Micrixalus elegans (Rao, 1937)

Class: Amphibia > Order: Anura > Family: Micrixalidae > Genus: Micrixalus > Species: Micrixalus elegans

Philautus elegans Rao, 1937, Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., Ser. B, 6: 407. Holotype: CCB; now lost according to Dubois, 1984, Alytes, 3: 157. Type locality: "Kempholey, Hassan", Karnataka, India. BNHS 5808 designated neotype by Biju, Garg, Gururaja, Shouche, and Walujkar, 2014, Ceylon J. Sci., Biol. Sci., 43: 17. Neotype from "Kempholay, Hassan dist., Karnataka state", India. 

Micrixalus elegansBossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 48.

English Names

Elegant Bubble-nest Frog (Frank and Ramus, 1995, Compl. Guide Scient. Common Names Amph. Rept. World: 112).

Crimson Bush Frog (Das and Dutta, 1998, Hamadryad, 23: 66).

Elegant Bush Frog (Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 154).

Elegant Torrent Frog (Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Gururaja, and Bhatta, 2009, Rec. Zool. Surv. India, Occas. Pap., 302: 45; Dinesh, Radhakrishnan, Deepak, and Kulkarni, 2023, Fauna India Checklist, vers. 5.0 : 6).

Elegant Dancing Frog (Biju, Garg, Gururaja, Shouche, and Walujkar, 2014, Ceylon J. Sci., Biol. Sci., 43: 17). 

Distribution

Kknown only from the South India states of Kerala and Karnataka, with its distribution restricted between the Palghat Gap and Goa Gap in the Western Ghats; specifically reported from Aralam (Kannur District) in Kerala, and at Kempholay, Sakleshpur (Hassan District), Yavakapady and Bhagamandala (Kodagu District) in Karnataka. 

Geographic Occurrence

Natural Resident: India

Endemic: India

Comment

Transferred provisionally to Micrixalus by Bossuyt and Dubois, 2001, Zeylanica, 6: 48-49. Chanda, 2002, Handb. Indian Amph.: 154, provided a brief account (as Philautus elegans).  A very brief characterization, photograph, and dot map provided by Subramanian, Dinesh, and Radhakrishnan, 2013, Atlas of Endemic Amph. W. Ghats: 58, although this characterization may have been based on specimens not now allocated to this species. Das and Dutta, 2007, Hamadryad, 31: 154–181, noted no larval descriptions. Biju, Garg, Gururaja, Shouche, and Walujkar, 2014, Ceylon J. Sci., Biol. Sci., 43: 1-87, revised the species, placed it in their Micrixalus elegans group, and redlimited its range to exclude a number of species named in their paper.

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