A New Insular Species of Oreophryne (Anura, Microhylidae) from Papua New Guinea
I describe a new species of Oreophryne from Woodlark Island, the most isolated large island in southeastern Papua New Guinea. The new species is a member of the O. equus species group, characterized by having a “whinny” call consisting of a rapid series of high-pitched peeps. It differs from other members of that group in a combination of features, including having a cartilaginous connection between the scapula and procoracoid, well-webbed digits on the feet, fifth toe longer than the third, a largely unicolor brown dorsum, and red flash markings on the hidden surfaces of the thighs. All members of this species group inhabit the southeasternmost portion of Papua New Guinea, with most species endemic to single offshore islands. The species is common in secondary rain forests on Woodlark, but continued commercial interest in developing large-scale extractive industries on the island could potentially threaten this and other endemic species on Woodlark if developments were to occur across a large-enough area of the island.Abstract
(A) Top of head, (B) side of head, (C) palmar view of left hand, and (D) plantar view of left foot of Oreophryne phoebe sp. nov. (BPBM 39509). Scale bar = 2 mm.
Portraits in life of Oreophryne phoebe sp. nov.: (A) BPBM 39508, SVL = 20.3 mm, showing darker-brown dorsum with heterogeneous coloring; (B) BPBM 39529, SVL = 20.5 mm, showing the typical uniformly pale dorsum; (C) BPBM 39523, SVL = 24.8 mm, showing pale dorsum with dark postocular dash and paler dorsolateral striping; and (D) BPBM 39527, SVL = 13.4 mm, showing dark juvenile pattern.
(A) Waveform, (B) amplitude spectrum, and (C) spectrogram of an entire 42-note call, and (D) expanded waveform showing detail from first nine notes of the same call of a topotypic specimen of Oreophryne phoebe sp. nov. (BPBM 40141) recorded along Upper Muniai Creek, Woodlark Island, Milne Bay Province, 13 October 2011, air temperature unrecorded.
Map of southeastern Papua New Guinea showing type locality for Oreophryne phoebe sp. nov. on Woodlark Island (filled circle) and geographical relationships to the remaining members of the O. equus species group: O. banshee (triangle), O. equus (open circles), O. gagneorum (star), O. insulana (hexagons), O. meliades (square), O. penelopeia (X), and O. picticrus (diamond).
