Taruga (frog)

Taruga is a genus of frogs in the family Rhacophoridae. They live in Sri Lanka.

Scientists used to call Taruga Polypedates. Taruga has three species in it: T. fastigo, T. eques, and T. longinasus.  The frogs in Taruga have cone-shaped flesh around their vent.

Name
Taruga in Sanskrit (and early-Sinhala) means "tree climber." These frogs live in trees and do not come to the ground. They even lay their eggs in plants that reach out over water.

All three frogs need shade from tree branches for adults to live, and they need shallow, slow-moving streams or puddles to lay eggs.

The female frog builds a foamy nest on a plant that hangs over water. The eggs develop for a few days, and then the tadpoles fall into water. The young frogs that climb out of the water climb up into the trees life.

Species
There are three species in this genus:
Taruga eques (Günther, 1858)
Taruga fastigo (Manamendra-Arachchi & Pethiyagoda, 2001)
Taruga longinasus (Ahl, 1927)

 References 
 Meegaskumbura, M. et al.. 2010.  .

 Other websites 
 Taruga, a new tree-frog genus from Sri Lanka

Category:Frogs of Asia