Minervarya syhadrensis (Annandale, 1919)

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

Rana limnocharis syhadrensis Annandale, 1919, Rec. Indian Mus., 16: 123. Holotype: ZSIC 19764 accordng to the original publication; ZSIC 18764, according to Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 150. Type locality: "Satara and Poon districts, . . . and the Nsik district", India. Data associated with holotype are "Khandal, 2500 ft, Poona district, Bombay Presidency", India, according to Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 150.

Nyctibatrachus sanctipalustris var. modestus Rao, 1920, J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 27: 125. Holotype: ZSIC 19179 according to Chanda, Das, and Dubois, 2001 "2000", Hamadryad, 25: 107. Type locality: "Jog, Shimoga, Mysore State", India.  Synonymy by Garg and Biju, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 

Rana (Dicroglossus) syhadrensis — Dubois, 1974, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 3, Zool., 213: 383.

Rana syhadrensis — Dubois, 1975, C. R. Hebd. Séances Acad. Sci., Paris, 281: 1717.

Rana (Euphlyctis) syhadrensis — Dubois, 1980 "1978", C. R. Séances Soc. Biogeogr., 55: 161.

Rana (Fejervarya) syhadrensis — Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 150.

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

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

Nyctibatrachus modestus — Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 68. Elevated from the synonymy of Nyctibatrachus sanctipalustris.

Limnonectes syhadrensis — Dubois, 1992, Bull. Mens. Soc. Linn. Lyon, 61: 315 [source is Chanda, Das, and Dubois, 2001 "2000", Hamadryad, 25: 110].

Fejervarya syhadrensis — Iskandar, 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 caperata Kuramoto, Joshy, Kurabayashi, and Sumida, 2008 "2007", Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 26: 98. Holotype: BNHS 4657, by original designation. Type locality: "Karnoor", central Western Ghats of Karnataka, India. Synonymy by Phuge, Patil, Pandit, Kulkarni, Chennakeshavamurthy, Deepak, and Dinesh, 2020, Zootaxa, 4869: 451. 

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

Fejervarya modesta — Biju, Van Bocxlaer, Mahony, Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Zachariah, Giri, and Bossuyt, 2011, Zootaxa, 3029: 67-68.

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

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

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

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

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

Common Names

Long-legged Cricket Frog (Khan, 1979, Biologia, Lahore, 25: 46).

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

Syhadra Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 65; Schleich, Anders, and Kästle, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 79; Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 210; Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 33).

Syhadry Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 23).

Small Cricket Frog (Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 135).

Southern Cricket Frog (Khan, 2002, Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc., 37: 160).

Hill Cricket Frog (Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 210).

Wrinkled Fejervarya (Minervarya caperata, no longer recognized: Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 16).

Shimoga Night Frog (Minervarya modesta [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 102).

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

Distribution

Eastern and western India, Bangladesh, and Nepal at low to moderate elevations (see comment).

