Discover new species of tree frog in Sapa

The new frog species has been discovered by scientists from the Vietnam Museum of Nature - Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology - in Sa Pa, Lao Cai province) and described as the pineapple clone Sa Pa - Gracixalus sapaensis.

According to information from the Vietnam Museum of Nature, the new frog species living in the mountains of 1,800-2,500 meters above the sea level of this Hoang Lien mountain range was previously identified as a rogue plant - Gracixalus carinensis. However, when comparing the samples obtained in the Hoang Lien Mountains with the standard samples of the calamari and other species in the Gracixalus genus in terms of morphological and molecular genetics, the scientists found this to be a new species.

Gracixalus sapaensis clover leg of Sapa - Gracixalus sapaensis.

Identification characteristics of clover leg Sa Pa - Gracixalus sapaensis - is an adult male with an average body length of 30mm, maximum 36.9mm and smallest of 20.8mm, head length shorter than width and muzzle round, large eyes, yellowish brown back, pale yellow nodules. The back of the back, contiguous to the back of the limb is lemon yellow alternating dark brown, the back of the thigh is light gray with yellow spots. Throat, chest, belly pale yellow.

This is the fourth new species of the thin-legged tree species discovered in the last 3 years out of 9 species in Vietnam and 13 species in the world. According to the research team, this shows that the frog fauna in Vietnam contains many mysteries that need to be studied more, especially small and medium sized species, with similar morphology and distribution. altitude above 1,500m.

This scientific article on new species has been published in Alytes specialized journal, vol. 33, 2017.