New toad species found in Vietnam

Vietnam Net 5 Apr 11;

VietNamNet Bridge - Australian and Vietnamese scientists have found a new species of toads in Bi Doup - Nui Ba National Park in the Central Highlands Province of Lam Dong.

The toads, a new species of Leptobrachium leucops, or Eastern Spadefoot Toads, were found in the evergreen forest between 1558-1900 m above sea-level on the Lang Bian Plateau in Lam Dong and Khanh Hoa provinces.

Leptobrachium leucops is nocturnal, has a length of 4.5 cm and have partly white pupils, ridges on their skin and several stripes on their four limbs.

The megophryid frog genus Leptolalax is a relatively recently described genus of about 29 species in Asia that often inhabit the forest floor near rocky streams in hilly topography, covered with evergreen forest.

There has been a rapid increase in the number of known Leptolalax species in recent years, with 21 of the known species described in the past two decades.

Eleven species have been reported from Indochina and all but two of those also have been reported from Vietnam.

Vietnamese Leptolalax are known to exist in the suitable habitat in northern and central Vietnam, and records to date show their southernmost habitats to be in the Kon Tum Plateau.

The same team recently discovered a new species of Rhacophorus vampyrus or Vampire Tree Frogs in the same national park after several field studies from 2008 to 2010.