School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan 2308, Australia.
South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide 5000, Australia. School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, North Terrace, Adelaide 5005, Australia..
Zootaxa. 2023 Jun 2;5297(3):301-336. doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5297.3.1.
Mixophyes are large ground-dwelling myobatrachid frogs from eastern Australia and New Guinea. Several of the species found in mid-eastern and south-eastern Australia are listed as threatened, due largely to declines presumably caused by the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis. Given the wide distribution of several of these species and that their distributions cross well-known biogeographic boundaries that often correspond to deep genetic breaks or species boundaries among closely related vertebrates, we undertook a molecular genetic assessment of population structure across the range of each species to determine the presence of undescribed species. Of the four species of Mixophyes subject to molecular population genetic analyses, one, the Stuttering Frog (Mixophyes balbus), showed a level of diversity consistent with the presence of two species. Morphometric, meristic and bioacoustic analyses corroborate these distinctions, and a new species is described for the populations south of the Macleay River valley in mid-eastern New South Wales to east Gippsland in Victoria. Applying the IUCN Red List threat criteria the new species meets the conservation status assessment criteria for Endangered 2B1a,b because its extent of occupancy and area of occupancy are below the threshold value and it has declined and disappeared from the southern two thirds of its distribution over the past 30 years.
混蛙是来自澳大利亚东部和新几内亚的大型陆生雨蛙科蛙类。在澳大利亚中东部和东南部发现的几个物种由于两栖动物疾病壶菌病导致的数量下降，被列为受威胁物种。鉴于这些物种中的几个物种分布广泛，而且它们的分布范围跨越了著名的生物地理边界，这些边界通常与密切相关的脊椎动物之间的深刻遗传断裂或物种边界相对应，我们对每个物种的分布范围内的种群结构进行了分子遗传评估，以确定是否存在未描述的物种。在接受分子种群遗传分析的四种混蛙中，有一种称为口吃蛙（Mixophyes balbus）的蛙种显示出与两种物种存在一致的多样性水平。形态学、数量和生物声学分析证实了这些区别，并为新南威尔士州中东部麦克利河谷以南至维多利亚州东吉普斯兰的种群描述了一个新物种。根据 IUCN 红色名录威胁标准，新物种符合濒危物种 2B1a,b 的保护状况评估标准，因为其占有范围和栖息地面积低于阈值，并且在过去 30 年中，其分布的南部三分之二已经减少并消失。
