Zootaxa 4420 (2): 151–179 ISSN 1175-5326 (print edition) http://www.mapress.com/j/zt/ Article ZOOTAXA Copyright © 2018 Magnolia Press ISSN 1175-5334 (online edition) https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4420.2.1 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:2173C1AB-6BCC-46A7-ABB1-F08EB2857B22 A new species of Microhyla Tschudi, 1838 (Anura: Microhylidae) from West Coast of India: an integrative taxonomic approach KUMAR K. VINEETH1,4, U. K. RADHAKRISHNA1, R. D. GODWIN2, SAHA ANWESHA3, K. PATIL RAJASHEKHAR1 & N. A. ARAVIND3,4 1Department of Applied Zoology, Mangalore University, Mangalagangothri, Konaje 574199, Karnataka, India 2St. Aloysius Pre University College, Mangalore 575003, Karnataka, India 3Suri Sehgal Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation, Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Royal Enclave, Srirampura, Jakkur PO, Bengaluru 560064, India 4Corresponding authors. E-mail: [email protected] and [email protected] Abstract A new species of microhylid frog Microhyla kodial sp. nov. from the west coast of India is described in this paper. It is distinct from all described species of Microhyla occurring in South and Southeast Asia as revealed by a combination of morphological, molecular and acoustic characters. The new species is characterized by absence of lateral body stripe, tu- berculated dorsal skin surface, absence of webbing between fingers, presence of basal webbing between toes and absence of dorsal marginal groove on finger and toe disc. Each male advertisement call lasts for 0.11–0.42 s and is comprised of 2–7 pulses with a dominant frequency of 3.3–4.2 kHz. The breeding season is short, limited to the rainy season (June to September) and the females lay up to 300 eggs per clutch. A molecular phylogenetic tree constructed using the mitochon- drial 16S rRNA gene shows that M. kodial sp. nov. is closely related to the M. achatina group from Southeast Asia. The uncorrected genetic divergence between the new species and its closest congeners M. heymonsi, M. mantheyi, M. borneen- sis and M. orientalis were 7.3–7.6 %, 7.5–7.8%, 7.8–8.1% and 8.1–8.4% respectively. At present, this species is known only from the type locality, a highly disturbed urban and industrialized area which needs conservation intervention. Key words: Western Ghats, narrow-mouthed frog, wetland, Mangaluru Introduction There has been a remarkable increase in the number of known amphibians in the last 15 years. The main reasons behind this rapid increase in discovery of amphibian species are increased exploration in the tropics, better understanding of taxonomy, and the application of molecular and bioacoustics tools (Vences & Köhler 2008). Presently, there are 7,818 reported species of amphibians, of which 6,894 species are anurans, 717 are caudates and 207 are gymnophionans (Frost 2018). Amphibians in India are highly diverse with several endemic families (Aravind & Gururaja 2011). Most new species discoveries are either from these families which include Ranixalidae, Micrixalidae and Nyctibatrachidae or from biodiversity rich regions such as the Western Ghats and Eastern Himalayas. At the same time, discoveries from cosmopolitan families like Microhylidae, Dicroglossidae and Bufonidae and from the so-called ‘species poor regions’ such as coastal plains, Deccan Plateau and Eastern Ghats are relatively rare. However, contrary to popular notions, these groups and regions also harbor several species new to science as shown through several recent publications (Joshy et al. 2009; Priti et al. 2016; Seshadri et al. 2016a). The family Microhylidae comprises 13 subfamilies with a wide distribution across the world (Frost 2018; Peloso et al. 2015). In India, this family has six genera and 26 species. Of these, 15 species are found in Southern India, 10 in Eastern India and one species endemic to the Andaman Islands. The genus Microhyla Tschudi (1838) is restricted to Asia and has a total of 41 species (Khatiwada et al. 2017). Much of the diversity occurs in Southeast Asia (Bain & Nguyen 2004; Poyarkov Jr et al. 2014) followed by South Asia (India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Accepted by M. Vences: 26 Mar. 2018; published: 16 May 2018 151 Bangladesh). In India, nine valid species have been described; of these, three are endemic (M. sholigari, M. laterite and M. chakrapanii) to the Indian political boundary and the remaining six have widespread distribution in South and Southeast Asia. About 11 new species of Microhyla have been described in the last seven years (Matsui 2011; Matsui et al. 2013; Hasan et al. 2014; Poyarkov Jr et al. 2014; Howlader et al. 2015; Seshadri et al. 2016a; Wijayathilaka et al. 2016; Khatiwada et al. 2017). In this paper, we describe the 10th species of Microhyla from India. This