''Uperodon anamalaiensis'', also known as Anamalai dot frog, Anamalai ramanella, or reddish-brown microhylid frog, is a species of narrow-mouthed frog (family

Microhylidae The Microhylidae, commonly known as narrow-mouthed frogs, are a geographically widespread family of frogs. The 683 species are in 63 genera and 11 subfamilies, which is the largest number of genera of any frog family. Evolution A molecular phylo ...

) found in

South India South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...

. The

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

was discovered at the base of the

Anaimalai Hills The Anamala or Anaimalai, also known as the Elephant Mountains, are a range of mountains in the southern Western Ghats of central Kerala ( Idukki district, Ernakulam district, Palakkad district, Thrissur district) and span the border of wes ...

Coimbatore Coimbatore, also spelt as Koyamputhur (), sometimes shortened as Kovai (), is one of the major metropolitan cities in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyyal River and surrounded by the Western Ghats. Coimbato ...

district in the southern Western Ghats. The holotype is missing and the status of the species was uncertain till 2010. Until rediscovered in the

Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary Parambikulam Tiger Reserve, which also includes the erstwhile Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary, is a protected area lying in Palakkad district and Thrissur district of Kerala state, South India. The Wildlife Sanctuary, which had an area of wa ...

in 2010, this frog was reported only once by C. R. Narayan Rao in 1937.

Description

Multiple populations of this species were located by S.P. Vijayakumar, Anil Zachariah, David Raju, Sachin Rai and S.D. Biju in different habitats within Parambikulam Tiger Reserve in

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

and

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. This frog exhibits a light to dark-brown dorsum with two yellow lines and scattered yellow spots. The underside of the body is brown with scattered white spots, giving it the common name 'Anamalai dot frog'. This frog calls loudly during the monsoon season. It hides under stones and logs on the forest floor or within tree holes during the rest of the year.

References

* Biju, S.D. 2001. A synopsis to the frog fauna of the Western Ghats, India. Occasional Publication 1. ISCB. 1-24. * Dutta, S.K. 1997. Amphibians of India and Sri Lanka. Odyssey Publishing House. Bhubaneswar. * Rao, C.R.N. 1937. On some new forms of Batrachia from south India. Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences. 6(6):387-427.

External sources

Photos of Ramanella anamalaiensis
*Rediscovery of five lost frogs from India (manuscript in preparation) {{Taxonbar, from=Q28041919, from2=Q545748 anamalaiensis Frogs of India Endemic fauna of the Western Ghats Taxa named by C. R. Narayan Rao Amphibians described in 1937