Phylogenetic Relationships among Chinese Rice Frogs within the Fejervarya limnocharis Species Complex (Amphibia: Dicroglossidae)

We present a molecular assessment of the widely-distributed ricefrog(Fejervarya limnocharis)which provides many newsamples that add to knowledge of their phylogeography within China and considersgenetic support forfive Chinese species withinthis complex.TwomtDNAfragments from 270 individuals and eight nuclearDNAloci(105 individuals)were sequenced from specimens sampled from across China.Data from nine specimens from China,Indonesia and Japan were also retrieved from previous studies.MtDNAwas informativeabout population divergence within China and indicated one major clade(with four subclades)from South China and the Zhoushan Archipelago,Zhejiang,China,and a second major clade(with eight subclades)from other parts of China.Recent demographic expansions(less than 50ka ago)were detected within three of these 12 subclades,potentially associa ted with lowered sea-levels after marine transgressions.Nota bly,most frogs from the previously unstudied Zhoushan Archipelago(eastern China)were found to be closely related to Japanese populations.BPPand STACEY species delimitation analyses of the multilocus data favoured five candidate species within the complex.Previous work had described Fejervaryamultistriata and F.kawamurai from the Chinese mainland although here we detected considerable genetic divergence within the latter and found that this may be indicative of two species.One of these corresponds to the Zhoushan Archipelago,Zhejiang,China and Japan,and the other from most parts of Chinese mainland.This study provides a large multilocus dataset that contributes to the systematics of this species complex.

Phylogenetic,Demographic and Dating Analyses of Bufo gargarizans Populations from the Zhoushan Archipelago and China's Mainland

Relatively little is known about the relationship between Bufo gargarizans populations from Zhoushan Archipelago and nearby continental regions on the Pacific coast of eastern China.In this paper,155 new specimens of B.gargarizans from Zhoushan Archipelago and adjacent continents and 71 published specimens of B.gargarizans from China's Mainland were studied.Phylogeographical and dating analyses of B.gargarizans were performed using mitochondrial DNA sequencing with a length of 1436 bp.A mt DNA tree that indicated seven major clades was obtained.The earliest split in the mt DNA tree corresponding to the divergence of populations from the western highland region occurred approximately 4.0 million years ago（mya）.A subsequent clade occurred about 3.4 mya,with cladogenesis continuing toward the end of the Pleistocene.The continental clades were distributed in the western,central and northeastern regions of China.Zhoushan Archipelago clades consisted of two largely geographically overlapping subclades with the mt DNA divergence time of 0.73 mya.These results indicated there was extensive dispersal after vicariance.The B.gargarizans populations on Zhoushan Archipelago most probably originated from populations in nearby eastern continental regions of China.It was concluded that geological uplifting during the Pliocene and several sea-level changes in Pleistocene might have influenced the divergence and population demographical history of this species.