Abstract
A new species Nyctibatrachus mewasinghi is described from the Malabar Wildlife Sanctuary of Western Ghats of Kozhikode District, Kerala. The new species can be distinguished from known congeners based on small adult size, head equal to or slightly wider than long, less wrinkled dorsal skin with prominent granular projections, absence of dorso-lateral glandular folds, a ridge extending from the lip over the tip of the snout to between the nostrils bifurcate posteriorly producing an inverted ‘Y’, finger and toe discs well developed with dorso-terminal groove, cover rounded distally, third finger disc slightly wider than finger width and fourth toe disc almost equal to or slightly wider than toe width, presence of two palmar tubercles, moderate webbing and thigh, shank and foot almost of equal length. Molecular phylogeny based on two mitochondrial genes (ND1 and 16S rRNA) reveals that the species is genetically distinct from others within the genus, and is a sister taxon to N. athirappillyensis and N. kempholeyensis. Multivariate morphometric analysis clearly distinguishes the new night frog species Nyctibatrachus mewasinghi from N. athirappillyensis and N. kempholeyensis.
Highlights
Genus Nyctibatrachus is diagnosed based on a combination of characters including small to large body sizes (10.0–77.0 mm snout to vent length); oval or diamond shaped pupil; shagreened, glandular or wrinkled dorsal skin; tympanum not visible externally, or with borders obscured by rugose skin; vomerine teeth present; tongue notched or emarginated posteriorly; tips of fingers with or without discs, discs with or without distinct dorso-terminal grooves; webbing absent on fingers; tips of toes with or without discs, discs with or without dorso-terminal grooves; and subocular gland present on all species (Biju et al 2011)
While studying the distribution of species of Nyctibatrachus along the Western Ghats mountain ranges using molecular analysis of mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (ND1) and 16S rRNA genes, we discovered a population that is sister taxa to, but genetically divergent from N. kempholeyensis and N. athirappillyensis
We describe this population as a new species, Nyctibatrachus mewasinghi, based on morphology, multivariate morphometric analysis and molecular analysis
Summary
Genus Nyctibatrachus is diagnosed based on a combination of characters including small to large body sizes (10.0–77.0 mm snout to vent length); oval or diamond shaped pupil; shagreened, glandular or wrinkled dorsal skin; tympanum not visible externally, or with borders obscured by rugose skin; vomerine teeth present; tongue notched or emarginated posteriorly; tips of fingers with or without discs, discs with or without distinct dorso-terminal grooves; webbing absent on fingers; tips of toes with or without discs, discs with or without dorso-terminal grooves; and subocular gland present on all species (Biju et al 2011). The Western Ghats endemic genus Nyctibatrachus has 35 known species (Garg et al 2017). While studying the distribution of species of Nyctibatrachus along the Western Ghats mountain ranges using molecular analysis of mitochondrial NADH dehydrogenase subunit 1 (ND1) and 16S rRNA genes, we discovered a population that is sister taxa to, but genetically divergent from N. kempholeyensis and N. athirappillyensis. We describe this population as a new species, Nyctibatrachus mewasinghi, based on morphology, multivariate morphometric analysis and molecular analysis
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