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Description of a new species of Pseudophilautus (Amphibia: Rhacophoridae) from southern Sri Lanka
Abstract
We describe a new Pseudophilautus species, P. conniffae sp. nov. from southern Sri Lanka. It was previously confused with Pseudophilautus rus (Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda). The new species differs from the latter by the combination of the following characters: fourth toe webbing to penultimate subarticular tubercle on inner and outer sides (vs. fourth toe webbing in between penultimate and anetpenultimate subarticular tubercles on inner and outer sides), presence of conical median lingual process (vs. absent), and black patches on the posterior flank, anterior and posterior edges of the thigh (vs. black patches on the anterior surface of the thigh). Pseudophilautus conniffae sp. nov. may be sympatric with P. limbus (Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda), which shares certain characters with the new species. The new species is, however, distinguished from P. limbus by the following characters: having supernumerary tubercles on manus (vs. lacking), absence of frontoparietal ridges (vs. presence), fourth toe webbing to penultimate subarticular tubercle on both sides (vs. fourth toe webbing between penultimate and anetpenultimate subarticular tubercle on both sides), third toe webbing to distal subarticular tubercle on both sides (vs. distal subarticular tubercle on outer side and below penultimate subarticular tubercle on inner side), and having the dorsum light brown with dark brown patches (vs. black and yellow variegated pattern on dorsum). The new species may be restricted to the southwestern wet zone of Sri Lanka. It is compared with all known Pseudophilautus species and also provided with a field key to identify it from those species that are sympatric with it or inhabit the southwestern wet zone.
... The genus Pseudophilautus currently contains 59 extant species in Sri Lanka [5]. Many of these were described relatively recently [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Some of these species are cryptic and hence difficult to identify from morphology alone, though validated in molecular analyses; others (e.g., [20,21]) are based on morphological data alone. ...
... Many of these were described relatively recently [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Some of these species are cryptic and hence difficult to identify from morphology alone, though validated in molecular analyses; others (e.g., [20,21]) are based on morphological data alone. As of now, molecular data are available, at least for a single locus, for 49 of the 59 extant Sri Lankan Pseudophilautus (See S1 Table). ...
... Further, the validity of the remaining ten species lacking genetic data (see S1 Table) too, need to be tested using molecular approaches, as sequences for these species from their topotypes become available. These are P. nemus [14], P. bambaradeniyai, P. dayawansai, P. jagathgunawardanai, P. karunarathnai, P. newtonjayawardanei, P. puranappu, P. samarakoon, P. sirilwijesundarai [20] and P. conniffae [21]. ...
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258594.].
... The genus Pseudophilautus currently contains 59 extant species in Sri Lanka [5]. Many of these were described relatively recently [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Some of these species are cryptic and hence difficult to identify from morphology alone, though validated in molecular analyses; others (e.g., [20,21]) are based on morphological data alone. ...
... Many of these were described relatively recently [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Some of these species are cryptic and hence difficult to identify from morphology alone, though validated in molecular analyses; others (e.g., [20,21]) are based on morphological data alone. As of now, molecular data are available, at least for a single locus, for 49 of the 59 extant Sri Lankan Pseudophilautus (See S1 Table). ...
... Further, the validity of the remaining ten species lacking genetic data (see S1 Table) too, need to be tested using molecular approaches, as sequences for these species from their topotypes become available. These are P. nemus [14], P. bambaradeniyai, P. dayawansai, P. jagathgunawardanai, P. karunarathnai, P. newtonjayawardanei, P. puranappu, P. samarakoon, P. sirilwijesundarai [20] and P. conniffae [21]. ...
