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

description: PHILAUTUS BEDDOMII (GÜNTHER, 1876)   
(FIGS 2, 6D, 11, 12A, B, 19; TABLE 2)  
 Type material: Lectotype, NMW 22884, an adult male, SVL 16.8 mm, from ‘Malabar’ (Günther, 1876), corrected by (Boulenger, 1882) to ‘Atray Mallay (i.e. Athirimala), Travancore’.   
 Other material studied: BMNH 1947.2.26.76–77 and BMNH 1947.2.26.67, three adult males, BMNH 1947.2.26.60 and BMNH 1947.2.26.61, two adult females, from ‘Atray Mallay’ (i.e. Athirimala); BNHS 4407–4409, three adult males, BNHS 4414, an adult Identity: Philautus beddomii was described as I xalus beddomii Günther, 1876 based on ‘several specimens’ (Günther, 1876), collected by Colonel Richard Henry Beddome from ‘Malabar’. Later, the type locality was corrected by Boulenger (1882: 102) to ‘Atray Mallay, Travancore’. Dutta (1997: 74) mentioned that NMW 22884 in the Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, is the ‘type’ of this species, and under the 1985 ICZN Code, this was an indirect designation of a lectotype. However, we found two specimens with the number ‘NMW 22884’, and Dutta (1997: 74) did not mention which specimen is the ‘type’. Here, we consider the larger specimen (NMW 22884-2, SVL 16.8 mm, male) to be the lectotype (Fig. 11) of I. beddomii.   
female, from Athirimala; BNHS 4410, an adult male, from Kannikatti; BNHS 4411–4413, three adult males, BNHS 4415 and BNHS 4416, two adult females, from Munnar (Table 2).  
 Diagnosis: Philautus beddomii can be distinguished from known congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) small male adult size (SVL 19.0 ± 2.8 mm, N = 11), small to medium female adult size (SVL 25.8 ± 3.0 mm, N = 5); (2) coloration nearly uniformly green on dorsum, dorsal side of forelimbs, hindlimbs, and loreal and tympanic regions; (3) iris reddish brown. See P. chalazodes for comparison with that species, and Figure 19 for an overview of the differences with green-coloured Philautus in the Western Ghats.   
 Description of the lectotype (all measurements in mm): Small frog (SVL 16.8) with a slender body (Fig. 11); head length (HL 6.7) equal to width (HW 6.7; MN 5.6; MFE 4.6; MBE 2.3); outline of snout in dorsal and ventral views oval, slightly protruding, snout length (SL 2.7) almost equal to horizontal diameter of eye (EL 2.8); canthus rostralis indistinct, loreal region acutely concave; distance between posterior margins of eyes (IBE 6.2) 1.8 times the distance between anterior margins of eyes (IFE 3.5); tympanum (TYD 0.9) rather indistinct; supratympanic fold rather indistinct; tongue without lingual papilla.   
Forelimb (FLL 4.0) shorter than hand (HAL 4.3; TFL 2.5); fingers without lateral dermal fringe, webbing absent; subarticular tubercles rather prominent, rounded, single, IV1 weakly developed; prepollex rather distinct; single palmar tubercle; supernumerary tubercles absent.  
Hindlimbs moderately long, shank (ShL 7.7) longer than thigh (TL 7.5), longer than distance from base of inner metatarsal tubercle to tip of toe IV (FOL 6.6); webbing reduced, reaching up to second subarticular tubercle on inside of toe IV, reaching above the second subarticular tubercle on outside of toe IV (Fig. 19); dermal fringe along toe V absent; subarticular tubercles rather prominent, rounded, simple, IV3 and V2 weakly developed; 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 forelimbs and hindlimbs shagreened; throat shagreened, chest, belly, and posterior surface of thighs granular.  
 Colour in preservation: Dorsum, and loreal and tympanic regions uniform light-brownish grey; forelimbs and hindlimbs light-brownish grey without cross bands (Fig. 11); ventral side uniformly off-white.   
 Variation: Measurements of 16 specimens, including the lectotype, are given in Table 2. The population collected from Munnar has a slightly larger snout– vent length compared with the Athirimala population (Munnar, SVL 22.5 ± 1.1 mm, N = 3, male; SVL 28.9 ± 1.4 mm, N = 2, female vs. Athirimala, SVL 17.3 ± 1.7 mm, N = 7, male; SVL 23.8 ± 0.9 mm, N = 3, female).   
Specimens from Athirimala (type locality, BNHS 4407–4409) and Kannikatti (BNHS 4410) have a uniform green dorsum, and loreal and tympanic regions (BNHS 4408, Fig. 12A). The iris is reddish brown, enclosed by a blue outer ring. The lateral region is bluish white, and the groin is yellowish. The dorsal colour completely extends to both limbs, fingers and toes are greenish yellow, and the discs are dark-yellowish brown. The ventral side of the throat is light-yellowish white, and the belly is white. Hands and feet are white or light yellow. In the population from Munnar (BNHS 4411–4413 and BNHS 4415– 4416), the flank and lateral area are light yellow, intermixed with blue, and the posterior surface of the thighs is yellow with light-bluish markings (BNHS 4416, Fig. 12B).  
 Distribution and natural history: This species is known from Athirimala and Munnar in Kerala, and Kannikatti in Tamil Nadu (Fig. 6D, Table 1). It was found in moist forest patches at Athirimala (the type locality) and Kannikatti (about 50 km south of the type locality). In Munnar (about 300 km north of the type locality), it seems to prefer wayside vegetation and tea plantations. The calling microhabitat preference in all populations was about 1.5 m above the ground, usually on leaves.
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 395-397, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00466.x, http://zenodo.org/record/5445358