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Published August 30, 2025 | Version v1
Taxonomic treatment Open

Melvillihyla Richards, Donnellan & Mahony 2025, gen. nov.

Authors/Creators

  • 1. South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia & School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia & Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia
  • 2. School of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Newcastle, University Drive, Callaghan, Newcastle, NSW 2308 Australia
  • 3. Environmental Futures Research Centre, School of Science, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2526, Australia
  • 4. Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London, SW 7 5 BD, United Kingdom
  • 5. School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
  • 6. Department of Scientific Computing, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, United States & Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, United States
  • 7. Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, United States
  • 8. Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, Herpetologie, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany
  • 9. South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia & School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia
  • 10. Division of Ecology and Evolution, Research School of Biology, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 2601 Australia
  • 11. Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia & Sydney School of Veterinary Science, B 01, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
  • 12. South Australian Museum, North Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia & Australian Museum Research Institute, Australian Museum, 1 William Street, Sydney, NSW 2010, Australia

Description

Melvillihyla Richards, Donnellan & Mahony, gen. nov.

(Fig. 22)

ZooBank LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 30C05CFB-255B-4889-A162-FEC1C99BAF 73 Type species: Litoria andiirrmalin McDonald, 1997.

Content: One species— Melvillihyla andiirrmalin * (McDonald, 1997) comb. nov.

Diagnosis: Melvillihyla can be diagnosed from Rhyaconastes by its large vs. medium size, ossified vs. cartilaginous intercalary structures, tadpole oral disc Type 1 vs. Type 3, overall tadpole morphology Type 5 vs. Type 6, and single vs. multiple notes per reproductive call. Refer to Tables 1 and 2.

Distribution and ecology: Terrestrial boulder dwelling frogs that breed in streams within rainforest in Cape Melville in north-eastern Australia.

Etymology: Named for Cape Melville, north Queensland which contains the species’ entire distribution. The gender, based on the frog generic name Hyla, is feminine.

Remarks: A monotypic genus with a distribution restricted to Cape Melville which has a unique combination of geology, rainforest and sclerophyll forest communities, and climate (McDonald 1997).

Notes

Published as part of Donnellan, Stephen C., Mahony, Michael J., Esquerré, Damien, Brennan, Ian G., Price, Luke C., Lemmon, Alan, Lemmon, Emily Moriarty, Günther, Rainer, Monis, Paul, Bertozzi, Terry, Keogh, J. Scott, Shea, Glenn M. & Richards, Stephen J., 2025, Phylogenomics informs a generic revision of the Australo-Papuan treefrogs (Anura: Pelodryadidae) in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 204, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf015

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Linked records

Additional details

Identifiers

URL
http://treatment.plazi.org/id/03B387A62215FFA39C3BFF4EFE9C562C

Related works

Is part of
Journal article: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf015 (DOI)
Journal article: http://publication.plazi.org/id/FF8AFFDE2223FF9B9F63F841FFD85752 (URL)
Journal article: http://zoobank.org/B403627-916C-4ED3-ACEE-436ED2CF89E6 (URL)
Is source of
https://biodiversitypmc.sibils.org/collections/plazi/03B387A62215FFA39C3BFF4EFE9C562C (URL)

Biodiversity

Collection code
LSID
Scientific name authorship
Richards, Donnellan & Mahony
Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Order
Anura
Family
Pelodryadidae
Genus
Melvillihyla
Taxon rank
genus
Taxonomic status
gen. nov.
Type status
holotype
Taxonomic concept label
Melvillihyla Donnellan, Mahony & Richards, 2025

References

  • McDonald K. A new stream-dwelling Litoria from the Melville Range, Queensland, Australia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 1997; 42: 307-9.