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New 'mysterious' Frog Species Discovered In India's Western Ghats

Indian researchers have discovered a new species of frog - in a roadside puddle.

Sonali Garg, a PhD student at Delhi University, and her supervisor SD Biju found the new species in the Western Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot in southern India.

The species belongs to a new Indian frog group or genus which the scientists have named Mysticellus.

The name is derived from Latin and means mysterious and diminutive.

The scientists discovered the narrow-mouthed frog after three years of extensive explorations, and have confirmed that it represents an entirely new species and genus of microhylid frogs.

The new genus is currently known only in a single locality.

"Our discovery of this new frog genus from one of the most explored and researched regions in the Western Ghats indicates that documentation of amphibians in this globally recognised biodiversity hotspot is still far from being complete," says Sonali Garg.

"This frog went unnoticed until now probably because it appears for less than four days for breeding activities and lives a secretive lifestyle for the rest of the year."

A number of new frog species have been discovered in the Western Ghats in the past decade, making it one of the leading biodiversity hotspots in the world.

"At the same time, Indian amphibians face various extinction threats, especially due to habitat loss and degradation. The only known population of the new genus is found in a wayside area disturbed with vehicular movement, plantation activities and human settlements," says Ms Garg.

"Since little is known about the habitat requirements and the distribution range of the new frog, the specific site needs to be preserved to protect this frog."

A new tadpole that burrows through sand was discovered in Western Ghats in 2016, and an extraordinary tree frog thought to have died out more than a century ago was also rediscovered in the same year.

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Indomitable Snow Frogs

This story appears in the April 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine.

Emerging from a partially frozen pond more than 6,000 feet high in the Alps, European common frogs (Rana temporaria) set out to find mates and begin breeding activities. These frogs have adapted to a wide variety of conditions, increasing their range over most of Europe. Here on the Massif de Beaufort in the French region of Savoy, ice may not thaw until June, leaving only a brief window of warm weather for females to lay eggs and tadpoles to metamorphose into juveniles, known as froglets. Cold-climate frogs grow more slowly than their relatives in temperate areas, but live longer (12 years, compared to 5 for lowland frogs) and so grow larger. They're also active during warmer, daylight hours, unlike their kin elsewhere.

Frogs mate in a position called amplexus, with the smaller male clasping the female from behind in a ride that can last two days or more. As she lays eggs, he expels sperm to fertilize them. Though egg laying takes place in spring, frog pairs in mountain ponds can begin hibernation in amplexus—a months-long embrace that may provide a breeding advantage by allowing mating as quickly as possible once warm weather arrives. Eggs of high-elevation frogs may be 30 percent larger than those of lowland females, giving tadpoles a head start. Eggs and tadpoles of mountain frogs have developed resistance to genetic damage from ultraviolet radiation, a component of sunlight that is more intense in the thinner air of high altitude.

Northern Leopard Frog

Common Name: Northern Leopard Frog Scientific Name: Lithobates pipiens Average Life Span In The Wild: 2 to 4 years Size relative to a teacup: IUCN Red List Status:? Least concern

Least Concern Extinct

Current Population Trend: Decreasing

The northern leopard frog is perhaps most recognizable as the formaldehyde-soaked specimen in the high school lab tray.

Population Decline

Once the most abundant and widespread frog species in North America, leopard frogs were widely collected not only for dissection but for the food industry (frog legs) as well.

However, massive declines beginning in the early 1970s, particularly in Canada and the western United States, have significantly reduced their numbers. Scientists have not determined the cause of the declines, but it is likely a combination of ecological factors: pollution, deforestation, and water acidity.

Coloring and Size

Northern leopard frogs are so named for the array of irregularly shaped dark spots that adorn their backs and legs. They are greenish-brown in color with a pearly white underside and light-colored ridges on either side of their backs. They are considered medium-size, reaching lengths of 3 to 5 inches, nose to rump. Females are slightly larger than males.

Range and Habitat

Their range is most of northern North America, except on the Pacific Coast. They generally live near ponds and marshes, but will often venture into well-covered grasslands as well, earning them their other common name, the meadow frog.

Diet

Leopard frogs will eat just about anything they can fit in their mouths. They sit still and wait for prey to happen by, then pounce with their powerful legs. They eat beetles, ants, flies, worms, smaller frogs, including their own species, and even birds, and garter snakes.

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