Pseudophilautus variabilis (Günther, 1858)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Rhacophoridae > Subfamily: Rhacophorinae > Genus: Pseudophilautus > Species: Pseudophilautus variabilis

Ixalus variabilis Günther, 1858, Arch. Naturgesch., 24: 324. Syntypes: BMNH (10 specimens) according to Günther, 1859 "1858", Cat. Batr. Sal. Coll. Brit. Mus.: 74. BMNH 1947.2.7.87–97 according to museum records; Bossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 18, designated as lectotype BMNH 1947.2.7.87 (formerly 1855.2.12.11) and redescribed it on page 67–68. Type locality: "Ceylon" (=Sri Lanka).

Philautus variabilisRoux, 1928, Rev. Suisse Zool., 38: 464; Inger, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 532.

Rhacophorus (Philautus) variabilisAhl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 98.

Philautus (Kirtixalus) variabilisDubois, 1987 "1986", Alytes, 5: 73.

Philautus (Philautus) variabilisBossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 18.

Pseudophilautus variabilisLi, Che, Murphy, Zhao, Zhao, Rao, and Zhang, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 53: 519. Provisional arrangement and by implication.

English Names

Variable Bubble-nest Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 113).

Variable Bush Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 67).

Distribution

Known only from the indefinite type locality ("Ceylon").

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Sri Lanka

Endemic: Sri Lanka

Comment

See accounts by Kirtisinghe, 1957, Amph. Ceylon: 74–77, Inger, Shaffer, Koshy, and Bakde, 1985 "1984", J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 81: 555, Dutta and Manamendra-Arachchi, 1996, Amph. Fauna Sri Lanka: 159–163, and Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda, 2005, Raffles Bull. Zool., Suppl., 12: 176–178 (who reported this extinct species to be superficially similar to Philautus eximius). Biju, 2001, Occas. Publ. Indian Soc. Conserv. Biol., 1: 19, noted that specimens previously reported from India are Philautus wynaadensis. Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 89–90, provided systematic notes and access to literature to that time. 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: 142, who regarded the species as extinct. Regarded as extinct by Batuwita, Udugampala, De Silva, Diao, and Edirisinghe, 2019, J. Anim. Diversity, 1: 48, and Jayawardena, Senevirathne, Wijayathilaka, Ukuwela, Manamendra-Arachchi, and Meegaskumbura, 2017, Ceylon J. Sci., 46 (Special issue): 48. 

External links:

Please note: these links will take you to external websites not affiliated with the American Museum of Natural History. We are not responsible for their content.