New Zealand Journal of Zoology abstracts
The taxonomic identity of a population of terrestrial Leiopelma (Anura:
Leiopelmatidae) recently discovered in the northern King Country,
New Zealand
BEN D. BELL
CHARLES H. DAUGHERTY
RODNEY A. HITCHMOUGH
School of Biological Sciences
Victoria University of Wellington
P.O. Box 600
Wellington, New Zealand
Abstract A terrestrial endemic frog resembling
Leiopelma
archeyi was discovered in the Whareorino Forest, northern King Country, New
Zealand, in 1991, where it is broadly sympatric with
L. hochstetteri. To
clarify its taxonomic status, allozyme electrophoresis of toe tissue was used
to compare it genetically with four other populations of terrestrial
Leiopelma (
L. archeyi from Tapu and Tokatea, Coromandel;
L.
hamiltoni from Stephens Island;
L. pakeka from Maud Island).
Thirteen presumed genetic (allozyme) loci could be consistently scored for the
five populations. At 11 loci, no genetic differences were found between the
Whareorino frog and the two Coromandel
L. archeyi populations. Allelic
frequencies differed slightly at two loci. We therefore conclude that the
terrestrial Whareorino frog represents a western population of
L.
archeyi.
L. hamiltoni from Stephens Island is genetically closer to
L. archeyi than is
L. pakeka from Maud Island. The Whareorino
L. archeyi population is morphologically similar to Coromandel
L. archeyi populations, although multivariate analysis suggests subtle
morphological differences, including the relative position of the nostril. Size
comparisons between Whareorino and three Coromandel sites (Moehau, Tapu,
Tokatea) show there were more larger frogs (35-38 mm snout-vent length) at
Whareorino and Tokatea compared with Moehau and Tapu, where maximum snout-vent
lengths were 34 and 36 mm, respectively.
Keywords New Zealand; Leiopelma archeyi; Leiopelma
hamiltoni; Leiopelma pakeka; allozyme variation; systematics;
conservation; morphology
Received 1 May 1997; accepted 9 December 1997
PDF file of entire paper: medium quality (606K); (scanned from paper original: notes about this process)
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