Microhyla nilphamariensis Howlader, Nair, Gopalan, and Merilä, 2015

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Microhylidae > Subfamily: Microhylinae > Genus: Microhyla > Species: Microhyla nilphamariensis

Microhyla nilphamariensis Howlader, Nair, Gopalan, and Merilä, 2015, PLoS One, 10(3: e0119825): 5. Holotype: "grass-field (25° 48′ 06.12″ N, 88° 53′ 59.21″ E), Koya Golahut, Saidpur, Nilphamari, Bangladesh". Zoobank publication registration: A1623AB5-002A-4DA4-ADA4-77DA2F199A65 

Common Names

Nilphamarai Narrow-mouthed Frog (Garg, Suyesh, Das, Jiang, Wijayathilaka, Amarasinghe, Alhadi, Vineeth, Aravind, Senevirathne, Meegaskumbura, and Biju, 2018 "2019", Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 69: 26).

Nilphamarai Chorus Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 8).

Distribution

Punjab, Rawalpindi, and Islamabad districts of northern Pakistan, southeast along the drainages of the Ganges River in Nepal, Bhutan (Samdrup Jongkhar District), and northern India to Assam and south through northwestern Bangladesh and thence south to northern Andhra Pradesh and Orissa in eastern India; Western Ghats region of Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala.  

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan

Comment

The sister taxon of Microhyla ornata according to the original publication. Khatiwada, Shu, Wang, Thapa, Wang, and Jiang, 2017, Zootaxa, 4254: 221–239, provided localities for Nepal. See also brief account by Anders, 2002, in Schleich and Kästle (eds.), Amph. Rept. Nepal: 188–193 (as Microhyla ornata), who provided an extensive account for Nepalese population. See account by Shrestha, 2001, Herpetol. Nepal: 73–74 (as Microhyla ornata). See Shah and Tiwari, 2004, Herpetofauna Nepal: 36, for brief account for Nepal (as Microhyla ornata). Mehta, 2005, in Alfred (ed.), Fauna W. Himalaya, Part 2: 270, reported Microhyla ornata (likely Microhyla nilphamariensis) in Himanchal Pradesh, India, without noting specific localities. Sharma and Sharma, 2009, Cobra, Chennai, 3: 11–15, provided a record for central Rajasthan, India (as Microhyla ornata but likely applying to Microhyla nilphamariensis). The following accounts presumably mix samples of what is now called Microhyla nilphamariensis and Microhyla mymensinghensis as Microhyla ornata: 1) Devi and Shamungou, 2006, J. Exp. Zool. India, 9: 317–324, provided a record for Manipur, northeastern India; 2) Ahmed, Das, and Dutta, 2009, Amph. Rept. NE India: 33, provided a brief account for northeastern India; 3) Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 67–66, provided a brief characterization and photographs. Garg, Das, Kamei, and Biju, 2018, MtDNA, Part B, 3: 856–861, addressed the Microhyla ornata complex via DNA barcodes, and provided generalized range maps. In the Microhyla ornata species group of Garg, Suyesh, Das, Jiang, Wijayathilaka, Amarasinghe, Alhadi, Vineeth, Aravind, Senevirathne, Meegaskumbura, and Biju, 2018 "2019", Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 69: 1–71, who provided an account, and noted that either of the names Engystoma malabaricum Jerdon, 1853, or Engystoma carnaticum Jerdon, 1853, currently considered synonyms of Microhyla ornata may be correctly applied to this species. Sreekumar and Dinesh, 2020, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 120: 33–40, discussed the range in Maharashtra, India, in terms of agro-climatic zones. Gorin, Solovyeva, Hasan, Okamiya, Karunarathna, Pawangkhanant, de Silva, Juthong, Milto, Nguyen, Suwannapoom, Haas, Bickford, Das, and Poyarkov, 2020, PeerJ, 8 (e9411): 1–47, placed this species in their Microhyla ornata group. Jablonski, Khan, and Masroor, 2020, Zootaxa, 4845: 293–296, discussed the molecular identification of populations in Pakistan and provided a haplotype distribution map for the species. Prasad, Gautam, Gupta, Murthy, Ramesh, Shinde, and Das, 2020, Zootaxa, 4851: 450–476, reported on morphology and advertisement call for a population in the Panna Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh, central India. Wangyal, Bower, Sherub, Tshewang, Wangdi, Rinchen, Puntsho, Tashi, Koirala, Bhandari, Phuntsho, Koirala, Ghalley, Chaida, Tenzin, Powrel, Tshewang, Raika, Jamtsho, Kinley, Gyeltshen, Tashi, Nidup, Wangdi, Phuentsho, Norbu, Wangdi, Wangchuk, Tobgay, Dorji, and Das, 2020, Herpetol. Rev., 51: 793, tentatively identified a photograph as of this species from Bhutan. Khatiwada, Wang, Zhao, Xie, and Jiang, 2021, Asian Herpetol. Res., 12: 1–35, discussed the genetics of the Nepal population. Akram, Rais, López-Hervas, Tarvin, Saeed, Bolnick, and Cannatella, 2021, Ecol. Evol., 11: 14175–14216, provided genetically-confirmed records from Rawalpindi District, Punjab Province, Pakistan, as well as briefly discussing the systematics of the species. Rais, Ahmed, Sajjad, Akram, Saeed, Hamid, and Abid, 2021, ZooKeys, 1062: 157–175, included this species in an identification key to the amphibian species of Pakistan as well as providing a photograph. Raj, Vasudevan, Aggarwal, Dutta, Sahoo, Mahapatra, Sharma, Janani, Kar, and Dubois, 2023, Alytes, 39–40: 61–65, reported on larval morphology of genetically-confirmed specimens from Uttarakhand, India. Srigyan, Samad, Singh, Karan, Chandra, Sinha, Vineeth, Das, Thomas, and Suyesh, 2024, PeerJ, 12(e16903): 1–34, reported on the vocal repertoire and compared it with that of Microhyla ornata.  

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