Sphaerotheca leucorhynchus (Rao, 1937)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Dicroglossidae > Subfamily: Dicroglossinae > Genus: Sphaerotheca > Species: Sphaerotheca leucorhynchus

Rana (Tomopterna) leucorhynchus Rao, 1937, Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., Ser. B, 6: 392. Holotype: CCB, now lost according to Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 157. Type locality: "Wattakole, Coorg, [Karnataka,] South India".

Rana (Tomopterna) leucorhynchusDubois, 1981, Monit. Zool. Ital., N.S., Suppl., 15: 233, by implication; Dubois, 1983, Alytes, 2: 164.

Tomopterna (Sphaerotheca) leucorhynchusDubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 57. See comment.

Sphaerotheca leuchorhynchusVences, Glaw, Kosuch, Das, and Veith, 2000, Lourenço and Goodman (eds.), Diversité et Endéémisme à Madagascar: 232.

English Names

Wattakole Bullfrog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 110).

Rao's Burrowing Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 66; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 36).

Rao's White-banded Frog (Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 213).

Distribution

Known only from the type locality in the Western Ghats of southwestern Karnataka, South India.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: India

Endemic: India

Comment

Dubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 57, regarded the name Rana leucorhynchus as either another nominal species within the group or incertae sedis within the subgenus Sphaerotheca. Without discussion, Biju, 2001, Occas. Publ. Indian Soc. Conserv. Biol., 1: 17, suggested that this is a junior synonym of Tomopterna pluvialis. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 213-214, provided a brief account (as Tomopterna leucorhynchus). Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 169, provided a range, systematic comments, and partial taxonomic bibliography. Not mentioned by Daniels, 2005, Amph. Peninsular India, implying that he regarded this taxon as a junior synonym of Sphaerotheca brevicepsDas and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted no larval descriptions in the literature.  A very brief characterization, photograph, and dot map provided by Subramanian, Dinesh, and Radhakrishnan, 2013, Atlas of Endemic Amph. W. Ghats: 57. Dahanukar, Sulakhe, and Padhye, 2017, J. Threatened Taxa, 9: 10283, reported on their inability to recollect the species. Prasad, Dinesh, Das, Swamy, Shinde, and Vishnu, 2019, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 119: 207, noted that the species has not been recollected since 1937. 

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