Lost and found: One of the world's most elusive amphibians, Pseudophilautus stellatus (Kelaart 1853) rediscovered

Abstract

Pseudophilautus stellatus (Kelaart 1853) has been rediscovered from the Peak Wilderness, Central Hills of Sri Lanka. The species, till now known only from its lost holotype, was the first shrub frog described from Sri Lanka, and had not been reported since then. It was thought to have become extinct for nearly 157 years, being the amphibian species "lost" for the longest amount of time. Here we designate a neotype from the material collected at what we consider its type locality, having considered characters of the lost holotype and provide a complete description. We have conducted a molecular phy-logenetic analysis, on which basis the species is well differentiated from all other Pseudophilautus sequenced so far, and placed in a clade together with P. femoralis, P. frankenbergi, P. mooreorum, and P. poppiae.

Two new fringe-limbed frogs of the genus Ecnomiohyla (Anura: Hylidae) from Panama

“…After the description of a new species, subsequent sampling usually provides additional comparative specimens, which thus increases our knowledge about the biology and distribution of that species with time (Vrcibradic et al 2008;Hertz et al 2012a). Nonetheless, there are some apparently rare species, whose existence we know for decades based only on the type specimen(s) or material from the type locality (Pimenta et al 2005;Frost 2013, Wickramasinghe et al 2013. Burrowing caecilians, salamanders (Oedipina spp.)…”

“…and forest canopy-dwelling frogs (e.g. Pseudophilautus stellatus) are examples of such infrequently encountered species, which are then perceived as very rare (García-París & Wake 2000;Hanken et al 2005;Wilkinson et al 2007;Kamei et al 2009;Wickramasinghe et al 2013), because the habitat of these amphibians usually falls outside of the scope of the standard search methods used by herpetologists. Thus, the perception of rarity might be only an artifact of limited or inappropriate search techniques.…”

Eight new species of Pseudophilautus (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from Sripada World Heritage Site (Peak Wilderness), a local amphibian hotspot in Sri Lanka

“…Hence in order to minimise this error we included all characteristics and all species in one table provided in Appendix 1 and 2, by selecting the best combination of characters where Appendix 1, provides morphological characters that differentiate Pseudophilautus species and Appendix 2 provides characters in the skin structure that differentiate Pseudophilautus species. We paid special attention to extinct species and their characters in the comparison (Wickramasinghe et al 2013) of each species.…”

State of the World's Amphibians

“…The rediscovery of the Hula painted frog (Latonia nigriventer) is an extraordinary example (56), for the species was a living fossil that remained undetected for more than 60 years and was the first amphibian considered extinct by the IUCN Red List to be recategorized as an extant species (3). A second species, still listed as extinct by the IUCN Red List (3) and thought to be the amphibian lost for the longest amount of time, was rediscovered after 157 years in Sri Lanka (151).…”