Two new slender-armed frog species identified in Arunachal’s remote mountains

Scientists from the University of Delhi person discovered 2 caller slender-armed frogs from the distant upland habitats of Arunachal Pradesh.

One of the recently described taxon has been named successful honour of the precocious writer E. Somanath, recognising his long-standing engagement with biology reporting.

The discovery, published successful the US-based peer-reviewed diary PeerJ, follows much than 3 years of intensive tract expeditions to the isolated regions of Arunachal Pradesh. The probe was led by noted herpetologist S.D. Biju arsenic portion of the doctoral enactment of his pupil A.N. Dikshit Akalabya Sarmah.

During surveys conducted crossed 5 northeastern States, the squad recorded aggregate populations of slender-armed frogs belonging to the genus Leptobrachium, a radical distributed crossed South and Southeast Asia. Detailed laboratory analyses aboriginal confirmed that specimens collected from Arunachal Pradesh represented 2 antecedently chartless species.

One of the species, named Soman’s Slender Arm Frog (Leptobrachium somani), was discovered astatine Tiwarigaon successful Arunachal Pradesh. It is named aft E. Somanath, who utilized to travel Prof. Biju connected tract expeditions successful hunt of frogs.

The tiny frog measures astir 55 mm successful magnitude and has a uniformly greyish-brown assemblage with irregular light-grey markings and silver-grey to light-blue eyes. It inhabits evergreen forests, with males typically calling from the banks of wood streams.

The 2nd species, Mechuka Slender Arm Frog (Leptobrachium mechuka), was archetypal collected adjacent Mechuka municipality successful Arunachal Pradesh. Slightly larger, astatine astir 60 mm, it has a uniformly brownish assemblage with a reddish tinge and distinctive silvery-white eyes. The taxon occurs successful evergreen forests and adjoining grasslands. It was precocious reported from China nether a mistaken identity.

The scientists utilized an integrative taxonomic attack that combined DNA analysis, morphological comparisons of adults and tadpoles, bioacoustic studies and three-dimensional micro-CT scans of the skeleton. The molecular information were compared with each known taxon of the genus to found the evolutionary distinctiveness of the caller frogs.

Influence of stream systems

The survey besides highlights the relation of the Brahmaputra stream arsenic a large biogeographical barrier. Both recently described taxon are restricted to the bluish broadside of the river, portion each different known members of the genus hap southbound of it.

According to Prof. Biju, the findings show however ample stream systems power the organisation and diversification patterns of the slender-armed frogs.

Arunachal Pradesh forms portion of the Himalaya biodiversity hotspot, 1 of the world’s astir biologically affluent regions, harbouring exceptional works and carnal diverseness recovered obscurity other connected Earth. Among the amphibians recovered successful the portion are members of the household Megophryidae, 1 of the astir divers frog families globally with 366 recognised species, including the Asian horned frogs. The slender-armed frogs (Leptobrachium), belonging to this family, comprise astir 40 species.