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1 December 2007 The Genus Fejervarya (Anura: Ranidae) in Central Western Ghats, India, with Descriptions of Four New Cryptic Species
Mitsuru Kuramoto, S. Hareesh Joshy, Atsushi Kurabayashi, Masayuki Sumida
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Abstract

We compared six taxa of the genus Fejervarya from central Western Ghats, southwestern India, including F. rufescens, F. sahyadris, and four taxa that possess distinct mtDNA haplotypes as demonstrated by our previous studies. Morphological comparisons with F. brevipalmata, F. keralensis, F. nilagirica, and F. syhadrensis on the basis of literature descriptions and museum specimens revealed that the four haplotypes do not correspond to any of the previously described species. Therefore, they are named herein as new species. Although each of these new species was separated clearly by discriminant analyses, two large-bodied species, as well as two small-bodied species, occurring sympatrically or parapatrically in many collecting sites, were very similar to each other in external appearance. Acoustic characteristics available for five of the six species were most conspicuous and diagnostic features. This study revealed the occurrence of active speciation in Fejervarya in the Western Ghats, one of the hot spots of biodiversity in the world.

Mitsuru Kuramoto, S. Hareesh Joshy, Atsushi Kurabayashi, and Masayuki Sumida "The Genus Fejervarya (Anura: Ranidae) in Central Western Ghats, India, with Descriptions of Four New Cryptic Species," Current Herpetology 26(2), 81-105, (1 December 2007). https://doi.org/10.3105/1881-1019(2007)26[81:TGFARI]2.0.CO;2
Accepted: 1 December 2007; Published: 1 December 2007
KEYWORDS
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Fejervarya
India
morphology
new species
Western Ghats
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