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We describe a new species of Albericus from Mt. Shungol in the Herzog Mountains at the north end of the Owen Stanley terrane of Papua New Guinea. The new species differs from all other known species of the genus in its rapid peeping call and in having the tympana hidden in males. It can be further distinguished from particular congeners in a variety of morphometric variables. The new species inhabits lowland hill forest, was moderately common where found, and is only known from the slopes of Mt. Shungol.
ALBERICUS is a genus of small microhylid frogs endemic to New Guinea. It includes 13 species (Menzies, 1999; Günther, 2000; Kraus and Allison, 2005), with most of these known only from Papua New Guinea, the eastern half of the island. The genus is closely related to Choerophryne and Cophixalus and is characterized by small size (SV generally <20 mm); absence of clavicles, procoracoids, and omosternum; fifth toe longer than the third; discs of fingers broader than those of toes; and origin of the musculus depressor mandibulae mostly on the otic ramus of the squamosal and adjacent prootic (Burton and Zweifel, 1995). Most species are drab in color, having variegated patterns of browns, grays, and yellows; however, A. sanguinopictus, described by Kraus and Allison (2005), is pale blue or green with brown blotches, red dorsal punctations, and red ventral blotches. Ten of the known Albmcus species have been described since 1998, eight are known only from type localities, seven are known from fewer than ten specimens, and many species remain to be identified and described, so evolutionary understanding of the genus is poor.
Detailed morphological data and comparisons to congeners were not presented in the original descriptions of most of these species. This problem has been partially corrected by Kraus and Allison (2005), who present an extensive table of morphometric data for all species in the genus. Even so, morphometric data provide relatively few characters for reliably distinguishing among named species. The only progress to date toward clustering species is the work of Menzies (1999), who grouped species into three classes based on their calls. Six species known to him were noted to have "buzz" or "squeak" calls, three had "click" calls, and one had a "peeping"...