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 shillongensis (Pillai and Chanda, 1973)

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

Philautus shillongensis Pillai and Chanda, 1973, Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., Ser. B, 78: 30. Holotype: ZSIC A.6971 (formerly ZSI-M V/ERS 472, by original designation) according to Bossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 54. Type locality: "Malki Forest, Shillong, Altitude 5,000 ft. (1,524 metres)", Meghalaya, India.

Philautus (Philautus) shillongensis — Bossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 54.

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

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

English Names

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

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

Shillong Bush Frog (Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 167; Ahmed, Das, and Dutta, 2009, Amph. Rept. NE India: 48; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 108; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 14).

Distribution

Khasi Hills in the region of Shillong, Meghalaya, northeastern India, below 1400 m elevation; also controversially reported for Mizoram (see comment), northeastern India; reported from Tsirang District, Bhutan.

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: Bhutan, India

Comment

Bossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 54, suggested that Philautus shillongensis might be a junior synonym of Ixalus annandalii. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 167, provided a brief account. Mathew, Sen, and Meetei, 2005, Cobra, Chennai, 61: 27, provided color pattern notes from life. Mathew and Sen, 2003, Cobra, Chennai, 53: 9-12, provided an account. See map, description of geographic range and habitat, and conservation status in Stuart, Hoffmann, Chanson, Cox, Berridge, Ramani, and Young, 2008, Threatened Amph. World: 532. Ahmed, Das, and Dutta, 2009, Amph. Rept. NE India: 48, provided a brief account (as Philautus shillongensis) for northeastern India. Mathew and Sen, 2010, Pict. Guide Amph. NE India: 98-99, provided a brief characterization (as Philautus shillongensis) and a photograph and included Mizoram within the range. Boruah, Raj, Dutta, and Das, 2018, Phyllomedusa, 17: 3–20, redescribed morphology, mapped the range in Meghalaya, discussed natural history and calls, and noted that no voucher or explicit collection locality exists for the Mizoram record. 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: 794, tentatively identified a photograph as of this species from Bhutan.

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For additional information see AmphibiaWeb report
For information on conservation status and distribution see the IUCN Redlist
For information on distribution, habitat, and conservation see the Map of Life
For related information on conservation and images as well as observations see iNaturalist
For access to available specimen data for this species, from over 350 scientific collections, go to Vertnet.