Litoria gracilenta (Anura : Hylidae) and related species in New Guinea

Abstract

We examined a large collection (n = 132) of tree frogs, hitherto identified as Litoria gracilenta, from various localities in New Guinea and compared them with Litoria gracilenta from Queensland and with the recently described Litoria elkeae from far west New Guinea. We found that the frogs in question were neither L. gracilenta nor L. elkeae but comprised two distinct taxa described herein as new species.

We call attention to the problems of performing statistical analysis on measurements of soft-bodied organisms and consider that the conclusions reached in this analysis are both conservative and realistic.