Bulletin of Museum of Comparative Zoology 78

Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology AT HARVARD COLLEGE Vol LXXVIII, No AUSTRALIAN AMPHIBIA IN THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS By Arthur Loveridge With One Plate CAMBRIDGE, MASS., U S A PRINTED FOR THE MUSEUM January, 1935 No — Amtralicm Amphibia in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, M assachu.setts By ^rthur Loveridge CONTENTS p^Qg Introduction History of the Collections Taxonomic alterations Systematic List of Australian Amphibia Detailed discussion based on the material 10 58 Bibliography Index Introduction The arrival in January, 1933, of the third and final consignment of amphibia collected by the recent Harvard Expedition to Australia to brings the total number of specimens collected by the Expedition 581, representing 45 species of which were new to science and have been described elsewhere^ In addition, and as a direct result of this study, a new genus and three new species have been described- based on material collected by Mr L Glauert of Perth and Dr F N Blanchard of Michigan The necessity of identifying the Harvard Expedition material involved a thorough reexamination of all earlier Austrahan accessions to the Museum collection, and an intensive study of the status of many recently described species It revealed that the Museum now the 88 possesses all of the 20 genera inhabiting Australia, and 78 of species or races In view of the relative comprehensiveness of this material the view to placing at the disposal present paper has been written with ^ of our Australian colleagues, who rendered such generous assistance Harvard party during the expedition, the wealth of locality data which would otherwise remain inaccessible to them among the to the records of our card-index cabinets Moreover, the study of this material has resulted in a clearer conception of the status of many are respecies and involves numerous changes in taxonomy which ferred to below 'Loveridge, 1933, Geo Papers Boston Soc Nat Hist., -Loveridge, 1933, ibid., pp 89-94 8, pp 55-60 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology History of the Collections The earliest material from the Australian Continent Museum, consisted of 11 specimens, representing to reach the species, but without precise locality Shortly afterwards a small exchange was arranged with Prof W Keferstein of the Gottingen Museum It is characteristic of the vagueness of locality data at that time in that most of the specimens were simply labelled New South Wales In 1885, a second collection from the same source brought the total of this historical Gottingen material up to 28, and included what almost certainlj' a cotype of Keferstein's Pseudophrync coriacea is Then followed a long period of stagnation in so far as the development of the collection of Australian amphibia was concerned Small lots, totalling 18 specimens in all but with a high proportion of species, were purchased from Prof F Miiller, H A Ward, and W F H Rosenberg; those from the latter being presented by Dr Thomas Barbour more recently During the earlier part of this period, however, Mr E A C Olive and Dr W M Woodworth of the Harvard Great Barrier Reef Expedition of 1896, brought back frogs from Cooktown, Port Bowen, and Townsville These were reported upon by Garman (1901, p 14) In 1913 (and again in 1929-1930) my colleague Dr H L Clark, who was collecting echinoderms off the tropical northern coasts of Australia, returned with 16 specimens of which represented species {Hyla dayi and Spheiwphryne polysticta) new to the Museum The earher collection was reported upon by Barbour (1914, p 201) The following year, 1914, Dr Thomas Barbour arranged an exchange with the Australian Museum, Sydney, which added 48 frogs representing many species of which no less than 20 were entirely new to the Museum collection This material has proved of the greatest assistance to me during my present studies In the same year frogs were received from the Queensland Museum and others from Mr T Steel all new to the collection here; one hlandsuttoni Procter, a species which at that time was These were referable to species was a Hyla confused with aurea (Lesson) In 1914, Prof W M Wheeler collected and presented examples of the then recently described Phrynomantis ornata (Fry), which