Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Search tool	Example of search string in box	What that means to the database
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	Hyl*	Will find all uses of "Hyl . . ." anywhere in a record: e.g., Hylarana, Hyla, Hylidae, Hylinae, Hylaedactyla.
* = "wildcard". Allows a partial letter string to be entered and implies either no or various extension on this letter string	*Hyla	Will find all uses of ". . . hyla" anywhere in a record: e.g., Hyla, Hylidae, Plectrohyla, Ptychadena hylaea, Adenomera hylaedactyla
Single word	Hyla	Will find all records that contain stand-alone uses of Hyla: e.g., Hyla, Hyla arenicolor
Strings of words without quotation marks	Lithobates pipiens	Interprets this as "Lithobates OR pipiens" so will find the union of all records that contain either "Lithobates" or "pipiens": e.g., Lithobates omiltemanus, Hylorana pipiens
Strings of word with quotation marks	"Lithobates pipiens"	Interprets this as "Lithobates AND pipiens" so will return all records that have the character string "Lithobates pipiens" anywhere within a record: e.g., all members of the Lithobates pipiens complex.
AND statement. Means that the results of the search must include both words held together by an AND	Lithobates AND pipiens	Same as "Lithobates pipiens"
OR statement. Means that the results of the search will all records that have either of the terms held together by an OR	Lithobates OR "Costa Rica"	Recovers all records that contain the word "Lithobates" or "Costa Rica": 402 records inasmuch as this will include all records for the entire amphibian fauna of Costa Rica
Combining Boolean operators within the Basic Search box (AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks)	Lithobates AND "Costa Rica" NOT forreri	Recovers only records that contain the word Lithobates AND "Costa Rica", but excludes any record that contains the word "forreri" in any part of the record: 9 records
Printable HELP file

Raorchestes kempiae (Boulenger, 1919)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Rhacophoridae > Subfamily: Rhacophorinae > Genus: Raorchestes > Species: Raorchestes kempiae

Ixalus kempiae Boulenger, 1919, Rec. Indian Mus., 16: 208. Holotype: Not stated; ZSI 2582, by museum records (https://zsicollections.in/specimen/ZSI0000002582). Type locality: "Garo Hills, Assam . . . . above Tura", Meghalaya, India.

Rhacophorus (Philautus) kempiae — Ahl, 1931, Das Tierreich, 55: 53, 69.

Philautus kempiae — Bourret, 1942, Batr. Indochine: 450–451; Inger, 1985, in Frost (ed.), Amph. Species World: 91.

Philautus namdaphaensis Sarkar and Sanyal, 1985, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, 82: 287. Holotype: ZSIC A7177, by original designation. Type locality: "Farmbase camp [alt. 350 m], Tirap district, Arunachal Pradesh", India. Synonymy with Raorchestes kempiae by Boruah, Deepak, and Das, 2025, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 75: 557; with Raorchestes kempiae by Naveen, Nath, Lalremsanga, Deuti, Decemson, Muansanga, Mathipi, Malsawmdawngliana, Warjri, and Purkayastha, 2026, J. Asia-Pacific Biodiversity, 19: 51.

Philautus (Philautus) kempiae — Bossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 41.

Philautus kempii — Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 158. Incorrect subsequent spelling.

Philautus manipurensis Mathew and Sen, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 293: 43. Holotype: ZSI-E 810, by original designation. Type locality: "Tumzane river, Leimatak, Churachandpur district, Manipur, (N 24° 35′ 22.7″, E 93° 39′ 51.6″); Alt. 685 m above msl". Synonymy with Philautus garo by Boruah, Deepak, and Das, 2025, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 75: 557; with Raorchestes kempiae by Naveen, Nath, Lalremsanga, Deuti, Decemson, Muansanga, Mathipi, Malsawmdawngliana, Warjri, and Purkayastha, 2026, J. Asia-Pacific Biodiversity, 19: 51.

Pseudophilautus manipurensis — Li, Che, Murphy, Zhao, Zhao, Rao, and Zhang, 2009, Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 53: 519. Provisional change by implication.

Raorchestes manipurensis — Biju, Shouche, Dubois, Dutta, and Bossuyt, 2010, Curr. Sci., Bangalore, 98: 1120, by implication.

Philautus (Philautus) namdaphaensis — Bossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 56.

Raorchestes kempiae — Naveen, Chandramouli, Babu, Ryndongsngi, Karunakaran, and Kumara, 2024, Herpetozoa, Wien, 37: 359–372.

