''Boulenophrys lini'' is a species of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

s in the family

Megophryidae Megophryidae, commonly known as goose frogs, is a large family of frogs native to the warm southeast of Asia, from the Himalayan foothills eastwards, south to Indonesia and the Greater Sunda Islands in Maritime Southeast Asia, and extending to th ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

Luoxiao Mountains The Luoxiao Mountains () are a system of mountain ranges in the People's Republic of China that straddle Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan provinces. Subranges Among other smaller ranges, the Luoxiao Mountains include the following subranges: *Wugong Moun ...

at the border of the

Jiangxi Jiangxi (; ; formerly romanized as Kiangsi or Chianghsi) is a landlocked province in the east of the People's Republic of China. Its major cities include Nanchang and Jiujiang. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze river in the north int ...

and

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to ...

provinces in southeastern China. Its

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

honours professor Ying Lin (1914–2003), botanist and vice chancellor of

Nanchang University Nanchang University (NCU; ) is a public research university located in Nanchang, Jiangxi, China. NCU has also been recognized as a National Key University in the nation. Based on the new plan initiated by Chinese Ministry of Education in 2017, ...

who conducted biodiversity surveys and research in the Jinggang Mountains. Megophrys lini female paratype

Description

Males measure and females in

snout–vent length Snout–vent length (SVL) is a morphometric measurement taken in herpetology from the tip of the snout to the most posterior opening of the cloacal slit (vent)."direct line distance from tip of snout to posterior margin of vent" It is the most c ...

. Snout is short. Dorsal skin is smooth and has scattered granules, and usually, a few curved weak ridges. There is a small, horn-like tubercle at the edge of the eyelid as well as several tubercles on the flanks. Supratympanic fold is narrow and light coloured. Dorsal colour is light brown or olive. There is a dark, triangular interorbital marking, and an X-shaped dorsal marking with light bordering. Ventral surfaces are smooth. Hind legs are elongated; toes have rudimentary webbing. Males have tiny, black nuptial spines on the middle of the dorsal surface of the first finger and a single vocal sack. They call both day and night. Reproductive season is assumed to start in September–October.

Tadpole A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found i ...

s have a maximum length of about . Body is slender and horizontally compressed, with dorsal fin than is slightly higher than the body. Oral disk is terminal with expanded and upward-directed lips.

Distribution and habitat

''Boulenophrys lini'' is only known from a number of locations on the

: Dabali and Niushiping in the Yanling Taoyuandong National Nature Reserve, Hunan, and Jingzhushan, Bamianshan (the type locality), and Nanfengmian Nature Reserve in Jiangxi. It lives along rushing mountain streams surrounded by subtropical moist evergreen broadleaf forests at elevations of

asl American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

. Tadpoles have been found under rocks in a stream. Two other ''

Boulenophrys ''Boulenophrys'' is a genus of frogs in the family Megophryidae. They occur in the China, Mainland Southeast Asia and Northeast India. It had been placed variously as a subgenus or synonymy of ''Megophrys ''Megophrys'' is a genus of frogs i ...

'' species occur in the area, but the three species differ in their habitats: '' Boulenophrys jinggangensis'' lives in slow-moving streams at asl, and ''

Boulenophrys cheni ''Boulenophrys cheni'' is a species of frog in the family Megophryidae. It is endemic to the middle Luoxiao Mountains at the border of Jiangxi and Hunan provinces in south-eastern China. Its specific name honours Chen Chunquan, former director o ...

'' in swamps at forest edges at asl. The species also differ in the characteristics of the male advertisement calls.

Conservation

''Boulenophrys lini'' is locally common and occurs in well-protected reserves. However, it is likely to suffer from habitat loss and deterioration outside the protected areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q115941500 , from2=Q18050515

lini Linyi () is a prefecture-level city in the south of Shandong province, China. As of 2011, Linyi is the largest prefecture-level city in Shandong, both by area and population, Linyi borders Rizhao to the east, Weifang to the northeast, Zibo t ...

Frogs of China Endemic fauna of China Amphibians described in 2014 Taxa named by Ying-Yong Wang