proved another welcome addition Late in the year 1926, Mr W S Brooks, curator of Birds' Eggs, visited Western Australia In the early part of 1927 he visited the southwest corner of the continent and added 571 amphibia, represent- loveridge: Australian amphibia o ing species of which were new to the collection and to science Pscudophryne brooksi This constituted the — amount of material to reach the Museum and of these first new extensive included good series of such choice things as Crinia leai Fletcher and Pseudophryne nichollsi Harrison, the latter only described that year (1927) The receipt of this collection stimulated some further interest and in 1929 led to exchanges with several museums British, Royal Swedish, and Michigan University Museum of Zoology Two ad- — ditional species resulted Andersson One of the first and also a paratype of Phrynixalus reginae results of the arrival of the Harvard party in Western Australia in 1931 was the receipt of 143 amphibia from Prof G E Nicholls These represented 11 species of which were new to the Museum, of including such fine things as Western Australian examples Pscudophryne The Harvard and Myohatrachu.s gouldii Australian Expedition of 1931-1932, consisting of Wheeler, Dr Glover M Allen, Dr P J Darlington, australis, W M W E Schevill and R Professor Ellis, proceeded to Western Australia where they collected during the latter part of 1931 The material resulting from their joint efl^orts was labelled "Harvard Expedition" and so appears in the following pages Toward the close of the year the senior members returned to the United States and the party split up, Dr Darlington collecting from Sydney northwards to Cape York, and Schevill through New South Wales, Queensland and that portion of the Northern Territory formerly known as Central Australia The material secured in 1932 bears the name of one or another of these Messrs gentlemen It should be remembered that the collecting of amphibia formed but a minor activity of the party, yet in all 581 frogs were secured Eleven of the 45 forms collected were species hitherto unrepresented' in the Museum and included such rarities as Philoria frosti, Lechriodus Crinia acutirostris, Crinia rosea and Sphenophryne gracilipes; not all of which, were only known from the types During the past six months, by gift or exchange, 93 specimens representing forms lacking in the collection, were received from the Australian Museum, Western Australian Museum, Queen Victoria Museum at Launceston, and Dr F N Blanchard This brought the total of Australian amphibia in the collection to 1,467 This number has already been reduced by about 200 which, after study and naming, were returned to the leading Australian museums in appreciation of fletcheri, most, if their cooperation with the Harvard Expedition bulletin: museum of comparative zoology Taxonomic Alterations A few remarks on some nomenclatorial and other changes may not be amiss Boulenger (1882) followed by Nieden (1923) referred certain Australian genera to the families Cystignathidae and Bufonidae Later Waite (1929) substituted Ceratophriidae for the former That such a division of the genera is unnatural is obvious if one compares Uperoleia (whose spelling was arbitrarily changed to Hyperolia by Boulenger) of the Cystignathidae with Pseudophryne of the Bufonidae Recently Noble (1931) assembled the Australian members of both groups of genera in one subfamily, Criniinae, of the Bufonidae However Noble merges the Leptodactylidae (= Cystignathidae, part, of Boulenger) in the Bufonidae, a course which I am not quite prepared to follow For the present I prefer to regard the Criniinae as a subfamily of the Leptodactylidae as is done in the present paper Two preoccupied genera, familiar through long usage, were abandoned at the suggestion of Ogilby (1907, p 32), these are Chiroleptes and Cryptotis, the former replaced by Phractops and Mitrolysis, the latter by iVdelotus I observe also that Fry (1914, p 179) had already detected that Helioporus constituted the original spelling of this genus by Gray Boulenger (1882, p 271) misquoted Gray as spelling it Heleioporus Though vexatious, the laws of nomenclature necessitate our returning to the original spelling The reasons for other generic changes tions given which I have followed will be obvious from the cita- The only comprehensive work dealing with Australian amphibia since the appearance of Boulenger's Catalogue of the Batrachia Salientia in the British Museum (1882), are two volumes by Nieden in Das Tierreich, 46 and 49 (1923, Anura 1: 1926, Anura 2).