Minervarya ghatiborealis Yadav, Bhosale, Patil, Khandekar & Dinesh, 2025, sp. nov.
Year: 2025
Type: other
Abstract: Minervarya ghatiborealis sp. nov. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 01A87D59-E2C3-4620-BEFA-1F7306ADF353 (Figures 3–6; Table 2) Holotype. An adult male (ZSI / WRC / A/2702), collected on 28 th June 2016 from Koli aali, Mahabaleshwar, Satara District, Maharashtra, India (17.9231° N, 73.6567° E; ca. 1360 m asl.). Paratopotypes (n = 5). adult male (NRC-AA-8437), and adult female (ZSI / WRC / A/2703), same collection data as holotype; three adult males (BNHS 6838, BNHS 6839, and NRC-AA-8436), same collection data as holotype except collected on 12 th June 2016. Generic Allocation. Minervarya ghatiborealis sp. nov. is assigned to the genus Minervarya based on a suite of characters as demarcated by Dubois et al. (2001) and Garg & Biju (2021) such as large adult size (SVL ranging 55.0– 67.1 mm) presence of vomerine ridge; presence of parietal eye; weakly to well developed and a light greyish-brown glandular stripe extending from the lower half of the tympanum up to the level of the shoulders on either side; presence of fejervaryan lines on either side of the belly; absence of webbing between fingers; webbing between toes rudimentary; absence of finger and toe discs; presence of skin folds, with rugged glandular warty folds on the dorsum; and smooth ventral skin; front and back of thighs with yellow brown reticulated markings. Description of the holotype. Specimen is in good condition except for a small mid-ventral incision for removal of liver sample (Figs 4A–B). A large-sized minervaryan frog with robust body (SVL = 59.1 mm), head length equal to head width (HW/HL = 1.0), snout shape sub-elliptical in dorsal view, rounded in lateral view, snout length (SL = 8.4 mm) longer than eye diameter (EL = 7.0 mm); canthus rostralis round, loreal region concave, interorbital space flat, less than (IUE = 3.7 mm) upper eyelid width (UEW 4.7 = mm) and internarial distance (IN = 5.1 mm); distance between back of eyes 1.7 times more than front of eyes (IFE = 7.9 mm; IBE = 13.3 mm); nostril rounded, as close to the tip of snout (NS = 3.7 mm) as to the eye (NE = 3.8 mm); symphysial knob moderate, ‘W’ shaped; tympanum distinct, rounded visible below the well-developed supratympanic fold (Fig. 4C) and about 48.3% of the eye diameter (TYD = 3.4 mm; EL = 7.0 mm) and placed closer to eye (TE = 2.3 mm); paired lateral vocal sac with a pair of openings at the base of lower jaw; vomerine ridges present with six spinose teeth; tongue bifid without a lingual papilla. Arms slender and short (FLL = 12.5 mm) sub equal to hand (HAL = 13.1 mm); fingers short and thin without dermal fringes; first finger slightly longer than the second (FL1 = 5.4 mm, FL2 = 4.7 mm) third finger is longest (TFL = 7.1 mm), relative length of fingers II<I<IV<III, tips bluntly rounded without enlarged discs, webbing absent; subarticular tubercles distinct and rounded, subarticular tubercle on fingers 1:1:2:2, pre-pollex tubercle distinct; two rounded palmar tubercles; no supernumerary tubercles (Fig. 4E). Hind limbs long, overlap when folded at right angles to the body; tibio-tarsal articulation reaches front of eyes; femur length sub equal to tibia length (FL = 28.5 mm; TiL = 29.4 mm); foot length is two times tarsus length (FOL = 32.0 mm, TAL = 16.0 mm), relative toe length I<II<V<III
Authors: Yadav, Omkar, Bhosale, Amrut, Patil, Priyanka, Khandekar, Akshay, Dinesh, K. P.
Institutions: Thackeray Wildlife Foundation, Zoological Survey of India
Language: English
Subfield: Global and Planetary Change
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W6968131900
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