FROGS!  I have been immersed in an amphibian world recently, trying my best to sort out the immense variety of frogs which live here on the farm.  The rains are still not quite done, so I’m doing my best to find as many frogs as possible before they all go into their dormant stages until the next monsoon.

Another unknown Philautus species. Perhaps P. chromasynchysi?

Over millions of years, the hilly topography of this region has led to widespread speciation of frogs - especially tree-frogs of the genus Philautus.  This genus is particularly confusing because there is a great deal of polymorphic variation in patterns and colors - as well as the fact that each frog is capable of metachrosis (color changing in real time!).  According to the surveys done by the leading Philautus expert (a scientist named Biju, who has now described over 100 new species), there are 4 species of Philautus which live in our local region - outside the town of Madikeri.  Two of these species were just described in February 2009 - they are very new and nobody knows much about them beyond the original descriptions published by Biju.

The crazy part is that Anurag and I have already found at least 6 species living here - and now we’re trying to figure out where these frogs fit in the taxonomy.  Are they a separate population of another Philautus species which lives ~100km south of here?  Are they entirely new to science and require a description?  It’s best not to jump the gun, so I’m busy doing incredibly meticulous measurements to find out.  We are planning to gather some DNA samples as well, which we will send to a geneticist friend in Delhi for analysis.

Philautus wynaadensis

Check out these pictures of one of our unknown frogs.  It seems to be closest to P. ponmundi, a species first described this past February, from about 100km south of here.  But it has less extensive webbing on the feet than Biju’s description and measurements of P. ponmundi - an important trait for a tree-frog.  This warrants some further investigation.  Like other members of the tree-frog family Rhacophoridae, to which Philautus belongs, our unknown frog exhibits a fine ability to change its appearance according to its immediate surroundings.  Depending on the temperature, humidity, light levels, etc., it can turn from a more-or-less uniform sandy brown into a cryptic pattern with high contrast markings.

Tags: amphibian, frog, india, philautus, rainforest, rhacophorus, treefrog, western ghats

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