Pseudophilautus jagathgunawardanai

Jagath Gunawardana’s shrub frog (Pseudophilautus jagathgunawardanai) is a frog.  It lives in Sri Lanka. Scientists have seen it in exactly one place: Sripada Peak between 1600 and 1750 meters above sea level.

This frog lives in cloud forests. It climbs the trees. People have seen it as low as on the ground and as high as 6 m up in the trees. It climbs trees with lichen on the bark.

The adult female frog is  35.8 – 40.4 mm long from nose to rear end. The skin of the frog's back is light brown in color with dark brown color over the eyes and a dark brown triangle mark on the head. The sides of the body are olive green in color. The legs are light brown in color with some green. The feet have dark brown marks on them. The ends of the toes and the belly are off-white in color.

Like other frogs in Pseudophilautus, P. jagathgunawardanai hatches out of its eggs as small frogs. They never swim as tadpoles.

This frog is endangered. They could all die soon. Scientists say this is because human beings change the places where the frog lives. Humans cut down trees for wood and build cities and farms and places for animals to eat grass where the frog needs to be.

Scientists named this frog after Dr. Jagath Gunawardana, a lawyer who helped save Sri Lanka's wild places.

First paper

References

Category:Frogs of Asia