Philautus bobingeri Biju & Bossuyt 2005
Creators: name: Biju, S. D.
name: Bossuyt, Franky
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Amphibia
Anura
Rhacophoridae
Philautus
Philautus bobingeri

description: 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.
description: Published as part of 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, pp. 374-444 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 155 (2) on pages 397-399, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00466.x, http://zenodo.org/record/5445358