The frog that was found from Siju cave in Meghalaya’s South Garo Hills district.
| Photo Credit: PTI
GUWAHATI
The newest croaker recorded in India is a dark cave dweller, not like most members of the Ranidae household belonging to Amolops, a genus of true frogs.
Scientists from the Shillong and Pune models of the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) have named the brand new species Amolops siju after the Siju cave system of Meghalaya, from the place 4 specimens had been collected. Two of them, together with a gravid feminine, had been present in a dark zone of the cave close to a chamber of bats.
This is the second cave-dwelling species of frog recorded from India after Micrixalus spelunca in Tamil Nadu 9 years in the past.
Amolops siju has been described within the newest difficulty of the Journal of Animal Diversity. The authors of the research are Bhaskar Saikia and Bikramjit Sinha of ZSI, Shillong, and Ok.P. Dinesh and Shabnam Ansari of ZSI, Pune.
“Frogs are known to inhabit the subterranean world of caves due to the constant humidity and temperature that a cave ecosystem provides. However, what is extremely rare is the discovery of a new species of frog from a cave,” Mr. Saikia stated.
The Amolops siju is the primary cave-dwelling cascade frog from the northeast. It has been named after Siju, a 4-km-long pure cave in Meghalaya’s south Garo hills district.
Cascade frogs being morphologically cryptic in nature, tissue samples of the specimens had been subjected to molecular research to determine their particular identification from the opposite identified species. Based on the morphological, molecular and spatial knowledge, the ZSI staff concluded that this inhabitants of frogs from Siju cave, was new to science.
Although the specimens had been collected from the twilight (60-100 m from the cave entrance) and the dark (past 100 m of cave entrance) zones of the cave, the staff didn’t discover any troglobitic or cave-adapted modification. This advised that Amolops siju is not a everlasting resident of the cave, Dr. Dinesh stated.
There have been experiences of the presence of frog populations as much as 400 m from the cave entrance since 1992, when the ZSI carried out the primary bio-speleological exploration in Siju cave.
The cave is identified to harbour greater than 100 faunal species, largely invertebrates like cave crickets, spiders, beetles, and earthworms.
Amolops siju is the fourth species of cascade frog described from the northeast by the quartet of Mr. Saikia, Dr. Sinha, Dr. Dinesh and Ms. Shabnam. They had earlier described Amolops Chanakya, Amolops terraorchis, and Amolops tawang from Arunachal Pradesh.
“Frogs are known to inhabit the subterranean world of caves due to the constant humidity and temperature that a cave ecosystem provides” Bhaskar SaikiaAuthor, Journal of Animal Diversity
