Taxonomic reassessment of Odorrana graminea sensu lato (Anura: Ranidae) in China

We sequenced mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene fragments of 84 samples of Odorrana graminea (Boulenger, 1900) sensu lato from 33 sites in southern China. Combining the newly generated sequences and congeneric sequences obtained from GenBank, we reconstructed a molecular phylogeny for the genus Odorrana Fei, Ye and Huang, 1990. Phylogenetic analysis revealed five highly divergent lineages which were paraphyletic within O. graminea sensu lato in southern China. The lineage from Medog and western Yunnan is assigned to O. chloronota (Günther, 1876). The lineage from Hainan, southeastern Guangxi, and southwestern Guangdong corresponds to O. graminea sensu stricto; the lineage from Fujian, Jiangxi, easternmost Guangxi, and northern, central, and eastern Guangdong corresponds to O. leporipes (Werner, 1930); and the remaining two lineages from southern Yunnan represent two cryptic new species. In addition, by checking the type specimens of O. rotodora (Yang and Rao, 2008) we confirmed that O. rotodora is the synonym of O. chloronota.