Description
[This account was originally written for Pseudophilautus dilmah, which was synonomized with Pseudophilautus hankeni by Ellepola et al. 2021]

This 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).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sri Lanka

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

The species is known from Knuckles massif and also 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).

Comments
Using updated expanded sampling of the genus Pseudophilautus and barcoding methodologies, Ellepola et al 's (2021) phylogenetic analysis synonomized Pseudophilautus dilmah with Pseudophilautus hankeni.

The specific epithet, P. hankeni, honors Jim Hanken, a developmental biologist and amphibian expert, who is also the director of the Museum of Comparative Zoology (Harvard University, USA), and Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology.

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]

Ellepola G, Herath J, Manamendra-Arachchi K, Wijayathilaka N, Senevirathne G, Pethiyagoda R, Meegaskumbura M (2021) Molecular species delimitation of shrub frogs of the genus Pseudophilautus (Anura, Rhacophoridae). PLOS ONE 16(10): e0258594. [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 2023 Pseudophilautus hankeni <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/7618> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 21, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 21 Nov 2024.

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