THE STARRY DWARF FROG ASTROBATRACHUS KURICHIYANA

March 13, 2019

The discovery of India’s newest frog – the starry dwarf frog Astrobatrachus Kurichiyana – has been published on March 13 in PeerJ, an international multidisciplinary journal.

About:

Nomenclature: The team named the new species the starry dwarf frog Astrobatrachus kurichiyana (genus Astrobatrachus after its starry spots and kurichiyana in honour of the Kurichiya tribal community who live in the Kerala’s Wayanad area).
Habitat and Distribution: It lives under leaf litter on a mountaintop in Kerala’s Wayanad.
Features:
- It is a starry dwarf frog. It is just 2 cm long and sports pale blue spots and brilliant orange thighs. It is a nocturnal amphibian.
- Its closest relatives are the Nycibatrachinae group of frogs that dwell in the streams of Western Ghats, and the Lankanectinae frogs of Sri Lanka.
- It is not only a new species but different enough to be assigned to a new ‘subfamily’.
Evolution: Genetic analysis reveal that the species is at least 60 million years old.