Sri Lanka petite shrub frog, (''Pseudophilautus tanu''), is a species 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 ...

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 southwestern

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 ...

. This relatively recently described species is only known from two locations in the

Galle District Galle ( si, ගාල්ල දිස්ත්‍රික්කය ''gālla distrikkaya''; ta, காலி மாவட்டம் ''Kāli māvattam'') is a district in Southern Province, Sri Lanka. It is one of 25 districts of Sri Lanka, th ...

, Beraliya and Kanneliya Forest Reserves. The

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''tanu'' is

Sinhalese Sinhala may refer to: * Something of or related to the Sinhalese people of Sri Lanka * Sinhalese people * Sinhala language, one of the three official languages used in Sri Lanka * Sinhala script, a writing system for the Sinhala language ** Sinha ...

for "slender" and refers to the habitus of this frog.

Description

Three adult males in the

type series In biology, a type is a particular specimen (or in some cases a group of specimens) of an organism to which the scientific name of that organism is formally attached. In other words, a type is an example that serves to anchor or centralizes the ...

measure in snout–vent length; females were not reported. The snout is obtusely pointed. The tympanum is distinct and vertically elongated. The finger tips have discs with circum-marginal grooves; there is no webbing nor dermal fringes. The toes are webbed and bear discs with circum-marginal grooves. The head and body are dorsally pale brown. There are about eight dark-brown stripes of varying width on the dorsum and a dark-brown stripe about as wide as pupil running from the snout through the pupil backward to the flank, fading away on mid-flank. The lower parts are white with some scattered brown pigment.

Habitat and conservation

''Pseudophilautus tanu'' occurs in forest-edges in open shrub areas of the lowland wet zone of Sri Lanka,

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 ...

. Males have been found sitting on leaves of shrubs about above the ground. ''Pseudophilautus tanu'' is a common species within its habitat. In Kanneliya, it was the most common species in the fern-dominated habitat, along with '' Pseudophilautus hoipollo''. Nevertheless, unprotected forest edge areas are under constant pressure from human activities.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q3409809

tanu Tanu may refer to: People * Malietoa Tanumafili I (1879–1939), Samoan prince * Tanu Nona (1902–1980), Australian pearler and politician * Tanu Roy (born 1980), Indian actress and model * Tanu (born 1997), a Finnish/Assyrian rapper Places * Ta ...

Endemic fauna of Sri Lanka Frogs of Sri Lanka Taxa named by Rohan Pethiyagoda Amphibians described in 2009