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

description: PHILAUTUS BOMBAYENSIS (ANNANDALE, 1919)   
(FIGS 2, 14B, 15, 16; TABLE 2)  
 Type material: Holotype, ZSIC 18287, an adult male, SVL 23.3 mm, from Castle Rock, Uttara Kannada, Karnataka.   
 Other material studied: BNHS 4418 and SDB 40205, two adult males, and BNHS 4419, an adult female, from Castle Rock; BNHS 4589 and SDB 2006 B, two adult males, from Amboli; SDB 40196, an adult male, from Londa (Table 2).   
 Diagnosis: Philautus bombayensis can be distinguished from known congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) small male adult size; (2) snout oval in dorsal view; (3) canthus rostralis sharp; (4) presence of papilla on tongue; (5) groin and lateral side prominently marbled with creamy white blotches in a brown background; (6) distinct nuptial pad on first finger of male.   
 Philautus bombayensis is closely allied to P. tuberohumerus, but the former differs by its longer male snout–vent length, SVL 22.0 ± 1.6 mm, N = 6 (vs. SVL 18.4 ± 0.5 mm, N = 6), snout longer than horizontal diameter of eye, SL 3.4 ± 0.4 mm vs. EL 2.6 ± 0.2 mm, N = 6 (vs. snout subequal to horizontal diameter of eye, SL 2.4 ± 0.2 vs. EL 2.3 ± 0.2 mm, N = 6), presence of papilla on tongue (vs. absence of papilla), groin and lateral side prominently marbled with creamy white blotches in a brown background (vs. lateral side light greyish without prominent markings, groin dark brown with yellow blotches).   
 Description of the holotype (all measurements in mm): Small-sized frog (SVL 23.3) with a slender body; head length (HL 7.3) less than head width (HW 8.1; MN 6.0; MFE 4.9; MBE 1.8); outline of snout in dorsal and ventral views oval, snout length (SL 3.2) longer than horizontal diameter of eye (EL 2.6); canthus rostralis rounded, loreal region vertically concave; distance between posterior margins of eyes (IBE 7.4) 1.8 times the distance between anterior margins of eyes (IFE 4.2); tympanum rather indistinct; tongue with lingual papilla.   
Forelimb (FLL 4.8) shorter than hand (HAL 6.0; TFL 2.2); fingers without lateral dermal fringe, webbing absent; subarticular tubercles rather prominent, rounded; prepollex rather distinct; nuptial pad present, prominent, slightly spinular.  
Hindlimbs moderately long, shank (ShL 10.2) subequal to thigh (TL 10.3), longer than distance from base of inner metatarsal tubercle to tip of toe IV (FOL 8.2); webbing reduced, reaching up to second subarticular tubercle on inside of toe IV; dermal fringe along toe V absent; subarticular tubercles rather prominent, rounded, simple; supernumerary tubercles absent.  
Skin of snout, between eyes, upper eyelids, side of head, and anterior part of back shagreened, posterior part of back shagreened to granular, dorsal part of forelimb, thigh, shank, and tarsus shagreened; ventral side of chest, belly, and posterior surface of thighs granular.  
 Colour in preservation: Dorsum uniform lightbrownish grey, including loreal and tympanic regions, forelimbs and hindlimbs light-brownish grey with faint cross bands (Fig. 15); groin and lateral side with creamy white blotches in a light-brown background, anterior margin of thigh with large creamy white blotches; ventral side greyish white with prominent minute dark spots.   
 Variation: Measurements of seven specimens, including the holotype, are given in Table 2. BNHS 4418 (Fig. 16, amplexus, male) has a uniform darkbrownish grey dorsum, loreal and tympanic regions dark-brownish black, iris dark golden brown, with brown reticulation encircled by a bluish outer ring, groin and lateral side prominently marbled with light-yellowish white blotches in a light-brown background, and forelimbs and hindlimbs with faint blackish cross bands. The ventral side is uniformly light greyish white with prominent dark spots throughout; BNHS 4419 (Fig. 16, amplexus, female) has a uniform grey dorsum with a faint cross band between the eyes.   
 Distribution and natural history: Amboli in Maharashtra, and Castle Rock and Londa in Karnataka (Fig. 14B, Table 1). Annandale’s report of this species from ‘Khas, Satara district’ (ZSIC 18782–18813) and ‘Khandalla, Poona district’ (ZSIC 1814–1818), which are severely damaged specimens still available at ZSIC (Annandale, 1919), was in error. At Castle Rock, specimen SDB 40205 was found at about 1-m high in vegetation, whereas BNHS 4418 and BNHS 4419 were found on the ground in a secondary forest patch.
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 399-400, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00466.x, http://zenodo.org/record/5445358