A new species of Amolops (Anura: Ranidae) from Son La Province, northwestern Vietnam

A new species of Amolops is described from northwestern Vietnam based on morphological and molecular differences. Morphologically, the new species is distinguishable from its congeners on the basis of a combination of the following diagnostic characters: Snout-vent length 37.5-41.3 mm in males, 61.5-62.5 mm in females; head longer than wide; vomerine teeth present; snout long (ratio of distance from tip of snout to anterior corner of eye/ snout-vent length 0.16 in males, 0.15 in females); tympanum distinct, round (ratio of eye diameter/tympanum diameter 0.37-0.39 in males, 0.36-0.37 in females); skin smooth; supratympanic fold indistinct; dorsolateral fold present; webbing formula I0-1/2II0-1III0-1IV1-0V; in life, dorsum grey with indistinct greenish dots; head and body with irregular dorsolateral brown stripe; dorsal surface of forelimbs and hindlimbs bright grey with dark brown crossbars; throat, chest and belly white; vocal sac yellowish; external vocal sac present and finger I with nuptial pad in males. In phylogenetic analyses, the new species is recovered as a sister taxon to A. compotrix, but the two species are separated by 3.3-3.4% pairwise genetic divergence based on a fragment of the mitochondrial ND2 gene.