Polypedates maculatus | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Amphibia |
Order: | Anura |
Family: | Rhacophoridae |
Genus: | Polypedates |
Species: | P. maculatus |
Binomial name | |
Polypedates maculatus (J.E.Gray, 1830) | |
Synonyms | |
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Polypedates maculatus, the Indian tree frog, [1] or Chunam tree frog, is a common species of tree frog found in South Asia. It was described by John Edward Gray in 1830. [2]
Although now considered as a separate species again, for a time, the Himalayan tree frog was considered as a subspecies of the Indian tree frog (as P. m. himalayensis). [1] Polypedates leucomystax , a very similar species, was formerly included in P. maculatus.
These frogs measure about 7–8 cm in body length. They are mostly brownish, yellowish, greyish, or whitish above, with darker spots or markings, rarely with an hourglass-shaped figure on the back of the head and the front of the back. The loreal and temporal regions are dark; there is a light line on the upper lip. The hind side of the thighs has round, yellow spots, which are usually separated by a dark-brown or purplish network. The skin is smooth above, and granulated on the belly and under the thighs; a fold extends from the eye to the shoulder. Males have internal vocal sacs. [3]
The vomerine teeth are arranged in two more or less oblique series between the choanae or commencing close to the inner front edge of the latter. The skin of head is free; a more or less developed bony arch – sometimes slender and partly ligamentous, sometimes very thick and swollen – extends on each side from the posterior border of the frontoparietal bones to the squamosals. The snout is pointed with a rounded tip, about as long as the diameter of the orbit, the canthus rostralis is distinct, and the loral region is concave. The nostril is located much nearer to the end of the snout than to the eye. The interorbital space is broader than the upper eyelid. The eardrum measures about three-fourths the diameter of the eye. [3]
The fingers are barely webbed, and the toes are two-thirds webbed. The disks of fingers and toes are moderately developed; that of the third finger measures two-fifths to one-half the diameter of the eye. The subarticular tubercles are of moderate size. When the hind leg is held alongside the body, the tibio tarsal articulation reaches the eye, or between the eye and the tip of the snout. [3]
It is widespread throughout Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, as well as western and southern Bangladesh to Chittagong District; its range might also extend into nearby China and Myanmar. This common and adaptable frog is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. [1]
They may use day roosts regularly. Their call is a sudden short and rapid series of rattling rat-tats. [4]
They wipe themselves with skin secretions consisting of mucus and lipids that help in reducing moisture loss. When temperatures are higher, they secrete from the skin ("sweat"), pant, and adopt lighter skin colours. [5]
In south India they can be a nuisance to households as they enter homes in search of food. They can climb walls with the help of their webbed feet and reach even higher floors, entering through the open windows.
Polypedates is a genus of frogs in the family Rhacophoridae, the shrub frogs and Paleotropic tree frogs. They belong to subfamily Rhacophorinae. Members of this genus are collectively known as whipping frogs. They occur in eastern and southern Asia.
The Malabar gliding frog or Malabar flying frog is a rhacophorid tree frog species found in the Western Ghats of India.
Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis is a common dicroglossid frog found in South Asia. It is known under numerous common names, including Indian skipper frog or skittering frog. They are often seen at the edge of bodies of water with their eyes above the water. They noisily move away from the shore when disturbed, giving them their common name. They are rarely seen outside water.
The Indian burrowing frog is a species of frog found in South Asia.
Micrixalus fuscus is a species of small frog found in dense forested hill streams in the Western Ghats of India. M. herrei was formerly synonymized within this species.
Indirana semipalmata is a species of frog endemic to the Western Ghats region of southern India. They are small frogs, reaching lengths of about 36 mm (1.4 in) from snout to vent. The species breeds during the monsoons, laying their eggs on moist rocks and tree bark. Their tadpoles are terrestrial – hatching, feeding, and undergoing metamorphosis without ever entering any standing bodies of water.
Indirana leithii is a species of frog in the family Ranixalidae. It is endemic to the northern Western Ghats of India. As currently defined, its range is restricted to the states of Maharashtra and southern Gujarat; earlier records elsewhere refer to other species.
Euphlyctis hexadactylus, also known as the green pond frog, Indian green frog, and Indian five-fingered frog, is a common species of aquatic frog found in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. The nominal taxon likely represents a species complex.