Sri Lanka is an amphibian hotspot of global significance. Its anuran fauna is dominated by the shrub frogs of the genus Pseudophilautus. Except for one small clade of four species in Peninsular India, these cool-wet adapted frogs, numbering some 59 extant species, are distributed mainly across the montane and lowland rain forests of the island. With species described primarily by morphological means, the diversification has never yet been subjected to a molecular species delimitation analysis, a procedure now routinely applied in taxonomy. Here we test the species boundaries of Pseudophilautus in the context of the phylogenetic species concept (PSC). We use all the putative species for which credible molecular data are available (nDNA–Rag-1; mt-DNA– 12S rRNA, 16S rRNA) to build a well resolved phylogeny, which is subjected to species delimitation analyses. The ABGD, bPTP, mPTP and bGMYC species delimitation methods applied to the 16S rRNA frog barcoding gene (for all species), 12S rRNA and Rag-1 nDNA grouped P. procax and P. abundus; P. hallidayi and P. fergusonianus; P. reticulatus and P. pappilosus; P. pleurotaenia and P. hoipolloi; P. hoffmani and P. asankai; P. silvaticus and P. limbus; P. dilmah and P. hankeni; P. fulvus and P. silus.. Surprisingly, all analyses recovered 14 unidentified potential new species as well. The geophylogeny affirms a distribution across the island’s aseasonal ‘wet zone’ and its three principal hill ranges, suggestive of allopatric speciation playing a dominant role, especially between mountain masses. Among the species that are merged by the delimitation analyses, a pattern leading towards a model of parapatric speciation emerges–ongoing speciation in the presence of gene flow. This delimitation analysis reinforces the species hypotheses, paving the way to a reasonable understanding of Sri Lankan Pseudophilautus, enabling both deeper analyses and conservation efforts of this remarkable diversification. http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DA869B6B-870A-4ED3-BF5D-5AA3F69DDD27.
... Sri Lanka is remarkably diverse in its amphibian fauna, with a high proportion of endemics and thus is an amphibian hotspot (Meegaskumbura et al. 2002;Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda 2005). The island is home to 120 species, 105 (87%) of which are endemic (Batuwita et al. 2019a); however, 67% of Sri Lankan amphibians face extinction and 19 species are already extinct (IUCN 2020) though some species that were thought to be extinct have been rediscovered (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013). As in many parts of the world, habitat loss seems to be the major cause for the decline and extinction of amphibians in Sri Lanka (Pethiyagoda et al. 2006). ...
Basic ecological information is of critical importance for the development of conservation strategies for endangered amphibian species. The Gannoruwa Shrub Frog (Pseudophilautus zorro) is an endangered endemic and a geographically restricted frog found in mid elevations of the central highlands of Sri Lanka whose ecology is little known. We assessed: (1) aspects of microhabitat associations; (2) the realized niche to identify potential areas of occupancy using Ecological Niche Modeling (ENM); and (3) estimated the Extent of Occurrence (EOO) and Area of Occupancy (AOO) of P. zorro with new locality data and predicted data. The results indicate that there is a significant positive relationship between leaf litter thickness and number of individuals of P. zorro in quadrats and a significant relationship between percentage of canopy cover and number of individuals of P. zorro in quadrats. Pseudophilautus zorro is more abundant in broad-leaf forests than pine forests. ENM predicted highly suitable areas (suitability > 80%) in the Kandy, Matale, and Kegalle districts in Sri Lanka. The EOO and AOO of P. zorro with new occurrence data was 558 km 2 and 9 km 2 , and with predicted data, 2,374 km 2 and 612 km 2 respectively, indicating an increase in EOO and AOO. The data on microhabitat preferences and predicted habitats will be invaluable to formulate in-situ and ex-situ conservation strategies for this species.
... Out of the 102 extant species recorded in Sri Lanka, only 19 species are known acoustically, i.e. less than 18% (Table 1). As per the literature survey, only 12 publications mentioned the acoustic characters (Nelson, 1973;Arak, 1983;Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda, 2001;Meegaskumbura and Manamendra-Arachchi, 2005;Samarasinghe, 2011;Samarasinghe, 2012;Wikramasinghe et al., 2012;Meegaskumbura et al., 2015;Wijayathilaka et al., 2018;Batuwita et al., 2019). Table 1: Acoustically known anuran species in Sri Lanka (* Endemic species, n = no. of call recorded individuals). ...
Acoustic inventory of Sri Lankan amphibians is still in a primitive stage. So far, only 20 amphibian species are known acoustically and are about 16% of the island amphibian fauna. Altogether, twelve publications provide primary acoustic characters, yet the majority of them are not quantitative. Bioacoustics is a powerful tool that can use in many disciplines, including taxonomy and conservation. This work emphasises that the current knowledge on the vocalisation of Sri Lankan amphibians is not adequate and highlighted its applications towards conservation and planning.
