Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sri Lanka

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Adenomus kandianus was endemic to Sri Lanka. The type locality is listed only as "Peradeniya" in "Ceylon" (Günther 1872), but the scientific name suggests that this species may have been found near the city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka (Stuart et al 2008).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Known only from the type specimen and has not been reported since the original description in 1872. It may have bred in water, with aquatic larval development, as do other members of the genus Adenomus (Stuart et al 2008).

Trends and Threats
The cause of extinction is not known, since this species was not sighted after 1872. Since then, habitat around the city of Kandy has been destroyed due to urban development (Stuart et al 2008).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

Urbanization

Comments
Listed as Extinct because it had not been recorded for over 130 years despite extensive searches over a ten-year period for this species (Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda 1998). It was rediscovered by a team in the Peak Wilderness Sanctuary, one of the few remaining continuous natural forests in Sri Lanka (Wickramasinghe et al 2012), and the authors recommended a new status of Critically Endangered.

References

Günther, A. (1872). ''Description of some Ceylonese reptiles and batrachians.'' Annales and Magazine of Natural History, Series 4, 9, 85-88.

Manamendra-Arachchi, K., and Pethiyagoda, R. (1998). ''A synopsis of the Sri Lankan Bufonidae (Amphibia: Anura), with description of two new species.'' Journal of South Asian Natural History, 3(2), 213-248.

Stuart, S., Hoffmann, M., Chanson, J., Cox, N., Berridge, R., Ramani, P., Young, B. (eds) (2008). Threatened Amphibians of the World. Lynx Edicions, IUCN, and Conservation International, Barcelona, Spain; Gland, Switzerland; and Arlington, Virginia, USA.

Wickramasinghe, L. J. M., D. R. Vidanapathirana, and N. Wickramasinghe (2012). " Back from the dead: The world’s rarest toad Adenomus kandianus rediscovered in Sri Lanka." Zootaxa, 3347, 63–68.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2021 Adenomus kandianus <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/5995> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 5, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 5 Nov 2024.

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