New Frog of the Genus Platymantis (Amphibia; Anura; Ranidae) from New Britain and Redescription of the Poorly Known Platymantis macrosceles

We describe a new species of high-elevation rain-forest tree frog (genus Platymantis) from New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago, Papua New Guinea. It is characterized by moderate body size (males 27.4–30.7 mm), widely expanded finger and toe disks, smooth dorsal skin, a distinct reticulate dorsal color pattern, and numerous spectral and temporal characteristics of the advertisement call. The new species inhabits shrub layer vegetation in canopy gaps in primary montane rain forests of the Nakanai Mountain Range above 1500 m. We compare the new species to all known Platymantis from New Britain and to other morphologically similar species from the Bismarck archipelago, Solomon Islands, and Fiji. We also redescribe Platymantis macrosceles from the holotype and two new specimens from the Nakanai Mountains. We suspect that anuran species diversity on the large and topographically complex island of New Britain is currently underestimated.

Fig. 1.

The Bismarck Archipelago and New Britain (inset: darkened island) in relation to Papua New Guinea (PNG), New Ireland (NIr), the Admiralty Islands (Adr), and the Solomon Islands (Sols). The Platymantis mamusiorum type locality is indicated with a circle and the capital city (Rabaul) is indicated with a star. Discrete shading indicates approximate elevational increments of 500 m

Fig. 2.

(A) The adult male holotype of Platymantis mamusiorum (UWZM 23720; 28.9 mm SVL) in life; (B) an adult male Platymantis macrosceles (UWZM 23721; 30.9 mm SVL) in life

Fig. 3.

(A) Palmar view of right manus (ML = 8.9 mm) of adult male Platymantis mamusiorum paratype UWZM 23722 and (B) adult male Platymantis macrosceles UWZM 23721 (ML = 9.0 mm); (C and D) plantar view of pes of same specimens (PL = 13.6 and 14.0 mm, respectively)

Fig. 4.

Dorsal aspect of head of (A) adult male Platymantis mamusiorum paratype UWZM 23722 (HL = 10.7 mm) and (B) adult male Platymantis macrosceles UWZM 23721 (HL = 11.9 mm); (C and D) ventral aspect of throat of same specimens

Fig. 5.

(A) power spectrum (relative amplitude vs frequency in kHz, calculated between 15 and 20% of first call) (B) audiospectrogram (frequency in kHz vs time in msec) (C) oscillogram (relative amplitude vs time in msec) of call of Platymantis mamusiorum (adult male paratype UPNG 9992, recorded at 16.8 C)

Fig. 6.

(A) power spectrum (relative amplitude vs frequency in kHz; calculated across fifth pulse in call), (B) audiospectrogram (frequency in kHz vs time in seconds), (C) oscillogram (relative amplitude vs time in seconds) of call of Platymantis macrosceles (adult male UWZM 23721, recorded at 17.1 C)

Contributor Notes

(JF) Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544–1003; and (RMB) Natural History Museum and Biodiversity Research Center, University of Kansas, Dyche Hall, 1345 Jayhawk Boulevard, Lawrence, Kansas 66045–7561. Present address: (JF) School of Natural Resources and Environment, Dana Hall, 430 East University, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1115. E-mail: (RMB) rafe@mail.utexas.edu; and (JF) jfoufop@umich.edu Send reprint requests to RMB.

Accepted: 14 Jul 2004