Raorchestes honnametti

The Honnametti bush frog (Roarchestes honnametti) is a frog.  It lives in India. Scientists have seen it in the Western Ghat mountains. People have seen it between 600 and 1800 meters above sea level.

The adult male frog is about 21.7–24.8 mm long from nose to rear end. The skin of its back is gray in color with some stripes. The skin of its legs is brown in color with some yellow marks.  It has small, horny spikes on its back and face. Like other frogs in Raorchestes, it is never a tadpole. The eggs hatch into small frogs.

This frog lives in trees in shola forests and evergreen forests and forests with some evergreen trees and some other trees.

This frog is not in danger of dying out, but there are fewer than there were. This is because it lives in two tiger preserves: Biligiri Ranga Swamy Temple Tiger Reserve and Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve. Human beings decided not to build roads or buildings on the land to save tigers. That means the frog can live there without humans taking its place to live. However, other frogs from far away have come to the tiger preserve: Lantana camara and Ageratina adenophora. Scientists think these new frogs are outcompeting the Honnametti bush frog: they eat the food that it would eat.  If people stopped protecting these places, scientists think, the frog would be in more danger because people would change its home too much. Climate change could also kill this frog if it makes its home too dry. Scientists think the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis could kill this frog with the disease chytridiomycosis.

References

Category:Frogs of Asia