“The addition of three new species of amphibians within one year underscores the biological richness of the region and flags the need for further exploration in the Namdapha-Kamlang landscape.”

A new species of music frog has been found in the dense landscapes of Arunachal Pradesh, in north eastern India.

The research— a collaboration between Indian biologists and researchers from the University of Wolverhampton— was funded by a National Geographic Explorer Grant and represents the third consecutive discovery of new amphibian species in the Namdapha-Kamlang region this year.

The exploration, led by biologists stationed at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun, and academic researchers from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Wolverhampton working in tandem with the state’s forest department, led to the Namdapha-Kamlang landscape near Gandhigram, close to the Namdapha Tiger Reserve.

The newfound species has been christened the Noa-Dihing music frog (Nidirana noadihing) after being discovered near the Noa-Dihing River.

“This newly discovered frog grows up to six centimeters and is characterized by a pale cream-colored line on the mid-body, and with a unique call pattern consisting of two-three notes,” said Dr. Deepak Veerappan, a herpetologist and postdoctoral research associate in Origins of Western Melanesian Diversity at the University of Wolverhampton, in a statement.

Quack Quack

“Initially we first heard the call from a marsh near the Noa-Dihing river, which is quite similar to wild duck species, like ‘quack… quack… quack,’ which we never heard before,” Dr. Veerappan added.

The discovery was a result of field surveys carried out during August and September 2022 in the Changlang and Lohit districts of Arunachal Pradesh. Armed with torch lights, researchers carried out nocturnal surveys between 6 pm and midnight to locate the frogs. These surveys involved visual encounters and acoustic observations of anurans.

Further exploration revealed the presence of the Noa-Dihing music frog in the marshy surroundings of Glaw Lake in the Kamlang Tiger Reserve in 2022. The marshy area, dominated by a specific grass species called Rotala, was ideal for male frogs to create circular pits, their version of private pools, from which they called out to attract female frogs.

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Marshy mysteries

The breeding, egg-laying, and parental care habits of this newly discovered marsh-adapted frog species remain a mystery, providing researchers with an intriguing avenue for future studies.

“The addition of three new species of amphibians within one year underscores the biological richness of the region and flags the need for further exploration in the hyper-diverse Namdapha-Kamlang landscape,” said Dr Veerappan, emphasizing the need to conserve these wildlife-rich swampy areas.

This discovery of the new music frog species near the Namdapha Tiger Reserve, one of Northeast India’s largest protected areas, suggests that more populations of the Noa-Dihing music frog may be uncovered through extended research while stressing on the delicate balance required to maintain the ecological diversity of these protected regions.

Since completing his PhD from Saurashtra University in 2013 where he researched the ecology and behavior of Travancore tortoises, Dr Veerpan has been a mainstay to the conservation, ecology, evolution, and systematics of amphibians and reptiles with his contributions.

These contributions have led him to receive the Marie-Sklodowska-Curie individual fellowship (2017-2019), the National Geographic Explorer Award (2020-2022), and the Humboldt Experienced Research Fellowship (2021-2022).

The findings of the team have been published in international peer-reviewed journals based in Germany, London, and New Zealand.

Source:

Amal Jos Chacko at Interesting Engineering

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