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

description: PHILAUTUS AKROPARALLAGI SP. NOV.  (FIGS 2, 3A–D, 4A–D, 5, 6A, 19; TABLE 2)  
 Type material: Holotype, BNHS 4387, an adult male, SVL 20.5 mm, collected by SDB on 21 July 1999 from Ponmudi, Thiruvananthapuram District, Kerala, India; paratypes, BNHS 4388–4389 and BNHS 4391–4392, four adult males, and BNHS 4536, an adult female, collected along with the holotype.   
 Other material studied: FMNH 218117, an adult male, from Ponmudi; BNHS 4394, an adult male, from Athirimala; BNHS 4395, an adult male, from Kannikatti; BNHS 4396, an adult male, from Chathankod; BNHS 4397, an adult male, from Bonakkad; BNHS 4561–4566, six adult males, and BNHS 4567, an adult female, all from Kalpetta (Table 2).   
 Diagnosis: Philautus akroparallagi sp. nov. can be distinguished from known congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) small male adult size (19.2–22.5-mm long), medium female adult size (26.0–27.3-mm long); (2) loreal and tympanic regions mostly light brown; (3) dorsal surface of forearm and lateral side of snout, light brown to dark brown in life, turns light brownish grey in preservation.   
 Philautus akroparallagi sp. nov. can be easily differentiated from all of the green species of Philautus from the Western Ghats by its unique light-brown to dark-brown forearm, and loreal and tympanic regions, in nearly all colour morphs (Figs 4A–D, 19). However, because of the overall green coloration (excepting the variation), P. akroparallagi sp. nov. could be confused with four other green species from the Western Ghats (P. beddomii, P. bobingeri, P. glandulosus, and P. jayarami sp. nov.) and with one species, Philautus femoralis (Günther, 1864), from Sri Lanka.   
 Apart from the unique light-brown loreal and tympanic region coloration, P. akroparallagi sp. nov. is distinct from P. bobingeri, P. glandulosus, and P. jayarami sp. nov. by its smaller male snout–vent length (Fig. 5), SVL 20.7 ± 1.0 mm, N = 16 (vs. SVL 22.5 ± 2.0 mm, N = 7, in P. bobingeri; SVL 25.2 ± 2.0 mm, N = 4, in P. glandulosus; SVL 26.3 ± 2.0 mm, N = 6, in P. jayarami sp. nov.), and light-yellowish groin and thigh margins (vs. dark flesh red in P. bobingeri, Fig. 13; light white to greyish white groin and thigh margins without marking, Fig. 40A, or with bluish black spots, Fig. 40B, in P. jayarami sp. nov.).   
 Although P. beddomii is not allied with the new species, we also made a comparison so as to avoid further confusion caused by the overall green colour and comparable snout–vent length. Philautus akroparallagi sp. nov. differs from P. beddomii by a number of distinct morphological traits and coloration: snout length longer than horizontal diameter of eye, SL 3.3 ± 0.2 mm vs. EL 2.6 ± 0.2 mm, N = 16 (vs. snout length equal to horizontal diameter of eye, i.e. SL 2.8 ± 0.2 mm and EL 2.8 ± 0.2 mm, N = 11), lateral side of snout, forearm, and loreal and tympanic regions light brown to dark brown (vs. dorsal green coloration completely extended to snout, limbs, and loreal and tympanic regions). Philautus femoralis is a member of the Sri Lankan radiation, and is not closely related to the green species of the Western Ghats (Bossuyt et al., 2004). A more detailed comparison of green coloured Philautus species of the Western Ghats is shown in Figure 19A–D.   
 Description of the holotype (with all measurements in mm): Small frog (SVL 20.5) with a slender body (Fig. 3A); head length (HL 7.7; Fig. 3B) slightly larger than width (HW 7.5; MN 5.9; MFE 4.5; MBE 1.6); outline of snout in dorsal and ventral views pointed, snout length (SL 3.1) longer than horizontal diameter of eye (EL 2.5); canthus rostralis rounded, loreal region acutely concave; distance between posterior margins of eyes (IBE 7.4) about 1.7 times the distance between anterior margins of eyes (IFE 4.3); tympanum (TYD 0.9) rather indistinct; supratympanic fold rather indistinct; tongue without lingual papilla.   
Forelimb (FLL 4.2) shorter than hand (HAL 5.4; TFL 2.9); fingers without lateral dermal fringe, webbing absent; subarticular tubercles prominent, rounded, single, IV2 absent (Fig. 3C); prepollex rather indistinct; palmar tubercle absent; supernumerary tubercles rather indistinct; nuptial pads present (Fig. 3C), smooth, and creamy white.  
Hindlimbs moderately long, shank (ShL 10.3) almost equal to thigh (TL 10.2), longer than distance from base of inner metatarsal tubercle to tip of toe IV (FOL 8.4); distance from heel to tip of toe IV (TFOL 13.6); webbing reduced (Fig. 3D), reaching up to second subarticular tubercle on the inside of toe IV, and just above the second subarticular tubercle on the outside of toe IV; dermal fringe along toe V absent; subarticular tubercles rather prominent, rounded, simple, IV3 weakly developed, V2 absent (Fig. 3D); supernumerary tubercles weakly present.  
Skin of snout, between eyes, upper eyelids, side of head, and back, shagreened; flanks shagreened to sparsely granular; dorsal part of limbs shagreened; throat shagreened to granular; chest, belly, and posterior surface of thighs granular.  
 Colour of holotype: In life: dorsum uniformly light green with a few scattered grey spots, loreal and tympanic regions light brown; iris light brown, encircled by light bluish white outer ring, lateral region light yellowish, groin light yellowish, forelimbs brownish, thigh with a green line extending from near vent to knee, anterior and posterior margins of thigh light yellow, without markings; shank Species Sex Locality Museum number   
SVL HW HL IUE UEW SL EL FLL HAL
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 379-384, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00466.x, http://zenodo.org/record/5445358