Description
Pseudophilautus steineri is a moderate-sized frog with snout vent length of 30.2 – 31.2 mm in males and 30.4 – 41.6mm in females. Body stout. Head dorsally flat. Snout-angle category 5 or 6 (angle of snout 98º–103º); snout rounded in lateral aspect. Canthal edges sharp. Loreal region concave. Interorbital space flat. Internasal space concave. Tympanum distinct, oval, oblique. Vomerine ridgepresent, bearing about 5 small teeth, angled at about 85º relative to body axis, shorter than the distance between them. Pineal ocellus present or absent. Lingual papilla, cephalic ridges, calcar, and co-ossified skin on skull absent. Supratympanic fold distinct. A lateral dermal fringe present on fingers. Supernumerary tubercles present on both palm and pes. Toes webbed. Tarsal folds absent. Snout, interorbital space, dorsum and upper flank with glandular warts and horny spinules (females lack horny spinules on dorsum); side of head smooth or with glandular warts; lower flank granular. Dorsal part of forelimb, thigh, shank and pes smooth with scattered glandular warts. Throat, chest, belly and underside of thigh granular. A feebly-defined dermal fringe mid-extends from tip of snout to posterior dorsum. Inner vocal slits and nuptial pad present in males (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi, 2005).

Colour in life: Mid-dorsum brown; dorso-lateral area light green; upper flank green with black patches, lower flank ashy green. A dark brownish-black stripe present on upper flank. Interorbital bar dark brown. Posterior head and mid-back brownish-green. Loreal and tympanic regions and tympanum dark brown with light-green stripes. Upper edge of supratympanic fold and canthal edges light brown; lower lip white with brown bands. Chin, chest, abdomen and limbs ventrally pale brown with dark-brown patches. Limbs dorsally brown with dark-brown crossbars. Digits pale-ashy brown. Posterior thigh green (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi, 2005).

Colour in alcohol: Mid-dorsum dark brown; flank and inguinal zone ashy brown. Loreal region tympanic region and tympanum dark brown. Limbs dorsally brown or ashy brown; posterior thigh pale brown. Venter and webbing yellowish brown. (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi, 2005).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sri Lanka

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

This frog is found in Knuckles hills, Central Highlands of Sri Lanka, at elevations between 1100 – 1400 m. Its extent appears limited, about 10 km2 in the Corbett’s Gap region, southern Knuckles mountain range (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi, 2005; Batuwita et al., 2019).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
P. steineri is a habitat generalist, inhabiting the leaf litter, shrubs and sub-canopy trees, both in open and closed canopy habitats. Males call from 0.3–3 m above ground, perched on branches. (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi 2005).

All frogs of this genus 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 steineri is named after Achim Steiner, Director General of IUCN, The World Conservation Union, a champion of the Global Amphibian Assessment (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi 2005). The sister species of P. steineri, is P. microtympanum. These two species are separated from each other by a 12S and 16S sequence divergence of 2.34% and cytochrome-b sequence divergence of 11.6% (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi 2005).

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]

Meegaskumbura M. & Manamendra-Arachchi K. (2005). ''Description of eight new species of shrub frogs (Ranidae: Rhacophorinae: Philautus) from Sri Lanka.'' Raffles Bulletin Zoology Supplemental, 12, 305-338. [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2021 Pseudophilautus steineri <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/6518> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 26, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 26 Dec 2024.

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