''Hydrophylax bahuvistara'', commonly known as the widespread fungoid frog, is a colourful

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 widespread in peninsular India, distributed in

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

and

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

. It is very similar to another species with which it overlaps partly in range, '' Hydrophylax malabaricus''. CC-BY icon

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Description

''Hydrophylax bahuvistara'' can be separated from its congeners based on a combination of characters including outline of snout in dorsal view truncated, finger and toe tips without later-o-ventral groove, foot moderately webbed, metatarsals of 4th and 5th toes closely set, outer metatarsal tubercle small, dorsal parts of shank without glandular folds and sparse horny spinules, and heels touch each other when the legs are folded at right angles to the body. A host defense peptide isolated from the skin of this frog,

urumin Urumin is a naturally occurring 27-amino acid virucidal host defense peptide against the human influenza A virus. It was discovered and isolated from the skin of ''Hydrophylax bahuvistara'', a species of frog found in South India, by a team of ...

, targets the stalk region of influenza virus H1 hemagglutinin protein. It destroys influenza virions, and protects mice from lethal infection; thus urumin represents a novel class of anti-influenza virucide.Holthausen et al, Immunity 46: 587-595 (2017)

References

Hydrophylax (frog) Frogs of India Fauna of Maharashtra Endemic fauna of the Western Ghats Taxa named by Neelesh Dahanukar Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN {{Ranidae-stub