Description
Pseudophilautus dilmah is a moderate sized frog with snout vent length of 19.2 mm in males and 20.0mm in females. Snout rounded in lateral aspect, bluntly pointed in dorsal and ventral aspect. Canthus rostralis rounded. Vomerine teeth, lingual papilla and nuptial pads absent. Dermal fringe distinct on inside of fingers III and IV, small blunt tubercles on metacarpal and ulnar folds. Toes basally webbed. Interorbital area smooth. Upper eyelid prominent tubercles present. Anterior and posterior dorsum without horny spinules but tubercles present. Upper part of flank weakly granular. Supratympanic fold distinct. Prominent small calcar present at the distal end of the tibia. Throat granular, chest and belly coarsely granular (Wickramasinghe et al. 2015).

Colour in life: Dorsum cream with light brown patches, dark brown cross band between eyes, pair of dark brown dots placed behind the cross band, a pair of broad light brown longitudinal bands ending at the sacrum, dark brown blotches on groin, lateral body lighter with a light olive greenish tinge; limbs cream, fore limbs, hind limbs, fingers and toes with light brown cross bands; ventral side belly off white with light brown blotches, chest off white with few blotching, throat uniform off white, hands, feet and webbing lighter. Colour in alcohol: Colour pattern remains with a little darkening, ventral side off white with dark brown blotching (Wickramasinghe et al. 2015).

Diagnosis: Although Pseudophilautus dilmah is genetically most closest to P. hankeni and P. schmarda, with genetic distances of 1.6% and 1.9% respectively, the species is morphologically distinct and can be separated by the presence of the following combination of characters: from P. hankeni, by snout in lateral aspect rounded (vs pointed), fringe on fingers present (vs absent), interorbital area smooth (vs glandular warts bearing horny spinules), dorsum having tubercles (vs glandular warts bearing horny spinules), upper flank weakly granular (vs glandular warts bearing horny spinules), chest and belly coarsely granular (vs granular); from P. schmarda by snout rounded in lateral aspect (vs obtusely pointed), canthus rostralis rounded (vs sharp), interorbital area smooth (vs glandular folds, glandular warts and horny spinules), dorsum having tubercles (vs glandular folds, glandular warts and horny spinules), upper flank weakly granular (vs glandular warts bearing horny spinules), throat granular (vs glandular warts), chest and belly coarsely granular (vs granular), underside of thigh smooth (vs granular). Furthermore P. hankeni is distributed in the Knuckles massif which is geographically well separated, and although P. schmarda is distributed in the Central Hills, they are allopatric. (Wickramasinghe et al. 2015).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sri Lanka

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

The species is found in Loolkandura Tea Estate in Central Hills, Kandy District, Central Province, Sri Lanka at elevation about 1300 m (Wickramasinghe et al. 2015; Batuwita et al. 2019).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Commonly seen perched on 1–2m high bushes. The specimens were found in natural forest cover as well as in the disturbed areas, with no canopy cover and in areas with regenerated forest covers (Wickramasinghe et al. 2015).

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 dilmah is named after Dilmah Conservation, for its dedicated efforts to biodiversity conservation on the Island (Wickramasinghe et al. 2015).

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, LJM, Bandara IN, Vidanapathirana DR, Tennakoon KH, Samarakoon SR and Wickramasinghe N. (2015). "Pseudophilautus dilmah, a new species of shrub frog (Amphibia: Anura: Rhacophoridae) from a threatened habitat Loolkandura in Sri Lanka." Journal of Threatened Taxa, 7(5), 7089–7110. [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2021 Pseudophilautus dilmah: Dilmah Shrub Frog <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/8324> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Mar 26, 2023.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2023. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 26 Mar 2023.

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