Unmasking Rana okinavana Boettger, 1895 from the Ryukyus, Japan (Amphibia: Anura: Ranidae)

Abstract

Examination of the lectotype and a paralectotype of Rana okinavana Boettger, 1895 revealed that the species is not a brown frog of the subgenus Rana, occurring in the middle group of the Ryukyu Archipelago, but is identical with a frog of the subgenus Nidirana from the southern group of the Archipelago and Taiwan, now called R. psaltes Kuramoto, 1985. The type locality of R. okinavanagiven in the original description, Okinawa of the middle Ryukyus, is highly doubtful and should be somewhere in the Yaeyama Islands of the southern Ryukyus. The name R. psaltes is relegated to a subjective junior synonym of R. okinavana Boettger, 1895, while the brown frog of the subgenus Rana from the northern Ryukyus requires a replacement name.