A new species of frog tentatively assigned to the genus Polypedates is described from the Gilimale forest reserve of the Sabaragamuwa province of Sri Lanka. This tree frog is characterized by unique osteological characteristics in the skull which distinguish it from all other congeners, such as the presence of a series of maxillary teeth progressively changing orientation from horizontal to vertical from posterior end to anterior; a laterally- curved spine in the quadratojugal bone; and bony co- ossification on the skull resulting in four dorsal spines which are externally seen as protrusions in the parietal area. Bioacoustic observations of Polypedates ranwellai sp. nov. revealed three distinct call types. High rates of deforestation and anthropogenic activities at the type locality threaten the survival of the species.
Eight new species of Sri Lankan frogs of the genus Philautus are described (P. mooreorum, P. poppiae, P. hoffmanni, P. mittermeieri, P. frankenbergi, P. hallidayi, P. steineri and P. stuarti). The species are diagnosed on the basis of mitochondrial DNA sequence, morphological features and, in two cases, bioacoustics data. Six of the eight species are confined to high elevation cloud forest isolates on the three main mountain ranges of central Sri Lanka. Because of their limited geographic distribution and small extent of remaining habitat, these species are classified as Endangered under the IUCN Red List criteria. These descriptions bring the total number of Sri Lankan Philautus to 61 species, 44 of which are extant.
Pseudophilautus hypomelas (Günther, 1876), was previously known from the type collection of 14 specimens deposited in the Natural History Museum, London. There has been no record of this species since the original description by Günther in 1876, and subsequently this species was considered extinct. In recent explorations however, the species has been rediscovered from the Peak Wilderness, Central Hills of Sri Lanka, with a rediscription of the species from fresh collections.
Pseudophilautus stellatus (Kelaart 1853) has been rediscovered from the Peak Wilderness, Central Hills of Sri Lanka. The species, till now known only from its lost holotype, was the first shrub frog described from Sri Lanka, and had not been reported since then. It was thought to have become extinct for nearly 157 years, being the amphibian species "lost" for the longest amount of time. Here we designate a neotype from the material collected at what we consider its type locality, having considered characters of the lost holotype and provide a complete description. We have conducted a molecular phy- logenetic analysis, on which basis the species is well differentiated from all other Pseudophilautus sequenced so far, and placed in a clade together with P. femoralis, P. frankenbergi, P. mooreorum, and P. poppiae.
Eight new species of Pseudophilautus (Pseudophilautus bambaradeniyai, P. dayawansai, P. jagathgunawardanai, P. karunarathnai, P. newtonjayawardanei, P. puranappu, P. samarakoon, and P. sirilwijesundarai) were discovered as a result of a survey carried out to study the herpetofaunal diversity with the changes in elevation in the Sripada World Heritage Site (Peak Wilderness), Central Hills of Sri Lanka. Detailed descriptions of new species along with colour photographs and line drawings for each species are provided herein. The new species possess unique morphological characters and are well distinguishable from one another that could be easily identified in the field. The conservation status of all species described here, have been considered Critically Endangered, except for P. newtonjayawardanei, as all the new species are recorded from single locations, and their habitats are under severe threat.
An extensive survey of amphibians in Sri Lanka, a 65,000 km 2 continental island, has recently served to uncover ~100 new species of amphibians, mostly Oriental shrub-frogs of the endotrophic genus Philautus. Comparison of specimens acquired in the course of this survey with type and other historical collections have previously shown that 19 species have disappeared from the island. The final two extinct species, Philautus pardus and P. maia, known only from collec-tions made in the island prior to 1876, are described herein as new. A contemporaneous account of the latter species reported that the female carried its clutch of eggs adhered to its belly, a behaviour which, if true, is unique in Anura. The remarkable extinction of anurans in Sri Lanka appears to be largely a result of the loss of c. 95 % of the island's perhumid forests. Sri Lanka's amphibian extinctions have been detectable only because of the baseline offered by specimens col-lected in the period 1850–1940 and preserved in overseas natural-history museums. Historical biodiversity collections in the world's natural history museums thus offer outstanding value as baselines for contemporary biodiversity conserva-tion assessments.
