Data from: Description of a new Malagasy treefrog (Boophis) occurring syntopically with its sister species, and a plea for studies on non-allopatric speciation in tropical amphibians

Based on concordant differences in male advertisement call, tadpole morphology, and absence of haplotype sharing in mitochondrial and nuclear DNA markers, we describe a new species of treefrog from Ranomafana National Park in the southern central east of Madagascar. In its adult stage Boophis narinsi sp. n. is highly similar to its sister species, Boophis majori, but appears to differ in having longer hindlimbs. The genetic divergences between these two species (2.5-3.3% in a fragment of the 16S rRNA gene, depending on fragment length and individual haplotype analyzed) are below the threshold typically characterizing distinct species of anurans. Together with their relatively small and largely overlapping ranges and their sympatric occurrence in Ranomafana National Park, this indicates that they potentially could have originated rather recently by adaptive speciation under parapatric or sympatric conditions. Most studies on amphibian speciation have so far by default assumed vicariant speciation. We suggest that alternative speciation scenarios should be considered in future works and characterize settings in which more reliable assessments of adaptive parapatric or sympatric speciation could be carried out.

基于雄性求偶鸣叫、蝌蚪形态的一致性差异，以及线粒体与核DNA标记中不存在单倍型共享现象，我们对马达加斯加东部中南部的拉努马法纳国家公园内的一个树蛙新种进行了描述。成体阶段的纳林氏树蛙（Boophis narinsi sp. n.）与其姐妹种大氏树蛙（Boophis majori）高度相似，但后肢更长。二者之间的遗传分化（16S rRNA基因片段的2.5%~3.3%，具体数值取决于片段长度与所分析的个体单倍型）低于通常用于区分无尾目物种的阈值。结合它们相对狭小且大范围重叠的分布区，以及在拉努马法纳国家公园内的同域分布情况，这表明二者可能是在邻域或同域条件下通过适应性成种作用于较晚近的时期分化而来。迄今为止，大多数两栖动物成种作用的研究均默认采用异域成种的假设。我们建议未来的研究应考虑其他成种情景，并刻画能够更可靠地评估适应性邻域或同域成种的研究场景。