Yadera Leaping Frog
Species Description: Dahanukar N, Modak N, Krutha K, Nameer PO, Padhye AD, Molur S 2016 Leaping Frogs (Anura: Ranixalidae) of the Western Ghats of India: an integrated taxonomic review. J Threatened Taxa 8: 9221-9288.
Indirana yadera is a small frog described from three females. The head that is longer than it is wide and has a snout that is longer than the horizontal diameter of the eye. Dorsally, the snout is suboval and ventrally it slightly protruding past the mouth. Their nostrils are closer to the snout than to the eye. They have a distinct tympanum that is half the diameter of the eye and it separated from the eye. The supra-tympanic fold is distinct. The upper eyelid width is slightly more than half of the eyelid. The upper eyelid is densely tuberculated. The interorbital distance is smaller than the internarial distance. The species has a distinct canthus rostrails and a slightly concave and oblique loreal region. The buccal cavity is wide with slightly deep vomerine teeth in oblique rows between two margins of the choanae. The tongue is thin and bifid with mid ventral papilla (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
The upper arm is shorter than the forearm; the hand is longer than the forearm length. Indirana yadera has a finger length formula of F2 (1.5) < F1 (1.7) < F4 (2.2) < F3 (3.1) . There are palmar tubercles present and double outer palmar tubercles. The subarticular tubercles are moderate to large in size. There are supernumerary tubercles present. They have a broad, truncate discs with semicircular grooves. The finger discs are moderate in size and twice the width of the finger. The fingers do not have webbing or fringes of skin (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
Their thigh is shorter than their shank. The total foot length is longer than the tibia. The tibio-tarsal articulation reaches beyond the snout when adpressed to the body. They have a toe length formula of T1 (1.6) < T2 (2.2) < T5 (3.8) < T3 (3.9) < T4 (5.2) and a webbing formula of I1-2II1-2III1-3I 3-1. Compared to the finger discs the toes discs are slightly larger. The diameter of the toe discs is slightly less than twice the width of the toe. The leaping frog also has semicircular grooves on the discs. Their inner metatarsal tubercle is thin and elongated while the outer metatarsal tubercle is absent. The supernumerary tubercles are also absent. Subarticular tubercles range from moderate to large for I. yadera. The tarsal fold and outer phalangeal fringe is absent (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
The dorsal skin is smooth with dense glandular longitudinal folds that are arranged in irregular rows. The lateral side of the frog is granular and the ventral side is smooth. The posteoventral side of the femur has dense granular (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
Indirana yadera has a longer head length than Indirana chiravasi and Indirana salelkari. Indirana yadera's head is both longer head length and wider than Indirana beddomii andIndirana brachytarsus. The focal species also has a longer snout, and a shorter maximum ratio of distance between vomers and head length when compared to I. beddomii. Compared to I. chiravasi, the focal species has a smaller tympanum, a tibio-tarsal articulation that reaches further beyond the snout, and a larger minimum distances between the vomerine teeth and head width. Indirana yadera has nostrils farther from the snout, inter-narial distance that is subequal to or larger than inter-orbital distance, and a smaller range of vomer to head length ratios when compared to I. duoisi. Indirana yadera has a longer thigh and tibia than I. gundia and the former's tibio-tarsal articulation reaches further beyond snout than the latter. The focal species can be differentiated from I. salelkari by former having a shallower buccal cavity and by its geographic range being in the south Palghat gap . Indirana yadera differs from I. sarojamma by having shorter palms, shorter feet, a shallower buccal cavity, and larger vomer to head lenght ratio (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
In preservation, the dorsum is a pinkish-brown with irregular dark brown spots and a ‘W’ shaped mark at the posterior border of the head. Between the upper eyelids there is a white band followed posteriorly by a dark band. There are brown stripes along the upper and lower mandible. A distinct brown stripe runs from the tip of the snout to the shoulder through the eye and tympanum. The forelimbs and hind limbs are barred with dark brown stripes. The sole of the foot and the foot itself is dark brown. Ventrally the frog is cream. The throat is mottled brown. The thigh and tibia are orangish-yellow (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
No male specimens were recorded in the species description (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
Distribution and Habitat
Indirana yadera is known from three localities south of the Palghat gap: Agamalai in Idukki Wildlife Sanctuary at an elevation of 797 m, Neyyar Wildlife Sanctuary at an elevation of 138 m and Chimmony Wildlife Sanctuary at an elevation of 55 m in Kerala (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
Indirana yadera is most closely related to Indirana sarojamma based on maximum likelihood analysis from concatenated mitochondrial 16S rRNA and nuclear rhodopsin partial gene sequences. However, with more samples this could change (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
There are two distinct clades distinguished by webbing. Molecular phylogeny based on maximum likelihood analysis of both mitochondrial and nuclear data showed that Indirana was polyphyletic and thus the new genus, Walkerana, was proposed. From the molecular clock it can be inferred that Indirana and Walkerana split from each other around 58.4 million years ago (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
The species epithet "yadera" is from the combination of the first two letters of a group of friends’ names: Yamini, Deepa, and Ravisankaran (Dahanukar et al. 2016).
Dahanukar, N., Modak, N., Krutha, K., Nameer, P.O., Padhye, A.D., Molur, S. (2016). ''Leaping frogs (Anura: Ranixalidae) of the Western Ghats of India: an integrated taxonomic review.'' Journal of Threatened Taxa, 8(10), 9221-9288.
Written by Maxine Weber (maxine349 AT berkele), UC Berkeley
First submitted 2017-02-13
Edited by Ann T. Chang (2017-02-21)
Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2017 Indirana yadera: Yadera Leaping Frog <http://amphibiaweb.org/species/8517> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Jul 7, 2020.
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Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2020. <http://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 7 Jul 2020.
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