Minervarya nilagirica (Jerdon, 1853)

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

Rana nilagirica Jerdon, 1853, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 22: 522-534. Type(s): Originally in ZSIC; reported as lost by Jerdon, 1870, Proc. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 1870: 67; nevertheless because Dubois thought that the specimens were extant and because the ZSIC did not allow external use of these specimens, MNHNP 1984.2340 was designated neotype by Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 149. Type locality: "marshes in the Wynaad and Neelgherries", South India; restricted by neotype designation to "Governor Shola, à 4 km d'Udhagamangalam en direction de Porthimund, Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, Inde" by Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 149.

Rana limnocharis nilagiricaAnnandale, 1917, Mem. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 6: 134.

Rana murthii Pillai, 1979, Bull. Zool. Surv. India, 2: 39. Holotype: ZSI-SRS VA/773 according to Chanda, Das, and Dubois, 2001 "2000", Hamadryad, 25: 110. Type locality: "forest at Naduvattom, Gudallur, Tamil Nadu", Western Ghats, South India. Synonymy by Garg and Biju, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 358. 

Rana (Fejervarya) nilagirica — Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 149.

Euphlyctis limnocharis nilagiricaPoynton and Broadley, 1985, Ann. Natal Mus., 27: 124, by implication.

Limnonectes (Fejervarya) nilagiricaDubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 61. Provisional placement in Fejervarya.

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

Fejervarya nilagiricusIskandar, 1998, Amph. Java Bali: 71, by implication; Dubois and Ohler, 2000, Alytes, 18: 35; Fei, Ye, Jiang, and Xie, 2002, Herpetol. Sinica, 9: 92; Dinesh, Vijayakumar, Channakeshavamurthy, Torsekar, Kulkarni, and Shanker, 2015, Zootaxa, 3999: 79. 

Fejervarya murthii — 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: 93.

Fejervarya mudduraja Kuramoto, Joshy, Kurabayashi, and Sumida, 2008 "2007", Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 26: 91. Holotype: BNHS 4645, by original designation. Type locality: "Talapu, Madikeri", central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India.  Synonymy by Garg and Biju, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 358. 

Zakerana nilagiricaHowlader, 2011, Bangladesh Wildl. Bull., 5: 2.

Zakerana murthii — Howlader, 2011, Bangladesh Wildl. Bull., 5: 2.

Zakerana mudduraja — Howlader, 2011, Bangladesh Wildl. Bull., 5: 2.

Fejervarya mudduraja —  Dinesh, Vijayakumar, Channakeshavamurthy, Torsekar, Kulkarni, and Shanker, 2015, Zootaxa, 3999: 79. 

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

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

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

Common Names

Nilgiris Wart Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 100).

Nilgiri Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 65; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 20).

Ghats Wart Frog (Minervarya murthii [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 100).

Murthy's Frog (Minervarya murthii [no longer recognized]: Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 65; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 19).

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

Hill Cricket Frog (Ganesh and Guptha, 2021, J. Anim. Diversity, 3(3): 29).

Distribution

Karnataka to Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and (likely, see comment) Andhra Pradesh in the Western and Eastern Ghats of India, 800-1600 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: India

Endemic: India

Comment

Resurrected from synonymy of Fejervarya limnocharis by Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 149 (as Rana limnocharis), where it had been placed by Boulenger, 1920, Rec. Indian Mus., 20: 28 (considered a junior synonym of Rana gracilis by Boulenger, 1882, Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus., Ed. 2: 28). See comment under Fejervarya brevipalmata and Fejervarya mysorensis. Considered a junior synonym of Rana kuhlii by Theobald, 1868, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 37: 80. Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 132-133, provided range and systematic comments. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 128-131, provided a brief account (as Rana murthii). Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted one abbreviated larval description in the literature. See comments (as Fejervarya murthii) by Kuramoto, Joshy, Kurabayashi, and Sumida, 2008 "2007", Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 26: 81-105. Kotaki, Kurabayashi, Matsui, Khonsue, Tjong, Tandon, and Sumida, 2008, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 25: 381-390, considered this species to be in their Fejervarya syhadrensis group. See photograph, map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 479 (as Fejervarya nilagirida and Fejervarya murthii). See map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status (as Fejervarya murthii) in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 479. A very brief characterization (as Fejervarya nilagirica, Fejervarya muduraja, and Fejervarya murthii), photograph, and dot map provided by Subramanian, Dinesh, and Radhakrishnan, 2013, Atlas of Endemic Amph. W. Ghats: 48–51. Srinivas and Bhupathy, 2013, J. Threatened Taxa, 5:4973–4978, reported the species (as Fejervarya mudduraja) from the Meghamalai area of western Tamil Nadu, India, in the Western Ghats. Sreekumar and Dinesh, 2020, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 120: 33–40, noted that records from Maharashtra, India, are in error. Patel and Vyas, 2020, J. Anim. Diversity, 2: 12, suggested that records from Gujarat, India, are based on misidentifications. Ganesh and Guptha, 2021, J. Anim. Diversity, 3(3): 29, provided records of Minervarya cf. nilagirica from the Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, India. Garg and Biju, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 345–370, summarized the systematics (morphology and molecular markers) of this member of the Minervarya nilagirica group and mapped its distribution.  

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