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bangladesh, India, Nepal

Likely/Controversially Present: Pakistan

Comment

Dubois, 1974, Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. Paris, Ser. 3, Zool., 213: 383–384, removed this species from the synonymy of Rana limnocharis. Kuramoto and Joshy, 2001, Curr. Herpetol., Kyoto, 20: 88–89, reported calls from populations in southern India differ strongly from those reported from Nepal, suggesting that more than one species is covered by this name. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 135, provided a brief account (as Rana syhadrensis). Pakistan record provided by Khan, 2002, Bull. Chicago Herpetol. Soc., 37: 160), although this identification is now disputed. Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 249–253, provided an account for the Nepal population. Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 138–139, provided range, taxonomic comments, and partial taxonomic bibliography. Kadadevaru, Kanamadi, and Schneider, 2002, Curr. Sci., Bangalore, 82: 503–505, reported on the advertisement call in the Western Ghats. Khan, 2006, Amph. Rept. Pakistan: 60, provided an account for Pakistan, although these specimens are now identifed as Minervarya pierrei. Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India: 210–211, provided an account. Ningombam and Bordoloi, 2007, Zoos' Print J., 22: 2688–2690, provided a record for Manipur, northeastern India. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted two larval descriptions of varying levels of completeness in the literature. Borthakur, Kalita, Hussain, and Sengupta, 2007, Zoos' Print J., 22: 2639–2643, compared the species of Assam, northwest India (Fejervarya nepalensis, Fejervarya pierrei, Fejervarya syhadrensis, and Fejervarya teraiensis). Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 33, provided a brief characterization and photographs. Kotaki, Kurabayashi, Matsui, Kuramoto, Tjong, and Sumida, 2010, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 27: 386–395, suggested on the basis of molecular evidence that Fejervarya syhadrensis is composed of at least two species, with one species in the Western Ghats (possibly conspecific with the population at the type locality) and another in Sri Lanka not conspecific (and unnamed), and either unlikely to be conspecific with the population at the type locality. The Sri Lankan population was judged to be most closely related to Fejervarya granosa and Fejervarya pierrei. Rasel, Hannan, and Howlader, 2007, Bangladesh Wildl. Bull., 2007: 1–3, reported the species in the Chittagong region of eastern Bangladesh and is not treated as Minervarya syhadrensis here. See Shah and Tiwari, 2004, Herpetofauna Nepal: 58, for brief account (as Limnonectes syhadrensis). Hasan, Islam, Khan, Alam, Kurabayashi, Igawa, Kuramoto, and Sumida, 2012, Zool. Sci., Tokyo, 29: 162–172, discussed ambiguities in identification of populations in Bangladesh, as Fejervarya syhadrensis. Masroor, 2012, Contr. Herpetol. N. Pakistan: 46–49, provided an account for northern Pakistan of a species he referred to "Fejervarya limnocharis" that he distinguished from Fejervarya syhadrensis; presumably this represents an unnamed species (DRF). Subramanian, Dinesh, and Radhakrishnan, 2013, Atlas of Endemic Amph. W. Ghats: 45, provided a very brief characterization (as Fejervarya caperata), photograph, and dot map. Prasad, Gautam, Gupta, Murthy, Ramesh, Shinde, and Das, 2020, Zootaxa, 4851: 450–476, reported on morphology and advertisement call for a population (as Fejervarya caperata) in the Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, central India. Köhler, Mogk, Khaing, and Than, 2019, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 69: 190, suggested that the distinctiveness from Minervarya pierrei and Minervarya granosa needs to be confirmed. O'Connell, Aryal, Sherchan, Dhakal, Chaudhary, and Karmacharya, 2019, J. Nat. Hist., London, 53: 1421–1437, reported on the Kathmandu Valley population, Nepal. Deuti, Sethy, and Ray, 2014, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 114: 130–131, provided a  brief account for the population of the Eastern Ghats region, India. Sreekumar and Dinesh, 2020, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 120: 33–40, discussed the range in Maharashtra, India, in terms of agro-climatic zones. Chandramouli, Ankaiah, Arul, Dutta, and Ganesh, 2019, Asian J. Conserv. Biol., 8: 84–87, questioned the taxonomic status of this species separate from Minervarya syhadrensis but took no taxonomic action. Purkayastha, Khan, and Roychoudhury, 2020, in Roy et al. (eds.), Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions in Resource use and Conservation, Environmental Science and Engineering: 225–233, provided a record for Rowa Wildlife Sanctuary, Tripura, India. Gautam, Chalise, Thapa, and Bhattarai, 2020, IRCF Rept. & Amph., 27: 18–28, briefly discussed abundance and elevational range in the Ghandruk region of central Nepal. Phuge, Patil, Pandit, Kulkarni, Chennakeshavamurthy, Deepak, and Dinesh, 2020, Zootaxa, 4869: 451–492, discussed systematic and identification problems of nominal Minervarya syhadrensis in the Western Ghats of southern India. Khatiwada, Wang, Zhao, Xie, and Jiang, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 1–35, discussed the species in Nepal. Gayen, Dey, and Roy, 2021, Zoos' Print J., 36: 33–39, reported a record from Durgapur Subdivision, West Bengal, India. Rais, Ahmed, Sajjad, Akram, Saeed, Hamid, and Abid, 2021, ZooKeys, 1062: 157–175, excluded this species from the Pakistan fauna without comment, implying that the earlier records of this species from that country were in error;  this and the discussion provided by Akram, Rais, López-Hervas, Tarvin, Saeed, Bolnick, and Cannatella, 2021, Ecol. Evol., 11: 14188, suggests that the Pakistan records of nominal Minervarya syhadrensis are referrable to Minervarya pierrei (DRF). Garg and Biju, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 345–370, summarized the systematics (morphology and molecular markers) of this member of the Minervarya syhadrensis group and mapped its distribution (seemingly excluding Nepal). Ganesh and Guptha, 2021, J. Anim. Diversity, 3(3): 29, provided records of Minervarya cf. syhadrensis from the Eastern Ghats, Andhra Pradesh, India. Rabbe, Jaman, Alam, Rahman, and Sarker, 2022, Amph. Rept. Conserv., 16: 226–234, provided records for northwestern Bangladesh. 

Minervarya modesta: The species was recognized by Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 68, but this recognition as something other than a synonym of Nyctibatrachus sanctipalustris was rejected by Chanda and Das, 1997, Hamadryad, 22: 48-49. Biju, Van Bocxlaer, Mahony, Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Zachariah, Giri, and Bossuyt, 2011, Zootaxa, 3029: 1-96, transferred the species of Fejervarya. Given that Howlader, 2011, Bangladesh Wildl. Bull., 5: 1–7, did not include this species in his list of Zakerana, does not preclude this taxon being placed in that taxon inasmuch as Howlader would not have seen the paper of  Biju, Van Bocxlaer, Mahony, Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Zachariah, Giri, and Bossuyt, 2011, Zootaxa, 3029: 67-68, prior to the submission of his own paper on Zakerana. However, the type of modesta was reported by Biju et al., 2011, to have limbs destroyed, which would make it difficult to assign the nominal species to either Fejervarya or Zakerana without recourse to geography. Regardless, as of this date (17 Feb. 2015) no one has presented evidence which would place modesta in Zakerana and I hesitate to make the change (DRF).

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