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| Crigered Bush Frog Raorchestes sanctisilvaticus (Das & Chanda, 1997)
in Mirza, Warekar, Mohapatra, et al., 2019.
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Abstract
We investigated the phylogenetic relationship of the Critically Endangered bush frog Philautus sanctisilvaticus Das and Chanda, 1997 and other species distributed across the fragmented forests of Deccan Peninsula and the northern Eastern Ghats. A short fragment of the mitochondrial 16S rRNA gene was employed to assess phylogenetic relationships across Philautus sanctisilvaticus Das and Chanda, 1997, Raorchestes terebrans (Das and Chanda, 1998) and Philautus similipalensis Dutta, 2003. All sequenced specimens, including material from near the type localities of P. sanctisilvaticus (Amarkantak) and P. similipalensis (Simlipal) were genetically extremely similar, with pairwise uncorrected distances <1% in the 16S gene, and were phylogenetically placed within the genus Raorchestes. The results based on morphology are ambiguous and do not go hand in hand with molecular data, which however do not provide support for a three species hypothesis either. our findings advocate the need for making nomenclatural amendments. Philautus sanctisilvaticus Das and Chanda, 1997, is the first available nomen for this taxon, and we propose to include this species in Raorchestes as Raorchestes sanctisilvaticus (Das and Chanda, 1997), and to consider the nomina Philautus terebrans Das and Chanda, 1998 syn. nov. and Philautus similipalensis Dutta, 2003 syn. nov. as junior subjective synonyms for this nomen following the Principle of Priority in article 23.1 of the ICZN. The findings are notable from the point of conservation of the species and present a novel case with remarkable genetic homogeneity across the fragmented forests of Deccan Peninsula and Eastern Ghats.
Keywords: Amphibia, IUCN, Critically Endangered, conservation, Amphibia, Anura, taxonomy, 16S, phylogeny, Philautus terebrans syn. nov., Philautus similipalensis syn. nov.
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| FIGURE 3. Map of eastern India showing collection localities of three species of the genus Raorchestes. |
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| FIGURE 5. Maximum likelihood phylogeny of members of the “Bombayensis” clade of Raorchestes base on 16S rRNA gene reconstructed through 1000 non-parametric bootstrap replicates. Numbers at nodes represent bootstrap support and Bayesian posterior probability.
Inset image of Raorchestes sanctisilvaticus from Kanger Valley National Park, Chhattisgarh.
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Conclusion:
The bush frogs studied herein, distributed in the northern part of the Eastern Ghats and the Deccan Peninsula, probably represent a single species, to be allocated to Raorchestes sanctisilvaticus. The species, according to the taxonomic hypothesis herein, is locally abundant and can be met within forests across eastern Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, eastern Telangana and northern Andhra Pradesh along an altitudinal gradient of 500–1700 m asl. The current distribution hints on its possible presence in Jharkhand and maybe West Bengal.
Zeeshan A. Mirza , Priya Warekar, Pratyush P. Mohapatra, David Raju, Pranad Patil, Sushil K. Dutta and Saunak Pal. 2019. “Endangered or An Artifact of Unsound Taxonomy? Case of the Critically Endangered Bush Frog Philautus sanctisilvaticus Das and Chanda, 1997”. Zootaxa. 4683(4); 563–576. DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4683.4.6
