Description
Adult female holotype 43.5 mm SVL. Stout body, flat head. Snout angled at about 105 degrees (snout category 7 of Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda 2005), and blunt in lateral view, with sharp canthi and concave lores. Interorbital and internarial regions are concave. Vomerine teeth absent. Lingual papilla present. Subdermal tympanum with prominent supratympanic fold. Supernumerary tubercles present on palm. Fingers have weakly developed dermal fringes. Toes are medially webbed. Calcar absent and tarsal fold absent. Dorsum and snout are shagreened, with a few glandular warts. Interorbital area and the side of the head are shagreened. Throat and chest are granular and smooth, while the belly and underside of the thigh are granular and rough. Flanks are granular. The dorsal forelimb, thigh, shank, and foot are shagreened, with a few granular warts (Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda et al. 2005).

Color in alcohol: Dorsal surfaces of head and body are light/dark brown with white patches. Loreal and tympanic regions dark brown. Upper lip light brown. Flanks and inguinal area dark brown with white patches. Forelimb, thigh, and shank are crossbarred. Posterior thigh is dark brown with white spots. Throat and margins, as well as the chest, are light brown with dark brown patches. Chest light brown with dark brown patches. Webbing light brown.

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sri Lanka

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

This species was endemic to Sri Lanka, but a precise distribution map cannot be made since the locality is described only as "Ceylon". The exact habitat that this species required is not known (Stuart et al 2008).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
This species is only known from the holotype (NHMB 1236), which was donated to the NHMB collection (Basel, Switzerland) in 1882; it has not been rediscovered since 1882 despite extensive searches and is presumed extinct. Breeding is believed to have been through direct development, as is the case for other members of the genus Pseudophilautus (Stuart et al 2008).

Trends and Threats
The exact reasons for extinction are not known, but the major factor is likely to be habitat loss (Stuart et al 2008).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss

References

Manamendra-Arachchi, K., and Pethiyagoda, R. (2005). ''The Sri Lankan shrub-frogs of the genus Philautus Gistel, 1848 (Ranidae: Rhacophorinae), with description of 27 new species.'' Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, Supplement 12, 163-303.

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.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2010 Pseudophilautus extirpo <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/6504> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 22, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 22 Nov 2024.

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