Sphaerotheca pashchima Padhye, Dahanukar, Sulakhe, Dandekar, Limaye, and Jamdade

Prasad, Vishal Kumar, Gautam, Kumudani Bala, Gupta, Sandeep Kumar, Murthy, R. Sreenivasa, Ramesh, K., Shinde, Ajinkya Duttatray & Das, Abhijit, 2020, Identification of anuran species diversity of the Panna Tiger Reserve, Central India, using an integrated approach, Zootaxa 4851 (3), pp. 450-476 : 459

Sphaerotheca pashchima Padhye, Dahanukar, Sulakhe, Dandekar, Limaye, and Jamdade

( Fig 4J )

Specimens examined: five males (WIIAD 064, WIIAD 065, WIIAD 229, WIIAD 233 & WIIAD 275) and two females (WIIAD 225 & WIIAD 232).

Morphological features: Adult males SVL 32.1–45.5 mm (n=5) and two females SVL 45.8–47.1 mm (n=2); body stout; head wider than long; snout rounded dorsally as well as laterally; eyes large, pupil diamond shaped or round; tympanum nearly 2/3 the diameter of eye, supratympanic fold distinct; dorsal skin granular with some tubercles; fingers without web and round, relative length of fingers II <IV <I <III; relative length of toes 1<2<3<5<4, inner metatarsal tubercle large and very prominent. Calling males had bilobate subgular paired vocal sac. Coloration in life: Dorsum grey or brownish to pinkish with or without irregular dark spots; limbs cross barred with dark grey; upper lips marked with dark bands; yellowish marblings in groin region; ventral side of body white; calling males had black throat colour.

Bioacoustics: We analysed 30 calls from three males. Males called intermittently and delivered single type pulsatile calls. We recorded calls between 21:00–00:00 hours in July. The air temperature of calling site of frogs at the time of call recordings was between 26.5°C–29.3°C. The mean call duration was 377.60 ± 45.65 ms (319–455 ms). Mean pulse rate was 78.35 ± 3.03 pulses/s (72.43–83.08 pulses/s) with mean of 29.23 ± 2.87 pulses per call. The mean dominant frequency was 2074.37 ± 441.68 Hz (947.50–2368.70 Hz). This is the first-time description of advertisement calls of Sphaerotheca pashchima ( Fig 7 & Annexure II).

Remark: Common in PTR and breeds in shallow puddles in grasslands and stream pools in early July. Occurrence of S. pashchima from PTR has been genetically confirmed in our study ( Fig 8B ). In earlier faunistic studies based on morphology only, S. breviceps was widely reported in literature. The present study provides the first record of S. pashchima from Madhya Pradesh. Now Panna region is the easternmost known locality for S. pashchima .

Figures

FIGURE 4. Photos of anuran species in life recorded during the study:A) Duttaphrynus melanostictus; B) Duttaphrynus scaber; C) Duttaphrynus stomaticus; D) Fejervarya orissaensis; E) Minervarya caperata; F) Minervarya pierrei; G) Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis; H) Hoplobatrachus crassus; I) Hoplobatrachus tigerinus; J) Sphaerotheca pashchima; K) Microhyla nilphamariensis; L) Uperodon globulosus; M) Uperodon systoma; N) Uperodon variegatus; O) Polypedates maculatus. Red star indicates new state records for Madhya Pradesh.

FIGURE 7. Advertisement calls of Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis, Sphaerotheca pashchima, Microhyla nilphamariensis, Polypedates maculatus recorded in PTR: From top to bottom A & B represent oscillograms, C—spectrogram, D—power spectrum, (FFT size = 1024 pts, Hanning window, 43.1 Hz resolution).

FIGURE 8A. Maximum Likelihood tree based on the 16S mitochondrial DNA dataset (nodes having>50% bootstrap values are shown) of genera A. Fejervarya and Minervarya.