Description

Pseudophilautus newtonjayawardanei is a moderate-sized frog with a snout vent length (SVL) of 38.4 mm in females. The dorsal head, interorbital space, and internarial space are concave. The lateral snout, canthus rostralis, and tips of toes are round. Pseudophilautus newtonjayawardanei lacks the following features: vomerine teeth, lingual papilla, calcar, nuptial pad, and tympanum. The fingers have fringe. The tarsal tubercle is present. On P. newtonjayawardanei, the following areas are shagreened: snout, side of head, anterior and posterior view of the dorsum, upper flank, dorsal thigh, and interorbital area. The interorbital area has a distinct ridge. The lower flank is faintly granular. The throat and underside of thigh are granular. There are supernumerary tubercles visible on the palm (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

In life, the dorsum is bronze with dark brown patches. There is a white vertebral stripe located on the mid-dorsal region. Longitudinally, there is a pair of dark brown dorsal bands that extend from the groin to the back of the eye. Between the eyes there is a dark brown cross band. The snout and the inferior region of the eye have a small bronze blotch. The canthal edge has a dark brown band. The lateral side of the body is lighter with a slightly green and brown spots scattered randomly with off-white specks. Dorsally, the limbs appear bronze. There are brown cross bands on the forelimbs, hindlimbs, fingers and toes. The fingertips are off-white. The ventral side of the species is off-white. The hands, feet, and webbing are a darker off-white (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

In preservative, all bronze features and areas found in life become dark brown. The species maintains the same color pattern with a little fading across other non-bronze features (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sri Lanka

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Pseudophilautus newtonjayawardanei is found in Sripada (Peak Wilderness), Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka at elevations of 1800 – 2000 m (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013; Batuwita et al. 2019).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors

Pseudophilautus newtonjayawardanei is found in the cloud forest canopy around 8 m high in trees. This species perches on leaves which may be hard to see (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

All frogs of the genus Pseudophilautus are terrestrial direct developers (Bahir et al. 2005).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss
Habitat modification from deforestation, or logging related activities
Intensified agriculture or grazing
Habitat fragmentation

Comments

Pseudophilautus newtonjayawardanei is named after the famous surgeon and prominent naturalist, Newton Jayawardane, for his immense appreciation and dedication to his country as a wildlife conservationist and surgeon (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

Currently no molecular phylogenetic analysis has been done on Pseudophilautus newtonjayawardanei to determine its relation to other members of the same genus (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

References

Bahir, M. M., Meegaskumbura, M., Manamendra-Arachchi, K., Schneider, C. J., and Pethiyagoda, R. (2005). ''Reproduction and terrestrial direct development in Sri Lankan shrub frogs (Ranidae: Rhacophorinae: Philautus).'' The Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 12, 339-350. [link]

Batuwita S, Udugampala S, DeSilva M, Diao J and Edirisinghe U. (2019). "A review of amphibian fauna of Sri Lanka: distribution, recent taxonomic changes and conservation." Journal of Animal Diversity, 1(2), 44-82. [link]

Wickramasinghe, L.J.M., D.R. Vidanapathirana, M.D.G. Rajeev, S.C. Ariyarathne, A.W.A. Chanaka, L.L.D. Priyantha, I.N. Bandara & N. Wickramasinghe (2013). Eight new species of Pseudophilautus (Amphibia, Anura, Rhacophoridae) from Sripada World Heritage Site (Peak Wilderness), a local amphibian hotspot in Sri Lanka. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(4): 3789–3920 [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2021 Pseudophilautus newtonjayawardanei: Newton Jayawardane's Shrub Frog; Newton Jayawardanege panduru madiya <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/7989> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Apr 19, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 19 Apr 2024.

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