The Australasian frog family Ceratobatrachidae in China,Myanmar and Thailand:discovery of a new Himalayan forest frog clade

In an effort to study the systematic affinities and species- level phylogenetic relationships of the enigmatic anurans vadably assigned to the genera Ingerana or Limnonectes （family Dicroglossidae）, we collected new molecular sequence data for five species including four Himalayan taxa, Limnonectes xizangensis, Lim. medogensis, Lim. alpine, Ingerana borealis and one southeast Asian species, I. tasanae, and analyzed these together with data from previous studies involving other ostensibly related taxa. Our surprising results demonstrate unequivocally that Lim. xizangensis, Lim. medogensis and Lira. alpine form a strongly supported clade, the sister-group of the family Australasian forest frog family Ceratobatrachidae. This discovery requires an expansion of the definition of Ceratobatrachidae and represents the first record of this family in China. These three species are distinguished from the species of Ingerana and Limnonectes by the： （1） absence of interdigital webbing of the foot, （2） absence of terminal discs on fingers and toes, （3） absence of circumarginal grooves on the fingers and toes, and （4） absence of tarsal folds. Given their phylogenetic and morphological distinctiveness, we assign them to the oldest available generic name for this clade, Liurana Dubois 1987, and transfer Liurana from Dicroglossidae to the family Ceratobatrachidae. In contrast, Ingerana tasanae was found to be clustered with strong support with the recently described genus Alcalus （Ceratobatrachidae）, a small clade of otherwise Sundaic species; this constitutes a new record of the family Ceratobatrachidae for Myanmar and Thailand. Finally, Ingerana borealis clustered with the ＂true＂ Ingerana （family Dicroglossidae）, for which the type species is L tenasserimensis.

A New Species of Japalura(Squamata, Agamidae) from the Nu River Valley in Southern Hengduan Mountains, Yunnan, China

A population of Japalura from Yunnan Province, China, previously assigned to Japalura splendida, is described as a new species. The new species has been recorded between 1 138–2 500 m in the Nu River drainage between the towns of Liuku and Binzhongluo, and on the lower western slopes of the Nushan and eastern slopes of the Goaligongshan. The new species can be distinguished from other species of Japalura, except J. dymondi, by the following combination of characters： exposed tympani, prominent dorso-lateral stripes, and small gular scales. It is very similar with but differs from J. dymondi by having smooth or feebly keeled dorsal head scales, three relatively enlarged spines on either side of the post-occiput area, strongly keeled and mucronate scales on occiput area and within the lateral stripes, back of arm and leg green, higher number of dorsal-ridge scales（DS） and fourth toe subdigital scales（T4S）. A principal component analysis of body measurements of adult male specimens of the new species and J. dymondi showed principal component 1 loading highest for upper arm length, fourth toe length and snout to eye length and principal component 2 loading highest for head width, head length and fourth toe length.