Occurrence of Melanobatrachus Indicus Beddome 1878 in Mathikettan Shola, Western Ghats

2007·1.1 MB·

by  A M A Nixon

MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, inspeciesidentificationandSanjeevKumarJhaforproofreading
andKarnatakaPowerCorporationLimited,Bangalore.Weare themanuscript.WethankDivakarK. Mesta,Vishnu D. Mukri
gratefultoM.S.Ravichandran,ZSI,Kolkataforhiscooperation andH.Lakshminarayanafortheirhelpinthefield.
REFERENCES
Boulenger, G.A. (1882): Catalogue of the Batrachia Salientia s. acollection ofamphibiansand reptilesfromPonmudi, Kerala,
Ecaudata in the collection of the British Museum. Taylor & south India. J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 81(2): 406-427.
Francis, London. 503pp. Vasudevan, K., A. Kumar & R. Chellam (2001): Structure and
Chanda, S.K. (2002): Hand book - Indian Amphibians. Zoological composition of rainforest floor amphibian communities in
Survey ofIndia. Kolkata. Pp. 57-58. Kalakkad-Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. Carr. Sci. 80(3):
Inger, R.F., H.B.Shaffer,M. Koshy & R. Bakde(1984):Areporton 406-412.
17. OCCURRENCE OF MELANOBATRACHUS INDICES BEDDOME 1878
IN MATHIKETTAN SHOLA, WESTERN GHATS'
A.M.A. Nixon2-3 and S. Bhupathy2-4
‘Accepted September 10, 2004
“Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Anaikatti (PO), Coimbatore 641 109, Tamil Nadu, India.
“Email: [email protected]
JEmail: [email protected], [email protected]
The Malabar Black Narrow-mouthed Frog specimenreportedsofar(DaltryandMartin 1997).
Melanobatrachus indicus Beddome 1878 (Anura: During the present study,both frogswerefound under
Microhylidae) is endemic to the southern Western Ghats of decaying wood. The surroundings had thick leaf litter and
India(Dutta 1997).Distributionofthisspeciesispoorlyknown canopy cover (> 80%), and a perennial stream was found
due to lack of intensive surveys. No firsthand information about 200 m away. All the reported M. indicus so far have
was available since its description by Boulenger (1890).
Recently, it has been reported from the Kalakkad -
MundanthuraiTigerReserve(Vasudevan 1997),PeriyarTiger
Ar
Reserve(Daltryand Martin 1997)andfromValparai (Ishwar X f ^cxfx
*esf
2000
).
The Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural :Irj '* 1,. >
History (SACON), in association with the Kerala Forest : *v
Department, is conducting studies on the reptiles of (3
Mathikettan shola. This shola is a part ofthe western slope Jm?V
ofWesternGhats,andislocatedintheIdukkidistrictofKerala Itf / rr'.L;"
(Fig. 1).Altitudeoftheareais 1,400-1,800mabovemsl,andit ) X***1A '"fJ®
receivesover2,500mmofrainfallannually.Mathikettanshola I frtt*-* T*?.spmwr
1 te,,,;#
hasrecentlybeenproposedasanationalpark,whichincludes
m
about 6,500 ha of tropical evergreen forest and 700 ha of j$
abandoned cardamom plantations. •(Jk
Two specimens of Melanobatrachus indicus were tf\"
observed on January 17, 2004 in the Santhampara of \
Mathikettan shola. Photographsaredepositedwith SACON.
Externalappearanceandcolorationofthesefrogsweresimilar hMt-kkM MmA .aTig<-> 1
x.
to that described by Boulenger (1890): body slender, head X
withoutcranialridge,circularpupil, skin pustularaboveand
smooth below, and black dorsal surface with a scarlet patch
near the groin and between forelegs. One ofthe specimens Fig. 1: MapofthesouthernWesternGhats
(live)measured33mminsnout-ventlength,anditisthelargest showingMathikettansholaandtheadjoininghills
J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 104 (1), Jan-Apr 2007 105
: :
MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