Raorchestes asakgrensis Naveen, Chandramouli, and Babu in Naveen, Chandramouli, Babu, Ryndongsngi, Karunakaran, and Kumara, 2024, Herpetozoa, Wien, 37: 367. Holotype: SACON VA 805, by original designation. Type locality: "Eman Asakgre Community Reserve (25.36788°N, 90.54344°E, 174 m), Meghalaya, India". Zoobank Publication registration: 11B82D36-D464-429B-9C3B-D22423B8FBC6. Synonymy by Boruah, Deepak, and Das, 2025, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 75: 557.

Common Names

Tura Bubble-nest Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 112).

Kemp's Bush Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 66; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 103; Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 96).

Tura Shrub Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 12).

Tirap Bubble-nest Frog (Philautus namdaphaensis [no longer recognized]: Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 112).

Namdapha Bush Frog (Philautus namdaphaensis [no longer recognized]: Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 66; Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 98).

Namdapha Shrub Frog (Philautus namdaphaensis [no longer recognized]: Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 12).

Leimatak's Bush Frog (Philautus manipurensis [no longer recognized]: Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 9; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 14).

Distribution

Northeastern Bangladesh; northeastern India (Mizoram, Nagaland, and Meghalaya); and from Satchari National Park, Bangladesh; throughout non-peninsular Myanmar, and presumably into northern Thailand, 230 to 1140 m elevation.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bangladesh, India, Myanmar

Likely/Controversially Present: Thailand

Comment

Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 158, and pp. 162–163 (as Philautus namdaphaensis) provided brief accounts. Dutta, 1997, Amph. India Sri Lanka: 81, provided access to literature and range. Sarkar and Ray, 2006, In Alfred (ed.), Fauna of Arunachal Pradesh, Part 1: 302-303, provided a brief account (as Philautus namdaphaensis). Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 96–97, provided a brief characterization and a photograph. Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 96-98, provided brief characterizations of Philautus kempiae, Philautus manipurensis, and Philautus namdaphaensis and photographs. Sengupta, Hussain, Gogoi, Choudhury, Kalita, and Baruah, 2010, Hamadryad, 35: 29, provided a record of Philautus namdaphaensis for Assam, northeastern India. Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 98-99, provided a brief characterization of Philautus namdaphaensis and a photograph. Garg, Suyesh, Das, Bee, and Biju, 2021, PeerJ, 9 (e10791): 2, doubted that either this species is actually a member of Philautus or possibly a synonym of some non-Philautus species; it is uncear which from their statement. Naveen, Chandramouli, Babu, Ryndongsngi, Karunakaran, and Kumara, 2024, Herpetozoa, Wien, 37: 359–372, rediscovered the species and, based on morphology and molecular markers, reassigned the species to Raorchestes, and provided new localities. Also, on the basis of morphology and molecular markers, places Raorchestes cangyuanensis in synonymy but this was disagreed with by Boruah, Deepak, and Das, 2025, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 75: , who placed it into the synonymy of Raorchestes garo. Köhler, Dost, Than, Ohler, Thammachoti Charunrochana, Chuaynkern, Chuaynkern, and Geiß, 2025, Zootaxa, 5613: 47–81, retained Raorchestes cangyuanensis as distinct from Raorchestes kempiae, but did not study Raorchestes kempiae, nor did they cite the Naveen et al. (2024) paper, suggesting that the Köhler, Dost, Than, Ohler, Thammachoti Charunrochana, Chuaynkern, Chuaynkern, and Geiß, 2025, Zootaxa, 5613: 47–81, paper was submitted and in press before the Naveen et al. (2024) paper appeared. Warjri, Purkayastha, Lalremsanga, and Das, 2025, J. Threatened Taxa, 17: 27174–78, provided additional records of nominal Raorchestes kempiae and Raorchestes asakgrensis in India, advertisement call, and an augmented description. Boruah, Deepak, and Das, 2025, Vert. Zool., Senckenberg, 75: 517–625, discussed phylogenetics, systematics, comparative morphology. morphometrics, and molecular markers, distribution (including a dot map of distribution in India), and habitat, as well as redescribing the holotype and placing this species into their Raorchestes kempiae group. Warjri, Purkayastha, Lalremsanga, and Das, 2025, J. Threatened Taxa, 17: 27178–78, provided (as Raorchestes asakgrensis) additional records in India, advertisement call, and an augmented description.

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.

For access to general information see Wikipedia
For additional sources of general information from other websites search Google
For access to relevant technical literature search Google Scholar
For images search CalPhoto Images and Google Images
To search the NIH genetic sequence database, see GenBank
For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For additional information specific to China see Amphibia China