Description
Pseudophilautus poppiae is a moderate-sized frog with snout vent length of 21.3 – 24.7 mm in males and 26.0mmin females. Body stout. Head dorsally convex. Snout-angle category 6 or 7 (angle of snout 100º–108º); snout rounded in lateral aspect. Canthal edges rounded. Loreal region concave. Interorbital space flat. Internasal space concave. Tympanic membrane absent, lower tympanic rim distinct. Supratympanic fold present. Pineal ocellus, vomerineridge, cephalic ridges, calcar, lingual papilla and co-ossified skin on skull absent. A lateral dermal fringe present on fingers. Toes webbed. Tarsal folds absent. Snout, interorbital space, side of head and dorsum, upper part of flank, dorsal area of forelimb, thigh, shank and pes with horny spinules in males. Lower flank smooth. Throat, chest and belly granular; underside of thigh smooth. Inner vocal slits present in males; nuptial pad absent, but yellow subdermal glands present on finger 1. Dorsum finely granular or shagreened in female (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi, 2005).

Colour in life: dorsal and lateral parts of head and dorsum bright ‘luminous’ green; some individuals with yellow or red spots on dorsum. Dorsum spotted with black. Flank yellow. Inguinal zone and anterior thigh brownish-yellow. Edges of both lower and upper lips yellow or white. Upper arm yellow or greenish-yellow dorsally. Outer edge of lower arm with a longitudinal white band. Inner side of both upper and lower arms yellow. Outer edges of shank, pes and toe 5 white. Pes ventrally white. Venter pale yellow (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi, 2005).

Colour in alcohol: Dorsum and flanks ashy pink with whitish yellow (rarely with red) patches and scattered black dots. Lower flank yellow. Upper lip yellow. Limbs dorsally ashy pink with scattered black dots. Posterior thigh yellow. Venter pale yellow (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi, 2005).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sri Lanka

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Pseudophilautus poppiae is known only from the type locality (Handapan Ella plains) and Morningside forest, near Rakwana, southern Sri Lanka, at elevations between 1100 – 1400 m (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi, 2005; Batuwita et al., 2019).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Pseudophilautus poppiae inhabits the forest sub-canopy and shrubs in the understory of closed-canopy cloud forest (although also occurring in areas under-planted with cardamom). Males vocalize 1–3 m above ground, perched on leaves. The species is strictly arboreal. (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 poppiae is named after Poppy Valentina Meyer in honor of her parents, George A. Meyer and Maria Semple, for their support of the Global Amphibian Assessment and ongoing commitment to amphibian conservation around the world (Meegaskumbura & Manamendra-Arachchi, 2005).

P. poppiae is closely related to P. femoralis and P. mooreorum which are separated from each other by a 12S and 16S sequence divergence of 2.56–3.15% and cytochrome-b sequence divergence of 7.7–8.9% (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 poppiae <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/6513> 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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