new species was encountered while carrying out field surveys in the coastal region of western India as part of a larger study on community ecology of anurans in the urban landscape. This new species (unlike other described members of Microhyla), has been exclusively recorded from an urban industrial area that is surrounded by seaport, petrochemical, chemical and refinery industries. Materials and methods Abbreviations. amsl: above mean sea level; Hz: Hertz; alt: altitude; h: hours; g: grams; m: meters; mm: millimeters; min: minutes; s: seconds; NCBS: National Centre for Biological Sciences; ATREE: Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment; VKK: Vineeth Kumar K.; RUK: Radhakrishna U.K.; NAA: Aravind N.A. Study area. A total of seven surveys were conducted from June-October 2016, in Baikampady, 10 km north of Mangaluru city, Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka State, Southwest India (12.9518o N, 74.8089o E; alt 6m amsl; Fig. 1). The study area is in an urban landscape and has seasonal marshy vegetation with open grassland with herbs, shrubs, sparsely distributed trees. The National Highway NH66 runs on one side and railway for Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited on the other side. This area, until recently, was used to dump timber logs imported from Southeast Asia to New Mangalore Port. The area gets filled with water during monsoon (June to October). Average annual rainfall and relative humidity in this region is 3672 mm and 75.3% respectively (https:// censusinindia.gov.in). Voucher collection. Specimen collection and tissue sampling protocol followed guidelines for use of live amphibians and reptiles in field research as prescribed by the American Society for Ichthyologists and Herpetologists. Ethical clearance was obtained from ATREE’s internal Animal Ethics Committee (Ref no: AAEC/ 102/2016) before collection. The collection methods and preservation met the requirements of the committee. Animals were collected by hand and placed in moist cotton bags and transported to the lab within an hour. All individuals were then euthanized using a topical anesthetic, Benzocaine gel (20%). A small volume of the gel (< 0.5 cm3) was squeezed out on a swab and applied on the animal’s ventral region and specimens were fixed in 4% formalin for 24 h and then preserved in 70% ethyl alcohol for further work. A total of ten voucher specimens (five males and five females) were collected by VKK, RUK and NAA on 28th September 2016 between 20:00–23:00 h when the calling activity was maximum (observations done during previous field visits). Five tadpoles were collected (by enclosing an egg clutch to study the development of tadpoles in the type locality on 22nd July 2016) and preserved in 5% formalin for morphological studies. Morphological measurements. Measurements of preserved adult individuals were recorded using an Aerospace® digital calliper to the nearest 0.1 mm. We followed morphometric terminologies as suggested by Seshadri et al. (2016b). Since the feet and toes were too small to be measured using a digital calliper, all the measurements relating to limbs were done using ImageJ® from the photographs taken using Nikon D800 DSLR camera and Nikkor 105 mm macro lens with R1C1 flash units. All the measurements provided in the result section are in millimetres. The term shank is used here to refer to the part of the leg containing the tibia, and thigh is used for the part containing the femur. Abbreviations: SVL (snout–vent length), HW (head width, at the angle of jaws), HL (head length, from posterior corner of mandible to tip of snout), HD (head depth, height of the head measured at post-orbital region), IUE (inter upper eyelid width, shortest distance between upper eyelids), UEW (maximum upper eyelid width), SL (snout length, distance from anterior corner of eye to tip of snout), EL (eye length, eye horizontal diameter), MN (distance from posterior corner of mandible to nostril), MFE (distance from posterior corner of mandible to anterior orbital border of the eye), MBE (distance from posterior corner of mandible to posterior orbital border of eye), IN (inter-narial distance, least distance between the inner margins of nares), IFE (distance between anterior corners of eyes, the shortest distance between the anterior orbital borders of the eyes), 152 · Zootaxa 4420 (2) © 2018 Magnolia Press KUMAR ET AL. IBE (distance between posterior corners of eyes, the shortest distance between the posterior orbital borders of the eyes), NS (nostril to snout distance, distance from middle of nostril to tip of snout), EN (eye to nostril distance, distance from anterior corner of eye to middle of nostril), FLL (forelimb length, measured from the elbow to base of outer palmar tubercle), HAL (hand length, measured from base of outer palmar