12175 (field no. AA14365). Drawing by Art Kodani

Fig. 3.

Dorsal view of a series of Platymantis browni sp. nov. showing range of variation in color pattern. Photograph by Allen Allison

Fig. 4.

Details of the calls of Platymantis browni sp. nov (paratype). (A) Waveform of a sequence of five calls by BPBM 12090, paratype (field no. AA 14278) from Weitin River Valley, 8 km north, 7 km west of river mouth, 4.554°S, 152.964°E, 150 m elevation, New Ireland, PNG recorded on 11 February 1994 at 2345 h; (B) Waveform of the third call in the previous sequence; (C) Waveform of six calls from an individual (not collected) in the Hans Meyer Range, 4.453°S, 152.941°E, 1185 m elevation, New Ireland, PNG recorded on 26 January 1994 at 2130 h; (D) Waveform of the third call in the previous sequence; (E) Waveform of a sequence of five calls by BPBM 11956, paratype (field no. AA 14142) at the same locality as (B) recorded on 26 January 1994 at 2030 h; (F) Waveform of the fifth call in the previous sequence; (G) Audiospectrogram of the waveform shown in (B); (H) Audiospectrogram of the waveform shown in (D); (I) Audiospectrogram of the waveform shown in (F). All the high amplitude calls are treated as clicks and the low amplitude calls as buzzes (see text)