Rhacophorus malabaricus

Rhacophorus malabaricus
Malabar Flying Frog
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrata
Class: Amphibia
Subclass: Lissamphibia
Order: Anura
Suborder: Neobatrachia
Family: Rhacophoridae
Subfamily: Rhacophorinae
Genus: Rhacophorus
Species: R. malabaricus
Binomial name
Rhacophorus malabaricus
Jerdon, 1870

The Malabar Flying Frog (Rhacophorus malabaricus) is a moss frog species found in the Western Ghats of India.

Behavior

The term "flying frog" refers to its ability to break their fall by stretching the webbing between their toes when making leaps down from the treetops. It can make gliding jumps of 9-12 meters, a maximum of about 115 times its length.

Description

close up of snout

This frog has a body length of about 10 cm (4 in), making it one of the largest moss frogs. Males are smaller than females. Its back skin is finely granulated and the color is vivid green without markings, distinguishing it from the otherwise quite similar R. pseudomalabaricus which has a black-marbled back and was long included in the present species[1]. In preserved specimens, the back turns purplish blue. The belly is more coarsely granulated – particularly under the thighs – and pale yellow. There are skin fringes between and along the long limbs, and a triangular skin extension at the heel. The webbing between fingers and toes is large and orange-red.[2]

The vomerine teeth are arranged in two straight or slightly oblique series touching the inner front edge of the choanae. The snout is rounded but not very wide, about as long as the diameter of the orbit, the canthus rostralis is bluntly-angled, the loral region is concave. The nostril is located nearer to the end of the snout than to the eye. The interorbital space is broader than the upper eyelid. The eardrum measures about 60-70% the diameter of the eye.[3]

The disks of fingers and toes are large, about the size of the eardrum; the subarticular tubercles are well-developed also. The tibio-tarsal articulation reaches at least to the eye, at most top the nostril.[3]

Reproduction

Malabar Flying Frogs in amplexus. Note much smaller male on top.

Like many moss frogs, they build foam nests above small pools of water, into which the tadpoles drop down after hatching.[4]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ E.g. by Boulenger (1890)
  2. ^ Boulenger (1890), Bordoloi et al. (2007)
  3. ^ a b Boulenger (1890)
  4. ^ Kadadevaru & Kanamadi (2000)

References

  • Biju, S.D.; Dutta, S.; Vasudevan, K.; Srinivasulu, C. & Vijayakumar, S.P. (2004). Rhacophorus malabaricus. 2006. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. www.iucnredlist.org. Retrieved on 12 May 2006.
  • Bordoloi, Sabitry; Bortamuli, Tutul & Ohler, Annemarie (2007): Systematics of the genus Rhacophorus (Amphibia, Anura): identity of red-webbed forms and description of a new species from Assam. Zootaxa 1653: 1–20. PDF abstract and first page
  • Boulenger, George Albert (1890): 56. Rhacophorus malabaricus. In: Fauna of British India - Reptilia and Batrachia: 473. Taylor & Francis, London. DjVu fulltext
  • Kadadevaru, Girish G. & Kanamadi, Ravishankar D. (2000): Courtship and nesting behaviour of the Malabar gliding frog, Rhacophorus malabaricus (Jerdon, 1870). Curr. Sci. 79(3): 377-380 PDF fulltext

External links


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