Philautus chromasynchysi 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 chromasynchysi

description: PHILAUTUS CHROMASYNCHYSI SP. NOV.  (FIGS 2, 19, 23C, 26A–E, 27A–C; TABLE 2)  
 Type material: Holotype, BNHS 4433, an adult male, SVL 23.3 mm, collected by SDB on 7 September 1997 from Kurichiyarmala, Wayanad, Kerala, India; paratypes, BNHS 4434–4437, four adult males, collected along with the holotype, BNHS 4438–4440, three adult males, and BNHS 4441 and BNHS 4442, two adult females, collected by SDB on 20 July 2002 from the type locality.   
 Other material studied: none.   
 Diagnosis: Philautus chromasynchysi is distinguished from known congeners by the following combination of characters: (1) medium adult size; (2) snout pointed; (3) canthus rostralis sharp; (4) tongue with pointed papilla; (5) posterior surface of thighs dark brown, and anterior surface of thighs and groins dark brown with yellow blotches.   
 Philautus chromasynchysi is allied to Philautus marki sp. nov., P. signatus, and P. tinniens. Philautus chromasynchysi differs from P. marki sp. nov. by the absence of horny ridges between the eyes (vs. horny ridges between eyes, arranged in a triangle directed posteriorly, Fig. 47A), flank and groin dark brown with yellow blotches (vs. flank and groin light grey with minute white marbling); differs from P. signatus and P. tinniens by its sparsely to prominent horny spinular dorsal skin (vs. shagreened to sparsely granular dorsum, in P. signatus and P. tinniens), and more specifically the new species differs from P. signatus by its small snout–vent length, SVL 22.9 ± 2.9 mm, N = 8, male (vs. large, SVL 29.6 ± 2.8 mm, N = 8), flank and groin dark brown with yellow blotches (vs. flank and groin flesh white or light-reddish brown, without markings); from P. tinniens by its tongue with pointed papilla (vs. without), flank and groin dark brown with yellow blotches (vs. flank and groin dark-brownish black), fingers uniform colour (vs. first two fingers yellow). Because of the overall green coloration, P. chromasynchysi could be confused with six other species of Philautus that have a predominantly green colour from this region, although it can be easily differentiated from these by both morphological and colour pattern differences (Fig. 19).   
 Description of the holotype (all measurements in mm): Small-sized frog (SVL 23.3) with a slender body (Fig. 26A); head length (HL 9.0) longer than width (HW 8.9; MN 7.9; MFE 6.1; MBE 3.3); outline of snout in dorsal and ventral views pointed, slightly protruding, snout length (SL 3.3) slightly shorter than horizontal diameter of eye (EL 3.5); canthus rostralis sharp, loreal region vertical to acute, slightly concave; distance between posterior margins of eyes (IBE 8.6) 1.7 times the distance between anterior margins of eyes (IFE 5.1); tympanum (TYD 1.3) distinct, rounded (Fig. 26C); supratympanic fold rather distinct; tongue with pointed lingual papilla, free.   
Forelimb (FLL 5.1) shorter than hand (HAL 6.6; TFL 4.0); lateral dermal fringe present, webbing absent; subarticular tubercles prominent, rounded, single, III2 and IV2 weak (Fig. 26D); prepollex rather distinct; palmar tubercle distinct, rounded; supernumerary tubercles present on fingers III and IV; nuptial pad absent.  
Hindlimbs moderately long, shank (ShL 12.7) subequal to thigh (FL 12.4), longer than distance from base of inner metatarsal tubercle to tip of toe IV (FOL 9.7); distance from heel to tip of toe IV (TFOL 15.9); webbing moderate (Fig. 26E); reaching up to second subarticular tubercle on either side of toe IV; dermal fringe along toe V present; subarticular tubercle rather prominent, rounded, simple, IV3 and V2 weakly developed; supernumerary tubercles weakly present on all toes (Fig. 26E).  
Skin of snout and between eyes shagreened, upper eyelids with prominent tubercles, side of head shagreened to sparsely granular, anterior part of back with sparsely granular spinules, posterior part of back granular, upper and lower parts of flank granular, dorsal part of forelimb, thigh, tibia, and tarsus shagreened to sparsely granular; throat shagreened, chest, belly, and posterior surface of thighs granular.  
 Colour of holotype: In life: dorsum uniform dark green (Fig. 27A), completely extended to lateral side of snout, and loreal and tympanic regions, groin light yellow with brown blotches, posterior surface of thighs dark brown, and anterior surface of thighs and groins dark brown with yellow blotches, lateral side light yellowish green, iris dark golden brown, encircled by a thin bluish green outer ring, dorsal green colour completely extended to the limbs, forelimbs and hindlimbs with faint cross bands, fingers and toes light blackish green; ventral side light yellow, hands and feet greyish brown.   
In preservation: dorsum uniform greyish black, loreal and tympanic regions light-greyish black, upper eyelids black, lateral abdominal area whitish; surface of thighs light brown, groins light grey with white patches; forelimbs and hindlimbs light-greyish black, hindlimbs with faint grey cross bands.  
 Variation: Measurements of ten type series are given in Table 2. Dorsal colour and pattern highly variable, ranging from uniform dark green through a variety of greens to light-greyish brown (Fig. 27A–C): (1) typical yellow with brown blotches, faint dorsal cross bands on limbs, (paratype, BNHS 4435); (5) dorsum light greyish brown with a light broad band from snout to vent, lateral side dark brown (BNHS 4440); (6) sparsely spinular dorsum, a light-grey streak from either side of snout, along the side of head up to the lower level of upper eyelid, a pair of concave black lines from the lower level of upper eyelid to vent, filled with dark-greyish brown, lateral side lightgreyish yellow (BNHS 4439); (7) prominent horny spinular dorsum, light brown with faint triangular marking between the eyes, a pair of concave lines on the middle of dorsum (BNHS 4437). In captivity, the dorsal colour does not change much other than a slight variation from light brown to dark brown or from light green to dark green. Significantly, the groin and thigh markings are highly constant, and hence the identification of this species is straightforward based on the combination of spinular dorsum, and groin coloration.   
 Etymology: The species name is derived from two Greek words: chroma meaning ‘colour’ and synchysi meaning ‘confusion’, referring to the species having confusing dorsal colour.   
 Distribution and natural history: Philautus chromasynchysi is known only from the type locality. This species is located in a small area of about 30 km 2, on an isolated mountain at Kurichiyarmala (Fig. 23C, Table 1). The holotype and four paratypes were collected from the ground under leaf litter during a late evening in the non-breeding season (September), the remaining six paratypes were collected during a rainy late evening in the breeding season (July), from leaves about 1-m high.   
dark-green dorsum, without markings (holotype, BNHS 4433, Fig. 27A) in life, turns uniform greyish black in preservation; (2) dorsal skin prominently horny spinular, uniform greyish brown dorsum with dark discontinuous concave lines on either side, from just behind the eye level to vent (BNHS 4438, Fig. 27B); (3) uniform yellowish green dorsum with dark minute spots, groin dark brown with golden yellow blotches, lateral region golden yellow (paratype, BNHS 4442, Fig. 27C); (4) sparsely horny spinular skin, dorsum light green with a pair of faint concave lines, an inverted dark triangular patch in between the eyes (directed downwards), lateral region light-yellowish grey, anterior surface of thighs light
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 407-409, DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2008.00466.x, http://zenodo.org/record/5445358