beensightedwithinfive metresofperennial streams (Daltry available for this species since its description (Daltry and
and Martin 1997; Ishwar 2000). The present observation Martin 1997; Vasudevan 1997; Ishwar 2000), which is the
reveals that this species may also occur a considerable second forthe Western Ghats ofKerala.
distance away from water. The altitude of this locality was
1,450 m msl, and all previous sightings ofM. indicus were ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
within 1,000-1,500m.Thisindicatestherestricteddistribution
of this species with respect to altitude. Though the present WethankJamesZacharias,WildlifeWarden,Eravikulam
recordlieswithinthedistributionalrangeofthisspecies,lack NationalParkandtheDistrictForestOfficer,Munnarforlogistic
of precise locality data makes the present observation supportinthefield.S.K.Dutta,UtkalUniversity,Bhubaneswar
noteworthy. This is also one of the four reliable records offeredcommentsonanearlierdraftofthemanuscript.
REFERENCES
Boulenger, G.A. (1890): The Fauna of British India. Reptilia and India. 126 pp.
Amphibia. Taylorand Francis, London, xvii + 541 pp. Ishwar, N.M. (2000): Melanobatrachus indicus Beddome, 1878,
Daltry,J.C. &G.N. Martin(1997): Rediscoveryoftheblacknarrow- resightedattheAnaimalaiHills,southIndia.Hamadryad25(1):
mouthed frog, Melanobatrachus indicus Beddome, 1878. 50-51.
Hamadryad 22(1): 57-58. Vasudevan, K. (1997): Rediscovery of the black microhylid
Dutta, S.K. (1997): AmphibiansofIndiaandSri Lanka(Checklist & (Melanobatrachus indicus). J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 94:
Bibliography). Odyssey Publishing House, Bhubaneswar, 170-171.
18. NEW RECORD OF THE SIMPLE ASCIDIAN STYELA PLICATA (LESUEUR 1823)'
V.K. Meenakshi2andS. SenthamaraT
'Accepted, December 29, 2004
^Department of Zoology, A.PC. Mahalaxmi College for Women, Tuticorin 628 002, Tamil Nadu, India. Email: [email protected]
’Ameen Teacher Training Institute, Puthur, Somasipadi, Thiruvannamalai 606611, Tamil Nadu, India.
—
A simple ascidian Styelaplicata (Lesueur 1823) is plicata DeKay 1843, p. 259, Styela gyrosa: Heller 1877,
reportedforthefirsttimefromTuticorinharbour,TamilNadu, p. 255,Styelagyrosa: Herdman 1882.p. 155,Styelaplicata
India.OnlytwospeciesofthegenusStyelahavebeenreported Traustedt 1883a, p. 123, Styela plicata: Traustedt 1883b,
earlierfromIndia(Renganathan 1981; Krishnanetal. 1989); p. 478, Styelaplicata: Traustedt 1885, p. 44, Styelapinguis:
boththespeciesreported,StyelabicolorandStyelacanopus Herdman 1899, p.40, Tethyum plicatum: Hartmeyer 1909,
,
occurasfoulingorganismsinTuticorinandBombayharbour. p. 1359, Tethyumplicatum: Van Name, 1912, p. 569, Styela
plicata: Huntsman 1912, p. 149, Styela plicata: Huntsman
Styelaplicata (Lesueur 1823)
Occurrence and distribution: Numerous specimens
werecollectedfromtheshelteredwatersofTuticorinharbour
(8° 48' N, 78° IT E), seen attached to piers, pilings, other
harbour installations, corals and also from the pearl oyster
cages suspended at a depth of4-5 m. This species has been
previouslyreportedfromAustralia HartmeyerandMichaelsen
(
1928;Kott 1952, 1972a,b,c, 1975),HongKong(Tokiokaand
Nishikawa 1975; Kott and Goodbody 1982), western Indian
Ocean(Michaelsen 1918),Japan(Tokioka 1960),WestIndies
(Van Name 1921, 1930, 1945), Atlantic Ocean and
Mediterranean Sea (Harant 1927a, b; Harant and Vernieres
1933; Heller 1877) andeasterncoastofNorthAmerica(Van
Name 1912;Huntsman 1912, 1913).
Synonymy:AscidiaplicataLesueur 1823,p.5,Ascidia
106 J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 104 (1), Jan-Apr 2007