Description of a New Brown Frog from Tsushima Island, Japan (Anura: Ranidae: Rana)

Abstract

Because all available evidence from allozymes, mtDNA sequences, and artificial hybridization suggests presence of high genetic differentiation between populations of East Asian brown frogs currently assigned to Rana dybowskii Günther, 1876, I compared morphological characters between specimens from Tsushima Island of Japan and Maritime territory of Russia. The population from Tsushima is slightly, but significantly different from R. dybowskii from Russia, including the holotype. I therefore consider the Tsushima population to be specifically distinct, and describe it as a new species R. uenoi. The new species also occurs in the Korean Peninsula and adjacent islands, but the distributional relationships with R. dybowskii are unclear, as detailed distribution in northern Korea is lacking.