^ Though these works are largely compilations following Boulenger, with the addition of species described in the interval, rather than based on revisionary studies, I should have liked to cite them under each The additional cost of printing, however, makes such a course inadvisable at the present time Instead I have confined my citations to those of the original description and principal synonyms together with the type localities of each The bibliography at the end of this species paper has been curtailed by omitting the papers thus cited and limiting it to such papers as it has been necessary to refer to in the text Actually many others have been consulted in addition to those listed 'To these should be added Parker, 1934, "Frogs of the family Microhylidae," which was first seen after the galleys of this paper were received It represeuts an aiilhiMitic revision of all species loveridge: Australian amphibia As already indicated, these studies have led me to consider as synonyms a number of species hitherto considered valid, though doubts as to the specific distinctness of three of them have already been expressed by other workers The following are considered strict synonyms: Neohatrachus pictus Peters Lamb olivaceus De Heleioporus sudelli Limnodynastes Vis Crinia stolata Cope Crinia michaelseni Werner Pseudophryne fimbrianus Parker Hyla luteiventris Ogilby Hyla tympanocryptis Andersson Hyla gilleni Spencer Hyla serrata Andersson Hyla ewingii orientalis Fletcher Hyla krefftii Giinther Hyla nannotis Andersson Pelodytes affinis Gray Hyla nigrofrenata Giinther Hyla vinosa Lamb Hyla tornieri Nieden Hyla dimolops Cope Phrynixalus reginae Andersson Austrochaperina robusta FryAustrochaperina brevipes Fry The = Helioporus eyrei (Gray) = Helioporus eyrei (Gray = Limnodynastes tasmaniensis Giinther = Crinia signifera ignita Cope = Crinia leai Fletcher = Uperoleia marmorata rugosa (Andersson) = Hyla gradlenta Peters = Hyla dayi Giinther = Hyla caerulea (Shaw) = Hyla eucnemis Lonnberg = Hyla ewingii verreauxii Dumeril = Hyla jervisiensis Dumeril & Bibron = Hyla obsoleta Lonnberg = Hyla lesueurii Dumeril & Bibron = Hyla lesueurii Dumeril & Bibron = Hyla lesueurii Dumeril & Bibron = Hyla lesueurii Dumeril & Bibron = Hyla latopalmata (Giinther) = Phrynomantis ornata (Fry)' = Sphenophryne polysticta (v Mehely) = Sphenophryne polysticta (v Mehely) following are considered to be subspecies : Limnodynastes peronii lineatus De-Vis Crinia signifera ignita Cope Crinia affinis haswelli Fletcher Crinia laevis froggatti Fletcher Uperoleia marmorata ^ugosa (Andersson) From the above it will be seen that three New Guinea species are added to the Australian fauna by their Queensland counterparts being placed in the synonymy The species to which I refer, are: Hyla eucnemis Lonnberg Hyla obsoleta Lonnberg Sphenophryne polysticta (v Mehely) ^Cophixalus ornalus (Fry) according to Parker, 1934, p 171 ^Parker, 1934, p 157 considers robusta a composite, only part being a synonym of S polyslicla bulletin: museum of comparative zoology Among the more interesting results of this revisionary study, is the finding of Western AustraHan Pseudophryne mistralis This reveals that the Sydney frog has been misnamed australis for nearly half a century; it should be called albifrons (Dumeril & Bibron) The identi- Sydney frog known as Hyla krefftii Giinther with the older jervisiensis Dumeril & Bibron, which in the literature of nearly a fication of the century has been known only from the type, may be questioned by some, but is, I believe, correct Less unfortunate in its results is the finding that another Sydney frog Hyla dimolops Cope is a synonym — of — H latopalmata (Giinther) Systematic List of Australian Amphibia LEPTODACTYLIDAE page Mixophycs fasciolatus fasciolatus Giinther 10 Mixophyes fasciolatus schevilli Loveridge Phractops dahlii Boulenger 11 Phractops platycephalus (Giinther) 12 12 11 Phractops brevipes (Peters) 13 Phractops australis (Gray) *Phractops inermis fPeters) 13 14 Mitrolysis albogiittatus (Giinther) Helioporus albopunctatus Gray Helioporus insularis Loveridge Helioporus