A new species of Sphaerotheca Günther, 1859 (Anura: Dicroglossidae) from the degraded urban ecosystems of Bengaluru, Deccan Plateau, India

Abstract

The dicroglossid genus Sphaerotheca was erected by Günther in 1859, with its range of distribution in South Asia. Since then, 13 species have been described and 10 species are considered valid. Many of these descriptions were from low to mid-elevation ranges of homestead areas, agroecosystems and degraded landscapes with a few from forested areas. In the present account, a new species of Sphaerotheca, a genetically distinct lineage with a morphological character set distinguishable from its congeners, is described from the surroundings of Bengaluru city, India. Based on evidence for the origin of the original specimen, we also designated a neotype for Rana variegata Gravenhorst, 1829, a junior primary homonym of Rana variegata Linnaeus, 1758, and permanently invalid name, so that it is now a subjective synonym of Rana (Tomopterna) breviceps rolandae Dubois, 1983.

Vocalization in Maskey's Burrowing Frog, Sphaerotheca maskeyi (Anura: Dicroglossidae)

“…Calling frogs have evolved patterns of vocalization that reduce the risk of overlapping acoustic signals (Klump and Gerhardt 1992), and we have observed neighboring male S. maskeyi adjust the timing of their calls with respect to each other. Deepak et al (2020a) demonstrated considerable variation in this species across its extensive distribution, indicating that species-level identification could be difficult without handling frogs. The description of the call of S. maskeyi (as S. pashchima) by Prasad et al (2020) from the Penna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, matches the type-A call described herein, suggesting that this call could be a good character for identifying S. maskeyi.…”

Amphibians and Reptiles of Myanmar: Checklists and Keys

“…Of these six, Sphaerotheca appears least like the others in its spadefoot toad habitus. Yet subsequent molecular studies (e.g.,Kotaki et al, 2010; Hasan et al, 2014;Sanchez et al, 2018) consistently showed Sphaerotheca to be the sister of the "Fejervarya" lineage Deepak et al (2020). examined the relationships within the Indian subcontinent Sphaerotheca and showed that the Burmese species differed genetically from all In dian species and that S. breviceps, the name commonly applied to a southeastern Indian species, is not correct for the Burmese…”

First record of Maskey's Burrowing Frog, Sphaerotheca maskeyi (Schleich and Anders, 1998) from Bhutan

“…Globally, the Burrowing Frog genus, Sphaerotheca Günther, 1859, is represented currently by eight recognized species: S. bengaluru Deepak, Dinesh, Ohler, Shanker, Channakeshavamurthy, andAshadevi, 2020, S. breviceps (Schneider 1799). S. dobsonii (Boulenger 1882), S. leucorhynchus (Rao 1937), S. maskeyi (Schleich and Anders 1998), S. pluvialis (Jerdon 1853), S. rolandae (Dubois 1983), and S. strachani (Murray 1884) with their distribution in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh (Frost, 2021).…”