Partial sequences of the mitochondrial 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA gene were determined for 8 populations of three species of Chinese Limnonectes, and aligned with the published sequences of Limnonectes from other parts of the world. When Nanorana parker, Paa boulengeri, Fejervarya limnocharis and Hoplobatrachus rugulosus was used as outgroup taxa (Accession Nos. AY158705, AY313685, AF206111, AF206491, AY322311). The sequences of the 12S rRNA and 16S rRNA genes totaled 950 nucleotide positions with gaps including 510 variable sites. We reconstructed phylogenetic trees using Clustal X 1.8,Mega 2.1 and PHYLIP 3.5c software, and using the maximum parsimony and maximum likelihood methods, respectively. Our analyses suggest that these fanged frogs from China are another monophyletic group in addition to the four monophyletic groups identified by previous studies. The Chinese Limnonectes were grouped into three clades (BCL 55%). The first clade contains one species (BCL 100%), from a population of Limnonectes fragilis from Hainan Province. The second contains four individuals (BCL 100%), i.e. two populations of Limnonectes kuhlii from Yunnan Province. The third contains one species (BCL 100%), i.e. five populations of Limnonectes fujianensis from Fujian Province and 1 from Taiwan Province. The resulted phylogenetic trees indicate L. fragilis is basal to L. kuhlii + L. fujianensis .
