Life History of Western Ghats endemic and threatened Anuran – Matheran leaping frog, (Indirana leithii) with notes on its feeding preferences

ABSTRACT

The species Indirana leithii (Anura: Ranixalidae) is endemic to the northern Western Ghats of India and is distributed between latitudes 16°N and 21°N in this region. The tadpoles of this species have been previously studied for their morphology and feeding behaviour; however, their natural history is still not completely understood. In the current study, we provide information about the mating behaviour, egg laying and metamorphosis of the species. We observed that the species possesses reproductive mode number 19 as these frogs lay eggs inside the natural cavities of vertical rock surfaces near streams and waterfalls and their tadpoles are adapted for adhering to the wet rock surface, where they feed on algae (including diatoms) growing in seepage on the rocks. Interestingly, there is no audible calling or territory guarding involved during the courtship behaviour. This has been observed for the first time in any Indian anuran. We also provide data on food preferences of adults and tadpoles.

KEYWORDS:

• Breeding without audible communication
• Diadesmis sp
• Eunotia sp
• inguinal amplexus
• reproductive mode

Geolocation information

Matheran (18.989°N, 73.268°E, 801 m a.s.l.), Harishchandragad (19.386°N, 73.778°E, 1162 m a.s.l.), Naneghat (19.298°N, 73.686°E, 713 m a.s.l.), Lonavla (18.772°N, 73.380°E, 528 m a.s.l.), Tamhini (18.440°N 73.466°E, 915 m a.s.l.), Mahabaleshwar (17.887°N, 73.727°E, 876 m a.s.l.), Koynanagar (17.405°N, 73.738°E, 814 m a.s.l.)

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Neelesh Dahanukar and Hemant Ghate for their help and valuable suggestions during the work and in the preparation of the manuscript. NM and ADP are thankful to Head of the Zoology and Biodiversity Departments and Principal, MES’ Abasaheb Garware College, Pune and HC is thankful to Head of the Zoology Department and Principal, PES’ Modern College, Ganeshkhind. NM is grateful to Mr and Mrs Prakash Joshi for providing accommodation at Matheran which facilitated this work. NM would also like to thank Mr Shivaji Shinde and his family for helping variously while working at Matheran, and is grateful to the people of Matheran for their support during the work. We thank Abhijeet Bayani, Ninad Gosavi, Nitin Sawant, Vedant Dixit and Aditya Naniwadekar for their help in the field. We are also grateful to the Biodiversity Heritage Library (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/) for open access to old literature.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental materials

Supplementary file: Video documentation of all the observed natural history events here

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by DST-INSPIRE student fellowship provided by; Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology [IF120398].