A new species of Fejervarya Bolkay, 1915 (Anura: Dicroglossidae) from the northern Western Ghats parts of Maharashtra, India

Abstract

In the recent past the systematic position and taxonomy of genus Fejervarya, Bolkay is undergoing changes in its systematic position due to fairly good amount of phylogenetic resolution, cryptic morphological characters and lack of systematic sampling for phylogenetic studies across the range of distribution. In our sampling in the northern Western Ghats, we encountered a new lineage sister to the phylogenetic cluster which comprises the 'Rufescens complex'. This new lineage is described here as new species Fejervarya marathi sp. nov. based on distinctness in a combination of morphological characters, genetic distance and geography. The problems in morphological groupings for the Fejervarya frogs of the Western Ghats in the recent studies are discussed with the sub-clade composition based on geography in the phylogenetic tree.

Bioacoustics, breeding ecology and range of the Kerala warty frog Minervarya cf. keralensis from north of the Palghat gap, central Western Ghats

“…In addition to these secondary sexual characteristics, adult males also show different colouration near the tympanum, close to mouth commissural region and in forelimbs which have also been described in M. mysorensis (Kuramoto & Joshy, 2001). All the minervaryan species of peninsular India employ axillary amplexus (Garg & Biju, 2017;2021;Kadadevaru et al, 2002;Phuge et al, 2019;Dubois et al, 2001) and lay their eggs in a variety of sites including aquatic vegetation, wet soil, puddles, and other moist places that are used as temporary spawning grounds (Dubois et al, 2001;present study;unpublished data), which may reduce the risk of predation and desiccation of both the eggs and tadpoles.…”

“…Most minevaryan frogs breed in the pre-monsoon period or during the monsoon (Fig. 6) but as many of them are sympatric (Garg & Biju, 2017;2021;Phuge et al, 2019;2020;Kadadevaru et al, 2002;Dubois et al, 2001) there may be micro separation in breeding habitat, calling pattern, and spawning pattern (Garg & Biju, 2017).…”

“…The secondary sexual characters observed in adult male M. cf. keralensis include nuptial pad on the first finger of the forelimbs and black colouration or glandular or transparent skin in the vocal sac region and are typical of minervaryans (Garg & Biju, 2017;2021;Kadadevaru et al, 2002;Phuge et al, 2019;2020). In addition to these secondary sexual characteristics, adult males also show different colouration near the tympanum, close to mouth commissural region and in forelimbs which have also been described in M. mysorensis (Kuramoto & Joshy, 2001).…”

“…Frogs of the genus Minervarya have received more attention from taxonomists than other anurans (Garg & Biju, 2021;Dinesh et al, 2015). Several attempts have been made to classify minevaryans into different groups based on morphological traits, size and phylogenetic analyses (Garg & Biju, 2017;Phuge et al, 2019;Hegde et al, 2020). In peninsular India, the genus Minervarya is currently classified into eight groups (Garg & Biju, 2021).…”