LookAtVietnam – Vietnamese scientists have discovered a new species of tree frog in Lao Cai and a new gecko species in Dong Nai and Ba Ria – Vung Tau.

The new species of gecko discovered in Dong Nai and Ba Ria - Vung Tau (photo: Phung My Trung)

The new species of gecko is named after the site where the first standard specimen was discovered – Cyrtodactylus cattienensis (Geissler, Nazarov, Orlov, Boehme, Phung, Nguyen & Ziegler, 2009).

Other standard specimens of this gecko species were identified in the Vinh Cuu Nature Reserve in Dong Nai and on Dinh Mountain in Ba Ria – Vung Tau.

This is the 18^th species of Cyrtodactylus gecko discovered in Vietnam. For Dong Nai province, this is the second species of gecko found in the province since 2008, after the cyrtodactylus huynhi species.

The new tree frog species named Theloderma lateriticum Bain, Nguyen & Doan 2009 (photo: Nguyen Quang Truong).

Vietnamese and Americans also discovered a new tree frog species in Hoang Lien mountains, Lao Cai province, named Theloderma lateriticum Bain, Nguyen & Doan 2009.

This is the second new species of tree frog reported in Vietnam this year after the Odorrana geminata (Bain, Stuart, Nguyen, Che & Rao, 2009) species, discovered in the northern mountainous provinces of Ha Giang and Cao Bang.

Mai Loan