The strangest tadpole: the oophagous, tree-hole dwelling tadpole of Rhacophorus vampyrus (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from Vietnam

Abstract

The tadpole of the vampire flying frog Rhacophorus vampyrus from Vietnam is one of the strangest tadpoles known. These tadpoles develop from non-pigmented eggs suspended in a foam nest placed on the wall of a tree hole. The elongate, depressed body resembles that of some phytotelmon-breeding frogs, but the mouthparts bear little resemblance to any other tadpole: upper labium reduced to one large papilla-like structure on each side, upper jaw sheath with a few huge, widely spaced, hook-shaped serrations that face backwards into the buccal cavity, lower jaw sheath absent, sinistral spiracle visible only ventrally, and two large, forward facing, keratinized hooks accompanied laterally by two similar sized fleshy papillae on the margin of the reduced lower labium. All evidence suggests that the tadpoles are oophagous and that the mother returns to deposit trophic eggs.

Keywords:

• anuran tadpole
• morphology
• oophagy
• phytotelmon
• Vietnam

Acknowledgements

The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and staff at Bidoup-Nui Ba National Park and Ta Dung Nature Reserve kindly facilitated surveys and issued permission to collect specimens (Permit numbers 3023/GT-BNN-KL & 1430/GT-BNN-KL). Eleanor Appleby, Da Du Ha Tien, Vu Hanh Dung, Nguyen Thi Xuan Phuong, Ly Tri, Nguyen Le Xuan Bach, Ta Van Thuc, Nguyen Dinh Hien, Vu Nhat Phuong and Nguyen Hieu Nghia assisted with fieldwork. The research was supported by funding from the National Geographic Conservation Trust, ADM Capital Foundation, Conservation International, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong, the Alexander-Koenig-Gesellschaft (AKG) and Idea Wild. Giselle Thibaudeau, Director of the Institute for Imaging and Analytical Technologies at MSU, did the tedious dissection of the small tadpole, and Christopher P. Brooks, from the Department of Biological Sciences at MSU, provided assistance with the photomicrographs.