The apparent biotic affinities between the mainland and the island in the Western Ghats–Sri Lanka biodiversity hotspot have
been interpreted as the result of frequent migrations during recent periods of low sea level. We show, using molecular phylogenies
of two invertebrate and four vertebrate groups, that biotic interchange between these areas has been much more limited than
hitherto assumed. Despite several extended periods of land connection during the past 500,000 years, Sri Lanka has maintained
a fauna that is largely distinct from that of the Indian mainland. Future conservation programs for the subcontinent should
take into account such patterns of local endemism at the finest scale at which they may occur.
Two new species of Sri Lankan shrub frogs of the genus Pseudophilautus are described. These species are diagnosed from their congeners on the basis of morphology, morphometrics and mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Pseudophilautus schneideri, new species, is distinguished from all Sri Lankan Pseudophilautus by its small size (< 22.8 mm SVL), distinct tympanum and supratympanic fold, sharp canthal edges, granular throat, chest and belly, and absence or presence of a vomerine ridge. Pseudophilautus hankeni, new species, is distinguished by its diminutive size (< 21.9 mm SVL), distinct tympanum, rounded canthal edges, tuberculated outer edge of lower arm, tuberculated dermal fold on outer edge of foot, granular throat, chest and belly, and the absence of a vomerine ridge. Pseudophilautus schneideri inhabits shrubs in open areas of the low to mid-elevations of the island’s south-western ‘wet zone’ (rainfall > 2,000 mm•yr -1 ), including anthropogenic habitats, while P. hankeni is found on shrubs in the understorey of montane forests of the highest peaks (c. 1,200– 1,600 m elevation) of the Knuckles region. These descriptions bring the total number of valid species of Sri Lankan Pseudophilautus to 67, 48 of which are extant.
Conservationists are far from able to assist all species under threat, if only for lack of funding. This places a premium on priorities: how can we support the most species at the least cost? One way is to identify 'biodiversity hotspots' where exceptional concentrations of endemic species are undergoing exceptional loss of habitat. As many as 44% of all species of vascular plants and 35% of all species in four vertebrate groups are confined to 25 hotspots comprising only 1.4% of the land surface of the Earth. This opens the way for a 'silver bullet' strategy on the part of conservation planners, focusing on these hotspots in proportion to their share of the world's species at risk.
- Labugama Forest Reserve
Labugama Forest Reserve, Labugama.
Pseudophilautus auratus (Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda, 2005): holotype, WHT 2356;
Pseudophilautus microtympanum (Günther, 1859): topotypes, WHT 2710
- Ella Handapan
- Plains
Handapan Ella Plains.
Pseudophilautus microtympanum (Günther, 1859): topotypes, WHT 2710, WHT 3446;
Pseudophilautus nemus (Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda
- Galle Kottawa
Kottawa, Galle.
Pseudophilautus nemus (Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda, 2005): holotype: WHT 1319; Haycock (Hiniduma).
Skin on head co-ossified with cranium
- . . . . Cranium
A. Skin on head not co-ossified with cranium................................................................................................................................. 14
B. Skin on head co-ossified with cranium........................................................................................................................................ 15
Nuptial pads present in males
A. Nuptial pads present in males.................................................................................................................................. P. schneideri
B. Nuptial pads absent in males....................................................................................................................................... P. folicola
REFERENCES
Biju, S.D. & F. Bossuyt (2009). A review of the frog genus Philautus
Gistel, 1848 (Amphibia, Anura, Ranidae, Rhacophorinae). Zeylanica
6: 1-112.
Pseudophilautus folicola (Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda
- Monaragala Kumaradola
Kumaradola, Monaragala; WHT 3178, WHT 3179; Puwakpitiya,
Knuckles Range.
Pseudophilautus folicola (Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda, 2005): holotype: WHT 2645; paratypes: WHT 2646, 2647; Kottawa (Galle).
Pseudophilautus dilmah, a new species of shrub frog (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from a threatened habitat Loolkandura in Sri Lanka
Pseudophilautus dilmah, a new species of shrub frog (Amphibia:
Anura: Rhacophoridae) from a threatened habitat Loolkandura in
Sri Lanka. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7(5): 7089-7110; https://doi.
org/10.11609/JoTT.o3501.7089-110