A Bone-Chilling Stream in China Leads to a Torrent Frog Photo - Observation of the Week, 10/26/21

Our Observation of the Week is the first Green-spotted Torrent Frog (Amolops viridimaculatus, 绿点湍蛙 in Chinese (simplified)), seen in China by @jianwang!

A herpetologist at the Museum of Biology Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China, Jian Wang’s work focuses mostly on snakes, lizards, and anuras (frogs and toads) and he’s interested in both their taxonomy and conservation. Since he started his work in 2014, he’s “participated in the description of nearly 40 new species and the revision of several species groups,” and you can see his publications here. But this frog was seen far to the west, in China’s Yunnan Province. 

“Yunnan Province has the highest biodiversity among all administrative regions in China,” he explains.

Located in the western Yunnan, the ample monsoon rainfall results in a rich diversity of fauna and flora in the Gaoligongshan Region (高黎贡山). Scientists have conducted biodiversity surveys since the 19th century, and plentiful new species/species with restricted distribution have been discovered. With over 700 recorded vertebrates, Gaoligongshan has become one of the places I’ve most yearned to visit…Herpetofauna of the northern, middle and southern parts of Gaoligongshan are distinctly different due to Gaoligongshan’s wide geographical expanse.

In 2015 he was finally able to make it there, which is where he came across the green-spotted torrent frog in its type locality. “[This species] is mainly distributed in the southwest slopes of Gaoligongshan,” says Jian Wang. “While I was investigating in a bone-chilling stream, this fascinating creature occurred, which escaped and allowed me to make only one shot.”

Like other members of its genus, this species does seem to prefer fast-moving cool streams in mountains and hills, and as tadpole it has a suction cup on its belly to help it stick to rocks. It’s also found in parts of India, Vietnam, Myanmar, and possibly Laos. The IUCN lists it as Near Threatened, with major threats being agriculture, logging, and dams or other water management.  

“We made other fascinating discoveries on the same trip, and several new species were gradually described,” says Jian Wang (above). These include the Western Yunnan Music Frog (Nidirana occidentalis, 滇西琴蛙), the Fei’s Horn Toad (Megophrys feii, 费氏角蟾), and the Banna Parachute Gecko (Gekko bannaense, 版纳伞虎)! 

“I love all other groups of animals in the world that that iNat gives me the opportunity to read about,” he says, “[and] I'm glad to help in any way I can in identifying amphibians and reptiles/sharing interesting observations.”

- @qin_huang, who also has also worked at Sun Yat-sen University, is the subject of a previous Observation of the Week post!

- This video shows a different Amolops frog (Amolops larutensis) in a fast-moving Malaysian stream.

Posted on October 26, 2021 10:06 PM by tiwane