The bicolored frog or Malabar frog (''Clinotarsus curtipes'') is a species of
frog endemic to the
Western Ghats of
India.
The
tadpoles of the species are black and form dense and compact schools in slow moving
stream
A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...
s in forested areas.
Description
The bicolored frog's vomerine teeth scarcely developed, sometimes indistinct. The teeth are in two slightly oblique series on a level with the hind edge of the choanae. Its head large; snout short, rounded, with well-marked ''canthus rostralis'' and concave loreal region ; nostril nearer to the end of the snout than to the
eye
Eyes are organs of the visual system. They provide living organisms with vision, the ability to receive and process visual detail, as well as enabling several photo response functions that are independent of vision. Eyes detect light and conv ...
; interorbital space broader than the upper eyelid; tympanum distinct, nearly as large as the eye. Fingers moderate, first extending beyond second; toes short, nearly entirely webbed; tips of fingers and toes swollen or dilated into very small disks; subarticular tubercles much developed; inner metatarsal tubercle small, oval, blunt; a rather large, flat tubercle at the base of the fourth toe; no tarsal fold. The tibio-tarsal articulation reaches the eye. Skin finely granular above; a moderately prominent, rather narrow glandular lateral fold; another told behind the tympanum down to the shoulder. ''Clinotarsus curtipes'' is greyish or brown above, with or without blackish dots; lateral fold lighter, edged with black; a blackish oblique spot or band below the eye; upper lip with a blackish margin; limbs dark purplish brown, without cross bands; light brown beneath, the throat sometimes dark brown. Male with an internal subgular
vocal sac.
The spot patterns on the backs are often distinctive enough to use for population estimation using capture and recapture techniques. Use of this technique in the Bisale Reserve Forest in
Kodagu during January 1999 – July 2001 gave a population density estimate of 0.08–0.1 frogs per square metre.
Adult frogs may occasionally
feign death
Apparent death, colloquially known as playing dead, feigning death, or playing possum, is a behavior in which animals take on the appearance of being dead. It is an immobile state most often triggered by a predatory attack and can be found in a ...
to escape predators.
The
tadpoles are large (more than in total length) and form shoals in slow moving streams.
They are collected for local consumption.
References
External links
{{Taxonbar, from=Q2275896
Clinotarsus
Frogs of India
Endemic fauna of the Western Ghats
Amphibians described in 1854