Hyla annectans is a species of tree frog in the family Hylidae. It is found in Asia south of the Himalayas in northeast India, northern Myanmar, and northern montane Vietnam and southwestern and central China. There are isolated records in northwestern Thailand and adjacent Myanmar. There is uncertainty whether Hyla gongshanensis from China should be recognized as a distinct species. This widespread species has many common names: Jerdon's tree frog, Assam treefrog, Indian hylid frog, green leave frog, or Southwestern China treefrog.
Microhyla rubra is a species of narrow-mouthed frog endemic to India. Earlier thought to exist also in Sri Lanka, new studies suggested that Sri Lankan population is a different species, now elevated to species level as Microhyla mihintalei.
Sphaerotheca dobsonii is a species of frog capable of burrowing. It is found in southern India.
Indosylvirana aurantiaca, commonly known as the golden frog, is a species of frog endemic to the Western Ghats of India. The species is also known as the Trivandrum frog, the common wood frog, or the small wood frog.
Polypedates leucomystax is a species in the shrub frog family Rhacophoridae. It is known under numerous common names, including common tree frog, four-lined tree frog, golden tree frog or striped tree frog. Many past authors have united it with the common Indian tree frog in P. maculatus, but today they are generally considered distinct species. In its native range, it is also called "white-lipped tree frog", but this name is otherwise applied to a species of true tree frogs.
Polypedates otilophus is a species of frog in the family Rhacophoridae. It is endemic to Borneo where it is widespread and found in Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia, typically in the lowlands but sometimes as high as 1,100 m (3,600 ft) above sea level. This species has prominent, sharp ridges behind the eye, above the ear, referred to in its names.
Rhacophorus bipunctatus is a frog species in the moss frog family (Rhacophoridae) found from eastern India into Southeast Asia, possibly to southeastern China and south to Malaysia. Due to the identification problems surrounding this species, the eastern and southern limits of its range remain undetermined; all that is known is that the species certainly occurs in the border region of India, Bangladesh, China and Myanmar; its range might extend south to Malaysia, as similar frogs have been reported from Pahang.
Rhacophorus lateralis is a rhacophorid tree frog endemic to the Western Ghats in South India. It has several common names: small tree frog, Boulenger's tree frog, small gliding frog, and winged gliding frog. After its original description in 1883 by George Albert Boulenger, the frog was rediscovered in Coorg in 2000 and has since been found in many parts of the Western Ghats around southern Karnataka and northern Kerala. Along with R. malabaricus, it is one of the few anuran amphibians in India that constructs its nest above the ground using leaves.
The western tree frog, Charpa tree frog, or Nagercoil whipping frog is a species of frog in the family Rhacophoridae endemic to India. It has been observed between 100 and 1100 meters above sea level in the Parambikulam Tiger Reserve and Charpa Forest Range, both of which are in Kerala.
The spinular night frog, also known as the spinular wrinkled frog, is a species of frog in the family Nyctibatrachidae, commonly known as the robust frogs. It was described in 2011 as one of 12 new species in its genus by the herpetologist Sathyabhama Das Biju and his colleagues. A large frog for its genus, it has an adult male snout–vent length of 52.9–66.2 mm (2.08–2.61 in). It has a brownish-grey back, a grey underside, dark brown limbs, and dark grey feet. When preserved in ethanol, it is black above with greyish-brown undersides. The species is endemic to the Western Ghats of India, where it is known from the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, where the specimens used to describe the species were originally collected. It is found under rocks in streams in forests. The species has not been assigned a conservation status by the IUCN.
Polypedates subansiriensis is a species of frogs in the family Rhacophoridae. It is endemic to Northeast India and only known from its type locality, Soro village in the eponymous Lower Subansiri District, Arunachal Pradesh state. It is sometimes known as the Subansiri's tree frog or Subansiri tree frog.
Feihyla inexpectata is a species of frog in the family Rhacophoridae. This recently (2014) described species is endemic to Malaysian Borneo and known from its type locality in the Maliau Basin Conservation Area, Sandakan Division, Sabah and from Danum Valley, also in Sabah. Common name Bornean opposite-fingered tree frog has been coined for it.