pelobatoides Werner Helioporus eyrei (Gray) Philoria frosti Spencer Philocryphus australiacaus (Shaw) Limnodynastes peronii peronii (Dumeril Limnodynastes peronii lineatus De Vis Limnodynastes salmini Steindachner * & Limnodynastes tasmanieiuis Giinther Limnodynastes flctcheri Boulenger Bibron) 15 15 15 16 17 17 18 19 19 Limnody7iastes platycephalus Giinther 20 Limnodynastes dorsalis dorsalis (Gray) Limnodynastes dorsalis dumerilii Peters * Limnodynastes dorsalis interioris Fry 21 21 Unrepresented in the Museum of Comparative Zoology lovekidge: Australian amphibia 21 Limnodynastes dorsalis terraereginae Fry Limnodynastcs ornatus (Gray) 22 22 23 23 24 Lechriodus fldchcri (Boulenger) Adelotus brcvis (Giinther) Crinia georgiana Tschudi Crinia glauerti Loveridge *Crima varius (Peters) 24 25 26 27 28 29 29 Crinia signifera signifcra (Girard) Crinia signifera ignita Cope Crinia affinis affinis Giinther affinis haswelli Fletcher Crinia tasmanieiisi^ (Giinther) Crinia Crinia laevis laevis (Giinther) Crinia laevis froggatti Fletcher *Crinia vidoriana Boulenger Crinia darlingtoni Loveridge 29 30 30 30 Crinia acutirostris Andersson Crinia leai Fletcher Crinia rosea Harrison *Uperoleia marmorata marmorata Gray Uperoleia marmorata rugosa Andersson *Pseudophryne Pseudophryne Pseudophryne Pseudophryne 31 mjobergii Andersson 31 avstralis (Gray) albifrons (Dumeril & Bibron) blanckardi Loveridge Psexulophryne bibro7iii Steindachner Pseudophryne coriacea Keferstein Pseudophryne dendyi Lucas Pseudophryne semimarmorata Lucas Pseudojjhryne brooksi Loveridge Pseudophryne nichollsi Harrison Pseudophryne guentheri Boulenger Glauertia ru^selli Loveridge Notaden bennetti Giinther "• Myobatrachus gouldii (Gray) 32 33 33 33 34 34 35 35 36 37 37 37 HYLIDAE 37 Hyla gracilenia Peters *Hyla chloris Boulenger Hyla dayi Giinther Unrepresented in the Museum 38 of Comparative Zoology bulletin: museum of comparative zoology 10 Hyla *Hyla Hyla Hyla Hyla Hyla *Hyla Hyla Hyla Hyla 39 caerulea (Shaw) infrafrenata Giinther eucnemis Lonnberg 40 peronii (Tschudi) 41 bicolor (Gray) 41 phyllochroa Giinther 42 maculata Spencer rubella 42 42 43 43 44 45 46 Gray dentata Keferstein citropus (Tschudi) Hyla parvidens Peters Hyla jervisiensis Dumeril & Bibron Hyla eioingii ctvingii Dumeril & Bibron Hyla ewiugii verreauxii Dumeril Hyla ewingii alpina Fry Hyla adelaidensis Gray Hyla aurea (Lesson) Hyla hlandsitttoni Procter Hyla obsoleta Lonnberg Hyla lesucurii Dumeril & Bibron 47 48 49 50 50 51 52 53 54 Hyla latopalviata Giinther Hyla freycineti (Dumeril & Bibron) Hyla nasuta (Gray) RANIDAE Rana papua papua 54 (Lesson) BREVICIPITIDAE 55 56 56 Phrynoinantis ornata (Fry) Sphenophryne gracilipes (Fry) Sphenophryne polystida (v Mehely) LEPTODACTYLIDAE Mixophyes fasciolatus fasciolatus Giinther Mixophyes fasciolatus Giinther, 1864, Proc Zool Soc London, fig 1: Clarence River, New South Wales p 46, pi vii, Hyla fenestrata De Vis, 1884, Proc Roy Soc Queensl., (Boundary New South Wales & Queensland.) Tweed * Unrepresented in the Museum of Comparative Zoology 1, p 128: River PLATE Endebs — Barro Colorado Mammals PLATE Allen's Opossum Meiachirops opossum fuscogriseus BULL MUS COM P ZOOL Enders Barro Colorado Mammals Plate PLATE Endebs — Barro Colorado Mammals PLATE Top figures Bottom Bottom right left Isthmian Marmosa Marmosa isthmica Opossum Didelphis marsupialis etensis Woolly Opossum Philander laniger BULL MUS COMP ZOOL / Enders Barro Colorado Mammals Plate PLATE Enders —Barro Colorado Mammals PLATE White-faced Monkey Cebus capucinus imitator BULL MUS COMP ZOUL Enders Barro Colorado Mammals Plate PLATE Knokhs — Barro Colorado Mammals PLATE Three-toed Sloth Bradypus griseus BULL MUS COMP 200L Enders Barro Colorado Mammals Plate ... *Hyla chloris Boulenger Hyla dayi Giinther Unrepresented in the Museum 38 of Comparative Zoology bulletin: museum of comparative zoology 10 Hyla *Hyla Hyla Hyla Hyla Hyla *Hyla Hyla Hyla Hyla... composite, only part being a synonym of S polyslicla bulletin: museum of comparative zoology Among the more interesting results of this revisionary study, is the finding of Western AustraHan Pseudophryne... ibid., pp 89-94 8, pp 55-60 4 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology History of the Collections The earliest material from the Australian Continent Museum, consisted of 11 specimens, representing