Raorchestes ghatei, a new species of shrub frog (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India

Padhye, Anand; Sayyed, Amit; Jadhav, Anushree; Dahanukar, Neelesh

doi:10.11609/jott.o3702.4913-31

Cited by 17 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…The bush frog discovery patterns follow this general trend, with a number of species described during latter part of the 18 th century and early part of the 19 th century followed by a long gap of several decades before researchers initiated fresh collections (eg. Kuramoto & Joshi, 2003;Biju & Bossuyt, 2005a;Gururaja, 2007;Seshadri et al, 2012;Padhye et al, 2013). The use of molecular based phylogenetic tools can be considered as one important reason for the recent burst in species discovery (Biju & Bossuyt, 2009).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Lineage delimitation and description of nine new species of bush frogs (Anura: Raorchestes, Rhacophoridae) from the Western Ghats Escarpment

Vijayakumar

Dinesh

Prabhu

et al. 2014

Zootaxa

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Bush frogs of the genus Raorchestes are distributed mainly in the Western Ghats Escarpment of Peninsular India. The inventory of species in this genus is incomplete and there is ambiguity in the systematic status of species recognized by morphological criteria. To address the dual problem of taxon sampling and systematic uncertainty in bush frogs, we used a large-scale spatial sampling design, explicitly incorporating the geographic and ecological heterogeneity of the Western Ghats. We then used a hierarchical multi-criteria approach by combining mitochondrial phylogeny, genetic distance, geographic range, morphology and advertisement call to delimit bush frog lineages. Our analyses revealed the existence of a large number of new lineages with varying levels of genetic divergence. Here, we provide diagnoses and descriptions for nine lineages that exhibit divergence across multiple axes. The discovery of new lineages that exhibit high divergence across wide ranges of elevation and across the major massifs highlights the large gaps in historical sampling. These discoveries underscore the significance of addressing inadequate knowledge of species distribution, namely the "Wallacean shortfall", in addressing the problem of taxon sampling and unknown diversity in tropical hotspots. A biogeographically informed sampling and analytical approach was critical in detecting and delineating lineages in a consistent manner across the genus. Through increased taxon sampling, we were also able to discern a number of well-supported sub-clades that were either unresolved or absent in earlier phylogenetic reconstructions and identify a number of shallow divergent lineages which require further examination for assessment of their taxonomic status.

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confidence: 99%

Lineage delimitation and description of nine new species of bush frogs (Anura: Raorchestes, Rhacophoridae) from the Western Ghats Escarpment

Vijayakumar

Dinesh

Prabhu

et al. 2014

Zootaxa

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“…Raorchestes rezakhani sp. nov. differs from R. menglaensis (Kou 1990) in: male with external single subgular vocal sac (vs. internal single subgular vocal sac); outer metatarsal tubercle absent (vs. present); [Padhye et al 2013;Kou 1990]. This new species differs from R. garo (Boulenger 1919) in: SVL 18.85-20.90 (vs. 13-16 mm); eye diameter larger than the interorbital distance, IOD/ ED = 88% (vs. less than interorbital distance, ED/IOD = 92%); dark line present between eyelids (vs. absent); nostril closer to tip of snout than to eye, NS/EN = 67% (vs. equidistance from the tip of the snout and the eye or slightly closer to the tip of snout); tympanum indistinct (vs. distinct); inner metatarsal tubercles absent (vs. present) [Boulenger 1919;Chanda 2002].…”

Section: Description Of Holotypementioning

confidence: 92%

“…The uncorrected p-distances for the 16S rRNA gene that are interpreted as interspecific distances were lowest between R. bombayensis Annandale 1919 and R. sanctisilvaticus Das and Chanda 1997 (p = 1.4%, Table 2). The highest interspecific distances were between R. tinniens (Jerdon 1854) and R. ghatei Padhye et al 2013 (p = 10.6%, Table 2). The newly discovered species was most similar to R. tuberohumerus (Kuramoto and Joshy 2003) (p = 4.6%) followed by R. gryllus (Smith 1924) (p = 4.7%) at the gene fragment examined.…”

Section: Molecular Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

A new species of cryptic Bush frog (Anura, Rhacophoridae, Raorchestes) from northeastern Bangladesh

