Philautus bobingeri, BIJU & BOSSUYT, 2005

Biju, S. D. & Bossuyt, Franky, 2009, Systematics and phylogeny of Philautus Gistel, 1848 (Anura, Rhacophoridae) in the Western Ghats of India, with descriptions of 12 new species, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 155 (2), pp. 374-444 : 397-399

PHILAUTUS BOBINGERI BIJU & BOSSUYT, 2005

( FIGS 2 , 5 , 13 , 14A , 19 ; TABLE 2)

Type material: Holotype, BNHS 4272 , an adult male, SVL 21.3 mm from Ponmudi, Thiruvananthapuram District , Kerala; paratypes, BNHS 4273–4274 and BNHS 4443 (ex TBGRI 2002.0055 ), three adult males, and BNHS 4275 and FMNH 218114 , two adult females, from the same locality as the holotype.

Other material studied: FMNH 218111–218113 , three adult males, from Ponmudi ( Table 2) .

Diagnosis: Philautus bobingeri can be distinguished from known congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) medium adult size (SVL 25.5 ± 2.0 mm, N = 7); (2) rather flat body; (3) finger tips oval; (4) uniformly granular dorsum; (5) upper arm yellowish, turns whitish in preservation; (6) anterior and posterior surface of thighs light red to dark fleshy red in life, turns greyish to white in preservation.

Because of the dorsal green coloration, this species may be confused with other green Philautus species of this region. However, this species differs from all other members by a number of constant characters, the most obvious being shown in Figure 19 . Philautus bobingeri resembles P. akroparallagi sp. nov., P. glandulosus , and P. jayarami sp. nov. closely in overall morphology and coloration. However, the former differs largely from P. glandulosus and P. jayarami sp. nov. by a number of distinct characters: relatively small snout–vent length, SVL 22.5 ± 2.0 mm, N = 7, male (vs. relatively larger: SVL 25.2 ± 2.0 mm, N = 4, in P. glandulosus ; SVL 26.3 ± 2.0 mm, N = 6, in P. jayarami sp. nov.) ( Fig. 5 ), rather flat body (vs. slender body in P. glandulosus and P. jayarami sp. nov.), oval finger tips (vs. rounded finger tips in P. glandulosus and P. jayarami sp. nov.), light to dark fleshy red in life, without markings (vs. dorsal surface of forearm and loreal region yellow, in P. glandulosus ; anterior and posterior parts of thigh, groin, and lateral side of abdomen white with occasionally large bluish black spots in life, in P. jayarami sp. nov.). For differences with P. akroparallagi sp. nov. see ‘comparison’ of those species.

Description of the holotype: A detailed description and illustrations were published in Biju & Bossuyt (2005b).

Colour in life: Dorsum uniform leaf green, without markings ( Fig. 13 ), lateral side red, without markings, loreal and tympanic regions leaf green ( Fig. 19 ), iris golden brown with dark-brown spots, encircled by a thin bluish black outer ring, lower arm leaf green, upper arm yellowish, hand yellowish red, finger tips light red, thigh with a leaf-green line extending from dorsum to knee, anterior and posterior margins red, without markings, shank almost completely leaf green, tarsus with an extremely thin leaf-green line, forelimbs and hindlimbs without cross bands; throat white or slightly light yellow, hands and feet light yellow.

Variation: Measurements of nine specimens, including six from the type series, are given in Table 2.

Distribution and natural history: Ponmudi in Kerala, and Kakachi and Sengaltheri in Tamil Nadu ( Fig. 14A , Table 1). Most specimens were located on leaves, about 5 m high in shrubs and small trees from evergreen forest patches.

Remark: This species was previously considered as P. femoralis (FMNH 218111–218114) by Inger et al. (1984). The paratype TBGRI 2002.0055 ( Biju & Bossuyt, 2005b) was transferred to BNHS as BNHS 4443.

Figures

Figure 2. Maximum-likelihood phylogram (GTR + G + I; –Ln L = 14 763.97) for the mitochondrial DNA data set of 1488 bp of 34 taxa of Western Ghats Philautus and five outgroup species. Numbers above branches indicate nonparametric bootstrap values under maximum parsimony (MP). Numbers below branches indicate Bayesian posterior probabilities. *Values of less than 50.

Figure 5. Morphometric distinction between males of four green Philautus species: Z, Philautus akroparallagi sp. nov.; -, Philautus bobingeri; O, Philautus glandulosus; and •, Philautus jayarami sp. nov. The ratio of the snout length (SL)/eye length (EL) is plotted against the snout–vent length SVL (see Table 2).

Figure 13. Holotype of Philautus bobingeri (BNHS 4272) from Ponmudi.

Figure 14. Distribution map. A, Philautus bobingeri; B, Philautus bombayensis; C, map showing Travancore (shaded in grey), from which the type of Philautus chalazodes was collected; D, Philautus charius.

Figure 19. Schematic comparison of green-coloured Philautus from the Western Ghats. A, dorsal view, showing coloration of forelimbs and hindlimbs; B, lateral view of head, showing coloration of loreal/tympanic regions and forelimb; C, ventral view of snout, showing shape; D, webbing on feet. The arrows indicate extension of webbing at the fourth toe. Illustrations from left to right are: Philautus akroparallagi sp. nov., Philautus beddomii, Philautus bobingeri, Philautus chalazodes, Philautus chromasynchysi sp. nov., Philautus glandulosus, and Philautus jayarami sp. nov.