Raorchestes signatus

Boulenger's bubble-nest frog, quartet bush frog, star-eyed bush frog, or cross-backed bush frog (Raorchestes signatus) is a frog.  It lives in India in the Western Ghat mountains.

This frog lives in trees in evergreen forests on mountains. It lives in shola forests. It lives in small pieces of forest. It can also live in towns, grassy places, and tea farms. People have seen this frog between 1780 and 2465 meters above sea level.

Like other frogs in Raorchestes, this frog hatches out of its egg as a small frog and never swims as a tadpole.

Scientists have seen frogs with bodies that are the wrong shape. They are not sure why the frogs grow wrong. They think it might be more ultraviolet light.

Scientists say this frog is in some danger of dying out because human beings cut down the forests where it lives to get wood to build with and make farms to grow food and other things.  Human beings also make bad chemicals, chemicals to make crops grow, and chemicals to kill bad plants, all of which hurt this frog. Some of the chemicals make it harder for the frog to have young.

Scientists say climate change can also hurt this frog. The Nilgiri Hills are warmer than they were, so trees that humans brought there by accident can grow where the frog's shola forests were: for example eucalyptus and acacia trees. Climate change has also changed the way the water sits underground, which has changed things for the frog.

Scientists think the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis can also make this frog sick. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis causes the fungal disease chytridiomycosis.

References

Category:Frogs of Asia