Systematics and phylogeny of Philautus Gistel, 1848 (Anura, Rhacophoridae) in the Western Ghats of India, with descriptions of 12 new species
Author
Biju, S. D.
Author
Bossuyt, Franky
text
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
2009
2009-02-28
155
2
374
444
https://academic.oup.com/zoolinnean/article-lookup/doi/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00466.x
journal article
10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00466.x
0024-4082
5445358
PHILAUTUS BOBINGERI
BIJU & BOSSUYT, 2005
(
FIGS 2
,
5
,
13
,
14A
,
19
;
TABLE 2
)
Type material:
Holotype
,
BNHS 4272
, an adult male,
SVL
21.3 mm
from
Ponmudi
,
Thiruvananthapuram District
,
Kerala
;
paratypes
,
BNHS 4273–4274
and
BNHS 4443
(ex
TBGRI 2002.0055
),
three adult
males, and
BNHS 4275
and
FMNH 218114
,
two adult
females, from the same locality as the holotype.
Other material studied:
FMNH 218111–218113
,
three adult
males, from Ponmudi (
Table 2
)
.
Diagnosis:
Philautus bobingeri
can be distinguished from known congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) medium adult size (SVL 25.5 ± 2.0 mm,
N
= 7); (2) rather flat body; (3) finger tips oval; (4) uniformly granular dorsum; (5) upper arm yellowish, turns whitish in preservation; (6) anterior and posterior surface of thighs light red to dark fleshy red in life, turns greyish to white in preservation.
Because of the dorsal green coloration, this species may be confused with other green
Philautus
species
of this region. However, this species differs from all other members by a number of constant characters, the most obvious being shown in
Figure 19
.
Philautus bobingeri
resembles
P. akroparallagi
sp. nov.
,
P. glandulosus
, and
P. jayarami
sp. nov.
closely in overall morphology and coloration. However, the former differs largely from
P. glandulosus
and
P. jayarami
sp. nov.
by a number of distinct characters: relatively small snout–vent length, SVL 22.5 ± 2.0 mm,
N
= 7, male (vs. relatively larger: SVL 25.2 ± 2.0 mm,
N
= 4, in
P. glandulosus
; SVL 26.3 ± 2.0 mm,
N
= 6, in
P. jayarami
sp. nov.
) (
Fig. 5
), rather flat body (vs. slender body in
P. glandulosus
and
P. jayarami
sp. nov.
), oval finger tips (vs. rounded finger tips in
P. glandulosus
and
P. jayarami
sp. nov.
), light to dark fleshy red in life, without markings (vs. dorsal surface of forearm and loreal region yellow, in
P. glandulosus
; anterior and posterior parts of thigh, groin, and lateral side of abdomen white with occasionally large bluish black spots in life, in
P. jayarami
sp. nov.
). For differences with
P. akroparallagi
sp. nov.
see ‘comparison’ of those species.
Figure 14.
Distribution map. A,
Philautus bobingeri
; B,
Philautus bombayensis
; C, map showing Travancore (shaded in grey), from which the type of
Philautus chalazodes
was collected; D,
Philautus charius
.
Description of the
holotype
:
A detailed description and illustrations were published in
Biju & Bossuyt (2005b)
.
Colour in life:
Dorsum uniform leaf green, without markings (
Fig. 13
), lateral side red, without markings, loreal and tympanic regions leaf green (
Fig. 19
), iris golden brown with dark-brown spots, encircled by a thin bluish black outer ring, lower arm leaf green, upper arm yellowish, hand yellowish red, finger tips light red, thigh with a leaf-green line extending from dorsum to knee, anterior and posterior margins red, without markings, shank almost completely leaf green, tarsus with an extremely thin leaf-green line, forelimbs and hindlimbs without cross bands; throat white or slightly light yellow, hands and feet light yellow.
Variation:
Measurements of
nine specimens
, including six from the
type
series, are given in
Table 2
.
Distribution and natural history:
Ponmudi in
Kerala
, and Kakachi and Sengaltheri in
Tamil Nadu
(
Fig. 14A
,
Table 1
). Most specimens were located on leaves, about
5 m
high in shrubs and small trees from evergreen forest patches.
Remark:
This species was previously considered as
P. femoralis
(FMNH 218111–218114) by
Inger
et al.
(1984)
. The
paratype
TBGRI 2002.0055 (
Biju & Bossuyt, 2005b
) was transferred to BNHS as BNHS 4443.