Al-Razi¹,

Maria²,

Muzaffar³

2020

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Raorchestes is a speciose genus of bush frogs with high diversity occurring in the Western Ghats of India. Relatively fewer species have been recorded across India, through Bangladesh, southern China, into Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia. Many bush frogs are morphologically cryptic and therefore remain undescribed. Here, a new species, Raorchestes rezakhanisp. nov., is described from northeastern Bangladesh based on morphological characters, genetics, and bioacoustics. The 16S rRNA gene distinguished this species from 48 known species of this genus. Bayesian Inference and Maximum Likelihood analyses indicated that the new species was most similar to R. tuberohumerus, a species found in the Western Ghats, and to R. gryllus, a species found in Vietnam. Bioacoustics indicated that their calls were similar in pattern to most Raorchestes species, although number of pulses, duration of pulses, pulse intervals and amplitude differentiated it from a few other species. It is suggested that northeastern India, Bangladesh, northern Myanmar, and southern China represent important, relatively unexplored areas that could yield additional species of Raorchestes. Since many remaining habitat patches in Bangladesh are under severe threat from deforestation, efforts should be made to protect these last patches from further degradation.

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“…The Western Ghats region has not been explored comprehensively and an understanding of the diversity and distribution of freshwater taxa is relatively poor. New family, genera and species of freshwater (or freshwater dependent) vertebrates are still being identified and described from this region (Biju et al ., ; Britz et al ., , , , ; Padhye et al ., ; Raghavan et al ., ), so it is likely that the current diversity of less studied taxa such as freshwater crabs and shrimps are severely underestimated (Bossuyt et al ., ). Indeed, there have been several recent descriptions of new species of gecarcinucid crabs and palaemonid shrimps (Thomas, ; Jayachandran and Thomas, ; Pati and Sharma, ; Pillai and Unnikrishnan, , ).…”

Section: Conclusion and Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The conservation status of decapod crustaceans in the Western Ghats of India: an exceptional region of freshwater biodiversity

Raghavan

Dahanukar

Philip

et al. 2014

Aquatic Conservation

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ABSTRACT1. Freshwater invertebrates receive relatively little publicity and conservation attention, in spite of their key role in aquatic food webs and ecosystem functioning.2. Decapod crustaceans such as caridean shrimps and gecarcinucid freshwater crabs comprise some of the most poorly known aquatic taxa, even in exceptional regions of freshwater biodiversity and endemism, such as the Western Ghats mountains of peninsular India.3. An analysis was carried out to understand distribution patterns and identify priority areas for decapod crustacean conservation in the Western Ghats region based on conservation status data retrieved from the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.4. The Western Ghats region is home to 49 species and six sub-species of caridean shrimps (69% endemism) in four genera and two families, and 39 species of gecarcinucid crabs (92% endemism) in 14 genera. This diversity is probably an underestimate given the lack of biotic surveys and taxonomic research carried out on these groups.5. Three species (3%) of decapod crustaceans from the Western Ghats region are threatened with extinction, while more than half (51%; 48 species) are Data Deficient. The uncertainty regarding the true extinction risk of such a high number of Data Deficient species could hamper conservation efforts as well as policy development and implementation.6. Forty sites in the Western Ghats region are priorities for the conservation of decapod crustaceans, of which only seven lie within the existing network of protected areas.7. The specialized natural history and point endemic nature of many species of freshwater decapods, together with escalating human impacts on their aquatic ecosystems in the Western Ghats, makes conservation and management of these threatened and poorly-known species an immediate and urgent challenge.

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Raorchestes ghatei, a new species of shrub frog (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, India

Cited by 17 publications

References 17 publications

Lineage delimitation and description of nine new species of bush frogs (Anura: Raorchestes, Rhacophoridae) from the Western Ghats Escarpment

Lineage delimitation and description of nine new species of bush frogs (Anura: Raorchestes, Rhacophoridae) from the Western Ghats Escarpment

A new species of cryptic Bush frog (Anura, Rhacophoridae, Raorchestes) from northeastern Bangladesh

The conservation status of decapod crustaceans in the Western Ghats of India: an exceptional region of freshwater biodiversity

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