ANSONIA KAREN

This new species of endemic stream toad was found around Khao Laem in the Tennaserim mountains, in Ratchaburi province, western Thailand. The Karen stream toad – named for the local Karen people, who supported the researchers during feld surveys – is genetically and physically diferent from other species in its genus. Compared to its sister species, the A. thinthinae from Tanintharyi division, Myanmar, it has a signifcantly shorter and wider head, a shorter snout, smaller eyes, shorter hind limbs and a diferent coloration. Prior to this discovery, the distance between this sister species and the next closest species from this genus - A. kraensis from Ranong province, Thailand – was 350km.

This endemic and range-restricted steam toad is one of many that have been recently discovered in the Dawna Tenasserim mountain range. Just from this genus, there are 10 distinct species of stream toad that live in eastern Myanmar and western and southern Thailand. This illustrates the importance of continued biological surveys, and more importantly, conservation of this important landscape.

Suwannapoom, C., Grismer, L., Pawangkhanant, P., Naiduangchan, M., Yushchenko, P., Arkhipov, D., Wilkinson, J. and Poyarkov, N. (2021). Hidden tribe: A new species of stream toad of the genus Ansonia Stoliczka, 1870 (Anura: Bufonidae) from the poorly explored mountainous borderlands of western Thailand. Vertebrate Zoology 71: 763779. doi.org/10.3897/vz.71.e73529