Microhyla ornata Duméril and Bibron 1841

Microhyla ornata Figures 1 and 3 (h); Table 2 specimens examined: CMDN-A 47, 138 – 139, 149 – 150. Distribution in the KTM Valley: Encountered in Lalitpur and Shreshnaryan, although Aryal et al. (2013) also encountered the species in north-western KTM Valley. Remarks: Microhyla were found at four sites around ponds or wetlands (Figure 1). Males were always encountered while calling, usually from under grass, about onehalf metre from the water (Figure 3 (h)). Larvae were usually present in large numbers in the water sources around which adults were calling. Recent work suggests that Nepal contains multiple species of Microhyla, and that the specimens encountered around KTM may belong to a related species, rather than M. ornata (Khatiwada et al. 2017). Molecular sequencing or in-depth morphological analysis would help resolve the taxonomic position of KTM Microhyla. Because we only encountered this species outside of national parks, we were unable to conduct further analyses (Figure 1).
Published as part of O, Kyle A., Connell, Aryal, Prakash C., Sherchan, Adarsh M., Dhakal, Bimala, Chaudhary, Hemanta Kumari, Ranabhat, Rishi & Karmacharya, Dibesh, 2019, A herpetological survey of the Kathmandu Valleyı Nepalı and phylogenetic identification of Megophrys (Xenophrys) zhangi, pp. 1421-1437 in Journal of Natural History 53 (23) on page 1431, DOI: 10.1080/00222933.2019.1655106, http://zenodo.org/record/3670114
{"references":["Aryal PC, Kharel SC, Bhurtel BP, Paudel EN, Dhamala MK, Rijal B, Thapa A. 2013. An amphibian survey in Kathmandu Valley. Nepal. Biodiv. Cons. Efforts Nepal. 3: 1 - 3.","Khatiwada JR, Shu GC, Wang SH, Thapa A, Wang B, Jiang J. 2017. A new species of the genus Microhyla (Anura: Microhylidae) from Eastern Nepal. Zootaxa. 4254: 221 - 239. doi: 10.11646 / zootaxa. 4254.2"]}