Kadar Burrowing Frog
Sonali Garg, a PhD student in Delhi University, and her supervisor Professor SD Biju discovered four new species of burrowing frogs. The species were found to be part of the genus Fejervarya in the family Dicroglossidae. There was only one known species of frog in the genus that could burrow – Rufescent Burrowing Frog Fejervarya rufescens that lived all over the Western Ghats. A study from the researchers above showed that the Rufescent Burrowing Frog only lives in a small area of the Western Ghat while other different species of burrowing frogs live in other areas. This was discovered through DNA tests and other lab work.
Neil Coxi’s Burrowing Frog
The frogs are CEPF Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya cepfi), Kadar Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya kadar), Manoharan’s Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya manoharani), and Neil Cox’s Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya neilcoxi)
CEPF Burrowing Frog (Fejervarya cepfi)
Numerous other new species of frogs have been found in the Western Ghats recently which makes it a biodiversity hot spot but sadly, many of the frogs are facing threats of extinction there.
Manoharan’s Burrowing Frog
Pics from SD Biju
Paper published in Zootaxa – http://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4277.4.1
