''Beddomixalus'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

genus of

frog A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...

s in the family

Rhacophoridae The Rhacophoridae are a family of frogs that occur in tropical sub-Saharan Africa, South India and Sri Lanka, Japan, northeastern India to eastern China and Taiwan, south through the Philippines and Greater Sundas, and Sulawesi. They are commonly ...

. The only described species, ''Beddomixalus bijui'', is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the Western Ghats, India. Its name is derived from a combination of the

cognomen A ''cognomen'' (; plural ''cognomina''; from ''con-'' "together with" and ''(g)nomen'' "name") was the third name of a citizen of ancient Rome, under Roman naming conventions. Initially, it was a nickname, but lost that purpose when it became here ...

Richard Henry Beddome Colonel Richard Henry Beddome (11 May 1830 – 23 February 1911) was a British military officer and naturalist in India, who became chief conservator of the Madras Forest Department. In the mid-19th century, he extensively surveyed several ...

, in honour of his work on the

amphibian Amphibians are tetrapod, four-limbed and ectothermic vertebrates of the Class (biology), class Amphibia. All living amphibians belong to the group Lissamphibia. They inhabit a wide variety of habitats, with most species living within terres ...

diversity of the Western Ghats, as well as ''Ixalus'', which is often used as a suffix for names of rhacophorid genera.

Description

''Beddomixalus'' differs from the other rhacophorid genera by being a slender and elongated medium-sized frog, the female measuring up to in length; its yellowish-buff or reddish-brown dorsum carrying two distinct yellowish-cream longitudinal stripes;

vomer The vomer (; lat, vomer, lit=ploughshare) is one of the unpaired facial bones of the skull. It is located in the midsagittal line, and articulates with the sphenoid, the ethmoid, the left and right palatine bones, and the left and right maxill ...

ine teeth and an absent lingual papilla; distinct supratympanic fold as well as tympanum; a rounded

canthus rostralis In snakes and amphibians, the canthus, canthal ridge or ''canthus rostralis'',Spawls S, Branch B. 1995. ''The Dangerous Snakes of Africa''. Ralph Curtis Books. Dubai: Oriental Press. 192 pp. . is the angle between the flat crown of the head and the ...

; an obtusely concave loreal region; a simple and tubular

Wolffian duct The mesonephric duct (also known as the Wolffian duct, archinephric duct, Leydig's duct or nephric duct) is a paired organ that forms during the embryonic development of humans and other mammals and gives rise to male reproductive organs. Stru ...

. At the same time, the early development of non-pigmented

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

s occur exposed on moist swamp beds, without protection nor parental care; it has free-living aquatic tadpoles which are adapted to lentic conditions; and the genus inhabits mid- to high elevation forests.

Colour

Male

Its dorsum is of buff-brown colour with a dark stripe between the eyes; a dark stripe extends medially from its interorbital region to its

vent Vent or vents may refer to: Science and technology Biology *Vent, the cloaca region of an animal *Vent DNA polymerase, a thermostable DNA polymerase Geology *Hydrothermal vent, a fissure in a planet's surface from which geothermally heated water ...

. It possesses two light-coloured, yellowish-cream longitudinal stripes extending along its dorsolateral region, on either side of its body, which are bordered on the lower side by black dots; a broad dark band extends from below the snout along the tympanum as well, up to the middle of the animal's flank, where it morphs into a pale patch covered in

vermiculation Vermiculation is a surface pattern of dense but irregular lines, so called from the Latin ''vermiculus'' meaning "little worm" because the shapes resemble worms, worm-casts, or worm tracks in mud or wet sand. The word may be used in a number of ...

Female

It has a reddish- to orange-brown dorsum with similar dark and light bands and vermiculations as in the male, while its ventral surface is white.

Tadpoles

Tadpoles are small, exotrophic and

nektonic Nekton or necton (from the ) refers to the actively swimming aquatic organisms in a body of water. The term was proposed by German biologist Ernst Haeckel to differentiate between the active swimmers in a body of water, and the passive organisms ...

. They are oval, depressed and dark pigmented from the

snout A snout is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals, the structure is called a muzzle, rostrum, or proboscis. The wet furless surface around the nostrils of the nose of many mammals is c ...

to the tip of the tail, including their fins. The ventral side is pale pink and less pigmented. Eyes are reddish and of moderate size. The musculus interhyoideus and intestine are visible through the ventrum. Its

naris A nostril (or naris , plural ''nares'' ) is either of the two orifices of the nose. They enable the entry and exit of air and other gasses through the nasal cavities. In birds and mammals, they contain branched bones or cartilages called turbi ...

is equidistant from its snout and eye. Its tail fin is moderate and rounded at the end. The lower jaw sheath is V-shaped.

Tadpole A tadpole is the larval stage in the biological life cycle of an amphibian. Most tadpoles are fully aquatic, though some species of amphibians have tadpoles that are terrestrial. Tadpoles have some fish-like features that may not be found i ...

s of this species were observed with completely developed

hindlimb A hindlimb or back limb is one of the paired articulated appendages (limbs) attached on the caudal ( posterior) end of a terrestrial tetrapod vertebrate's torso.http://www.merriam-webster.com/medical/hind%20limb, Merriam Webster Dictionary-Hindl ...

s at stage 40, with a pale dorsolateral band appearing at stage 42. Its eyes are bright red and its body pigmentation is a greenish-yellow by stage 44, whilst metamorphs begin emerging on land. During stage 46, froglets are found on

swamp A swamp is a forested wetland.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p. Swamps are considered to be transition zones because both land and water play a role in ...

vegetation.

Behaviour

The type species is primarily

arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. Th ...

, inhabiting trees in and around highland swamps or marshes. During early breeding season, males were observed to aggregate around optimal breeding locations in unfilled swamp beds. They begin migrating to these during the onset of pre-

monsoon A monsoon () is traditionally a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with annual latitudinal oscil ...

showers from surrounding forest. Most males rest on

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s and bushes up to a height of about and make a pulsating breeding chorus in

unison In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm. Definition Unison or per ...

. Air around these males is said to stink of "burnt rubber", similar to that felt around aggregating males of '' Hylarana malabarica''. This odour is thought to be produced by glands on their dorsolateral margin. Males come down from their calling spots as night progresses and move on to grass patches in the swamp beds.

Amplexus Amplexus (Latin "embrace") is a type of mating behavior exhibited by some externally fertilizing species (chiefly amphibians and horseshoe crabs) in which a male grasps a female with his front legs as part of the mating process, and at the same ...

is pectoral. Eggs are non-pigmented and semiterrestrial, with an average diameter of 3.2mm. They are scattered on moist soil or a grassy substrate. Total

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts). ...

size was observed as 175 eggs.

Distribution

''B. bijui'' is found in an elevation of between

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...

s in the Eravikulam plateau.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beddomixalus Rhacophoridae Monotypic amphibian genera Amphibians of Asia Frogs of India Endemic fauna of the Western Ghats