FROGLOG - Amphibian Specialist Group

NEWS from the fieldNew Philatus Species Discovered from the Western Ghats, India: PotentialIndicators of Habitat FragmentationGururaja, K.V.hilautus neelanethrus (Gururajaet al., 2007a) and Philau-Ptus ochlandrae (Gururaja et al.,2007b) have been discovered fromthe Western Ghats. The genusPhilautus is known for direct development,wherein froglets emergedirectly from eggs and skip the tadpolestage; a significant adaptationtowards arboreal life style (Gururajaand Ramachandra, 2006).The identity and overall taxonomicrelationships of P. neelanethruscan be most reliably inferred basedon molecular analysis. The phylogeneticand molecular-dating analysissuggests that P. neelanethrus is a relativelyold taxon among other speciesof Philautus endemic to the WesternGhats. The relatively older origin ofthe taxon with its extant populationin restricted, non-overlap¬ping andnon-contiguous patches in the midaltitudinalrange (500–700 m asl)characterized by ever¬green/semievergreen/moistdeciduous forestPhilautus neelanethrus Blue-eyed shrub frogdiscovered from Western Ghatspatches in the centralWestern Ghats, andmost importantly inMyristica swamps(considered to be livingfossils among thevegetation types prevailingin the region)suggests its importanceas a indicatorof habitat fragmentation.This indicatesthat there had beensignificant habitatfragmentation in theWestern Ghats, leading to the presentday disjunct populations.Philautus ochlandrae is a speciesnamed after the host plant Ochlandrasetigera reed brakes of KakkayamReserve Forest. This forest harborssome of the best remaining tropicalwet evergreen forest in the WesternGhats. Developing embryos alongwith male and female individualswere found inside the hollow tubularinternodes of Ochlandrareed brakes. Moreover, thisnew species is so far knownonly from the type locality.The issue of great concernis that many of the specieswill simply vanish even beforethey are formally detectedand identified, asthere is a tremendous pressuregenerated from ever increasinghuman populationand human-induced changesin the Western Ghats.These discoveries furtherPhilautus ochlandare Ochlandra reed shrub frogdiscovered from Western Ghatshighlight the need for conservationas well as a systematic studyin the region.ReferencesGururaja KV and RamachandraTV. (2006). Direct developmentin White-nosed shrub frog Philautuscf. leucorhinus. Current Science90(3):450–454.Gururaja KV, Aravind NA,Sameer Ali, Ramachandra TV,Velavan TP, Krishnakumar V andAggarwal RK. (2007a). A NewFrog Species from the CentralWestern Ghats of India, and itsphylogenetic status. Zoological Sciences24:525–534.Gururaja KV, Dinesh KP, PalotMJ, Radhakrishna C and RamachandraTV. (2007b). A newspecies of Philautus Gistel (Amphibia:Anura: Rhacophoridae)from southern Western Ghats, India.Zootaxa 16:1-16.Email: gururaj@ces.iisc.ernet.in11