Minervarya andamanensis (Stoliczka, 1870)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Dicroglossidae > Subfamily: Dicroglossinae > Genus: Minervarya > Species: Minervarya andamanensis

Rana gracilis var. andamanensis Stoliczka, 1870, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 39: 139. Syntypes: 4 specimens according to the original description; these including ZSIC 2732, 3538–39 according to Sclater, 1892, List Batr. Indian Mus.: 5; Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 126, noted that BMNH 1947.2.1.12 is a syntype and a representative of Limnonectes hascheanus and that that at least two ZSIC syntypes are Limnonectes doriae. BMNH records have 1947.2.1.23 (formerly 1893.2.14.3) as a syntype. ZSIC 3539 invalidly designated lectotype by implication of listing as type by Annandale, 1917, Mem. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 6: 133 (who only considered two specimens to be syntypes). Type locality: "Andamans . . . Port Blair". See Chanda, Das, and Dubois, 2001 "2000", Hamadryad, 25: 110, for discussion of types.

Rana limnocharis andamanensis — Annandale, 1917, Mem. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 6: 133.

Rana (Fejervarya) andamanensis — Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 147.

Euphlyctis limnocharis andamanensis — Poynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 27: 124, by implication.

Limnonectes (Fejervarya) andamanensis — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 61.

Fejervarya andamanensis — Iskandar, 1998, Amph. Java Bali: 71, by implication; Dubois and Ohler, 2000, Alytes, 18: 35; Chanda, Das, and Dubois, 2001 "2000", Hamadryad, 25: 110; Fei, Ye, Jiang, and Xie, 2002, Herpetol. Sinica, 9: 92.

Minervarya andamanensis — Sanchez, Biju, Islam, Hasan, Ohler, Vences, and Kurabayashi, 2018, Salamandra, 54: 115. 

Common Names

Andaman Wart Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 99).

Andaman Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 64; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 14).

Chestnut-brown Frog (Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 82).

Andaman Rain-pool Frog (Poyarkov, Nguyen, Popov, Geissler, Pawangkhanant, Neang, Suwannapoom, and Orlov, 2021, Russ. J. Herpetol., 28 (3A): 25). 

Andamanese Mintervaryan Frog (Garg, Sivaperuman, Gokulakrishnan, Gopika, Das, and Biju, 2022, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 72: 187). 

Andamanese Cricket Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 4). 

Distribution

Andaman Islands, Bay of Bengal, India (see comment).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: India, Thailand

Comment

Resurrected from synonymy of Limnonectes limnocharis by Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 147. Taylor, 1962, Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull., 43: 430–433, provided an account. See brief accounts by Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 255 (as Rana limnocharis andamanensis) and Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 82–85 (as Rana andamanensis). Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 125–126, provided range, systematic comments, and a taxonomic bibliography. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted no larval descriptions in the literature. Kotaki, Kurabayashi, Matsui, Kuramoto, Tjong, and Sumida, 2010, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 27: 386–395, noted an unnamed species, related to Fejervarya andamanensis, found in western Thaland, suggesting that the Fejervarya andamanensis clade likely contains additional species to be found in intervening Myanmar. Harikrishnan, Vasudevan, and Dutta, 2017, Das (ed.), Diversity Ecol. Amph. India: 85, noted that the taxonomic status of this taxon required confirmation. Poyarkov, Nguyen, Popov, Geissler, Pawangkhanant, Neang, Suwannapoom, and Orlov, 2021, Russ. J. Herpetol., 28 (3A): 26, suggested that the identity of the populations in Thailand and Myanmar had been confirmed as Minervarya andamanensis by Köhler, Mogk, Khaing, and Than, 2019, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 69: 183–226, but what Kohler et al. (2019: 191) actually wrote is "A sample from Andaman Islands (i.e., Lab_023) which probably should be assigned to M. andamanensis, is recovered as sister to a clade that contains specimens from Myanmar and western Thailand. This latter clade was referred to as “Fejervarya hp3” by previous authors (Mulcahy et al., 2018; Kotaki et al., 2010; Sanchez et al., 2018). This clade contains a 16S sequence of the holotype of Fejervarya muangkanensis and thus is referred to this name by us." My (DRF) reading is that the Myanmar/Thailand population was associated by these authors with Minervarya muangkanensis, although I would add that species-level taxonomy based on mtDNA alone is a fraught exercise (DRF). Chandramouli, Ankaiah, Prasad, and Arul, 2021, Spixiana, München, 44: 43–53, redescribed the species, placed it phylogenetically (16S mtDNA only) as the sister taxon of Minervarya muangkanensis, and discussed the range and  natural history. Garg and Biju, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 345–370, summarized the systematics (morphology and molecular markers) of this member of the Minervarya andamanensis group and mapped its distribution. Garg, Sivaperuman, Gokulakrishnan, Gopika, Das, and Biju, 2022, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 72: 169–199, demonstrated that records for the Andamans of Limnonectes hascheanus and Limnonectes doriae rest on misidentifications, some going back to 1870, of Minervarya andamanensis. Gopika, Garg, Sivaperuman, Gokulakrishnan, and Biju, 2023, Zootaxa, 5353: 567–581, described larval morphology and natural history. 

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