New species of treefrog of the Boophis goudotii group from the isolated Ivohiboro Protected Area in south-eastern Madagascar

We describe a new species of treefrog of the Boophis goudotii group from Ivohiboro, a sacred forest in the Southeastof Madagascar and recently established protected area. Based on a molecular phylogeny inferred from DNA sequencesof the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene, Boophis samuelsabini sp. n. is sister to the clade of B. madagascariensis and B. roseipalmatus but differs from these species by genetic distances of 4.8–6.3%. The new species has an advertisement call consisting of various note types similar to its closest relatives, B. madagascariensis and B. roseipalmatus, but is distinguishedmorphologically from them by smaller body size and presence of a pattern of reticulated dermal folds on the dorsum. Thisdiscovery highlights the poor state of exploration of remnant highland forests in the South East of Madagascar which canbe expected to harbour additional microendemic species in need of conservation measures.