Euphlyctis Hexadactylus
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''Euphlyctis hexadactylus'', also known as the green pond frog, Indian green frog, and Indian five-fingered frog, is a common
species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of aquatic
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 ...
found in
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
,
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...
, and
Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
. The nominal taxon likely represents a
species complex In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...
.


Description

The following description is from Boulenger:
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 in two oblique series extending beyond the hinder edge of the choanae. Head moderate; snout rather pointed; ''cauthus rostralis'' indistinct; intororbital space much narrower than the upper eyelid; tympanum distinct, as large as the eye. Fingers slender, acutely pointed, first extending a little beyond second; toes webbed to the tips, which are acutely pointed; outer toe strongly fringed; fourth toe not very much longer than third or fifth; subarticular tubercles of fingers and toes very small; inner metatarsal tubercle small, conical; no outer tubercle. When the hind limb is corned forwards along the body, the tibio-tarsal articulation reaches the eye. Skin smooth, with more or less distinct rows of pores round the neck, sides, and belly. Brown above; sometimes a light vertebral line: two blackish streaks on the hinder side of the thighs, sometimes indistinct. Young beautifully striped. Male with two external vocal vesicles opening by two slits beneath the angles of the mouth.


Habitat

''E. hexadactylus'' is a largely aquatic species, found in most types of water bodies. It has even been recorded from
brackish Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...
water in Sri Lanka.


Diet

The diet of adult green pond frogs is unusual in that plant leaves and some flowers constitute a large part of their diets. However, they also consume
invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s and small vertebrates. Juveniles, however, are
insectivore A robber fly eating a hoverfly An insectivore is a carnivorous animal or plant that eats insects. An alternative term is entomophage, which can also refer to the human practice of eating insects. The first vertebrate insectivores wer ...
s.


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2717201 hexadactylus Amphibians of Bangladesh Frogs of India Amphibians of Pakistan Frogs of Sri Lanka Amphibians described in 1834 Taxa named by René Lesson