Friday, July 12, 2013

[Herpetology • 2013] Range extension of Rhacophorus dulitensis Boulenger, 1892 (Anura: Rhacophoridae) in western Sarawak, Borneo


Figure 2. Female Rhacophorus dulitensis (NMBE 1056708)
from Kubah National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia (western Borneo).

Abstract
 We report on a record of Rhacophorus dulitensis from Kubah National Park in western Sarawak. The new record extends the known geographical range of the species 300 km to the west.

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Rhacophorus dulitensis is endemic to Borneo, the largest of the Southeast Asian Greater Sunda Islands, where it occurs in primary lowland forest at elevations below 600 m a.s.l. (Harvey et al. 2002; Malkmus et al. 2002). Although not a rare species, it is seldom encountered because it lives in the canopy layer of forests and only descends to lower vegetation in order to breed (Dehling 2011). 

Rhacophorus dulitensis has a scattered distribution in central and northern Borneo. Originally described from Mt. Dulit in eastern Sarawak (3°25’ N, 114°00’ E), it has since been recorded from several localities in central and eastern Sarawak, Brunei Darussalam, Sabah, and East Kalimantan (Boulenger 1892; Inger et al. 2004; Inger and Stuebing 2005; Das 2007; Figure 1).

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J. Maximilian Dehling and D. Matthias Dehling. 2013. Range extension of Rhacophorus dulitensis Boulenger, 1892 (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) in western Borneo. Check List. 9(2): 425–426.