Evaluating the efficiency of popular species identification analytical methods, and integrative workflow using morphometry and barcoding bioinformatics for taxonomy and origin of traded cryptic brown frogs

Wildlife trade drives the introduction pathway for biological invasions worldwide, a process that is hidden on alien species with undefined phenotypical variations and ecologically comparable to the native community. To confront this catastrophe issue, we designated a comparative morphometry and a barcode based-species delimitation framework that help accurately identify cryptic phenotypic species on a large-scale species assignments. We incorporated meta-analyses, comparative morphometry, species delimitation modelling and phylogeography to infer the crypticity in phenotypic and genetic among the brown frogs (Rana spp.) imported to the Republic of Korea from China under the epithet ‘R. huanrenensis’ and ‘Rana dybowskii’.

野生动物贸易是全球生物入侵的核心引入途径，该过程常隐匿于表型变异不明、生态特征与本土群落高度相似的外来物种之中。为应对这一灾难性问题，我们构建了一套结合比较形态测量学与条形码技术的物种界定框架，可在大规模物种鉴定任务中精准识别隐蔽表型物种。本研究整合荟萃分析、比较形态测量学、物种界定建模及系统地理学方法，旨在推断以“桓仁林蛙（R. huanrenensis）”与“中国林蛙（Rana dybowskii）”为标称名称从中国进口至韩国的棕蛙属（Rana spp.）类群中，表型与遗传层面的隐蔽性差异。