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 s...

基于雄性求偶鸣唱、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的特征，我们描述了产自马达加斯加中东部偏南地区拉努马法纳国家公园的树蛙新种。该新种（Boophis narinsi sp. n.）的成体与姊妹种Boophis majori形态极为相似，但后肢更长，存在稳定差异。二者在16S核糖体RNA基因某一片段的遗传分化为2.5%~3.3%，具体数值取决于所分析的片段长度与单倍型个体，该分化水平低于通常用于界定无尾目物种的遗传阈值。加之二者分布范围相对狭小且大面积重叠，且在拉努马法纳国家公园存在同域分布现象，这表明二者可能是在邻域或同域条件下通过适应性成种事件在较晚近的时期分化而来。迄今为止，多数两栖动物成种机制研究默认以地理隔离成种（vicariant speciation）为前提假设……