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| Phrynoderma konkani Yadav, Bhosale, Koli, Gopalan, Kadam, Khandekar & Dinesh, 2024 |
Abstract
The earlier glorified concept of Dicroglossid frog genus Euphlyctis sensu lato, is at present recognized as comprising the skittering frog genus Euphlyctis Fitzinger sensu stricto and the pond frog genus Phrynoderma Fitzinger based on their morphological colour patterns, behaviour and phylogenetic position. Wherein, the pond frog genus Phrynoderma is known with genetic representation from peninsular India and Bangladesh, with four described species. Although Phrynoderma is an historical available name, its recognition as a genus is very recent, compared to the sister genus Euphlyctis (skittering frogs), members of pond frogs prefer freshwater bodies of low elevation coastal plains with a few exceptions. Herein, we describe a fifth species of pond frog Phrynoderma konkani sp. nov. from the Sindhudurg district, Maharashtra, western India wherein the western coastal plains are representing highest species diversity in the entire range of distribution of the genus. The new species is distinct from its congeners by a set of morphological characters including body size, head width, dermal projections on ventral side and dorsum patterns. Genetic studies based on mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene and nuclear Tyrosinase gene suggest the novelty from the congeneric species. As the divergence of small sized Phrynoderma is recent (3.8 to 2.1 mya), the discovery of new species highlights the need of assigning the recent diverging linages to the species status from the conservation perspective in the backdrop of rapid urbanization and climate change scenarios, wherein distribution ranges for most of the amphibians are shrinking.
Keywords: Coastal plains, cryptic species, Euphlyctis, taxonomy
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| Holotype (male) of Phrynoderma konkani sp. nov. in life. Photo- Mayur Jadhav. |
Phrynoderma konkani sp. nov.
Phrynoderma konkani sp. nov. can be distinguished from members of the medium-sized allopatric congeners by its larger body size (SVL up to 55.5 mm vs. SVL < 45 mm in P. aloysii and P. kerala). The new species can be identified based on its combination of meristic characters like small-sized adult males (SVL, 34.7–35.8 mm) and large-sized females (SVL, 50.6–55.5 mm); head width subequal to head length; acutely pointed snout; angled canthus rostralis with flat loreal region; inter-orbital distance much narrower than upper lid width; distinct tympanum, 82% of eye length; paired lateral vocal sacs; first finger longer than the second; prepollex tubercle and supernumerary tubercles absent; heels touch each other when folded at right angles to the body and tibio-tarsal articulation reaches the front of the eye; and porous warts arranged in a single row on either side. For comparisons of Phrynoderma konkani sp. nov. with its sister lineage and other congeners, see the comparison section below.
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| Adult specimens of Phrynoderma konkani sp. nov. in life. A) Paratype, adult female (ZSI/WRC/A/2636); B) adult female (ZSI/WRC/A/2635); C) adult male D) adult female (Not collected). |
Lineage diagnosis. Phrynoderma konkani sp. nov. can be diagnosed phylogenetically as a member of the Phrynoderma clade ( Dinesh et al. 2021b , 2022 ; Dubois et al. 2021 ), showing a sister relationship to the clade comprising P. kerala and P. aloysii with moderate bootstrap support. The genetic distance based on the mt 16S rRNA gene between Phrynoderma konkani sp. nov. and its closest related species, P. aloysii is 2.3% ( Table 2 ), and for the nuclear tyrosinase gene, it is ...
Field diagnosis. In the field, Phrynoderma konkani sp. nov. is allopatric in distribution among the members of the morphological ‘aloysii group’ without any morphologically confusing congeneric species. The nearest comparable sized congeneric species, P. aloysii known from its northernmost distribution range Kumta (40 m asl), coastal Karnataka is 200 km apart aerially and is isolated geographically from the ‘Goa Pass’ (as Goa Gap by Ramachandran et al., 2016 ); the other undescribed lineage of Phrynoderma (in review) is known from higher elevations of Mudigere, central Western Ghats (1000 m asl) is 400 km apart aerially, and P. kerala is known from Thattekad, Kerala (100 msl) is 750 km apart aerially.
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| Habitat of Phrynoderma konkani sp. nov. Thakurwadi lake; B- Bambuli wetland; C- Dhamapur plateau; D- Chipi plateau. |
Etymology. The specific epithet is a toponym for the “Konkan” a name given to the coastal region in which new species is found, ‘Konkani’ is derived from the Marathi language. The species epithet is treated as a noun in opposition to the genus name.
Suggested common name. Konkan Pond frog
Omkar Yadav, Amrut Bhosale, Yogesh Koli, Sujith V. Gopalan, Gurunath Kadam, Akshay Khandekar and K.P. Dinesh. 2024. A New Species of Pond Frog Phrynoderma (Anura: Dicroglossidae) from the Coastal Plains of Maharashtra, Western India. Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity. DOI: doi.org/10.1016/j.japb.2024.03.008
