Frogs of the Family Rhacophoridae (Anura: Amphibia) in the Northern Hoang Lien Mountains (Mount Fan Si Pan, Sa Pa District, Lao Cai Province), Vietnam

Based on the results of own field work as well as data from the literature (Smith, 1924; Ahl, 1931; Bourret, 1937, 1942; Smirnov and Ho, 1983; Nguen and Ho, 1996; Orlov, 1997; Inger et al., 1999; Orlov and Rybaltovsky, 1999; Orlov and Ho, 2000a, 2000b; Ziegler and Weitkus, 1999; Ziegler and Hermann, 2000) and additional museum collections we identified 32 species among 5 genera of the family Rhacophoridae, in Vietnam. This estimate is derived from those species that have been examined by ourselves as well as taking into account the current understanding of rhacophorid taxonomy based on the information available from «Amphibian Species of the World» (Frost, 1985, 1999, 2000; Duellman, 1993). Adopting the higher classifications of S. S. Liem (1970); W. C. Brown and A. C. Alcala (1994) and J. A. Wilkinson and R. C. Drewes (2000) we conclude that the following genera are present in Vietnam: Chirixalus , Polypedates , Philautus , Rhacophorus , and Theloderma . In the spring of 1999, field work was conducted in the northern Hoang Lien Mountains (Fan Si Pan Mountain, Sa Pa district, Lao Cai Province, Vietnam). We found 8 species of rhacophorids previously not known to occur in Vietnam. We provide detailed descriptions of these and a description of the new species of Rhacophorus . The rhacophorid diversity for the Hoang Lien Mountains included 4 genera and 20 species. Thus the total number of rhacophorid species in Vietnam is increased upto 40 species. Small part of these collections have not been identified and, therefore, are not included in this list. Some material is represented by a single specimen and we refrain from drawing any taxonomic conclusions until additional material becomes available.