Description
Pseudophilautus samarakoon is a rather small frog with adult males attaining snout vent lengths of about 22.3 mm snout-vent length and adult females about 22.4-24.6 mm. Head size is as wide as it is long, about 1.0 mm. The dorsal head and interorbital space is convex, the snout is laterally truncate, the canthus rostralis is rounded, the loreal region is concave, and the internarial space is flat. In P. samarakoon, the vomerine teeth are present, lingual papilla and pupital pads are absent. The arm is short and thin with the lower arm shorter than the hand length but longer than the upper arm. The fingers are thin and the tips of the fingers are rounded with enlarged discs on each finger. The relative lengths on fingers go as follows, 3 > 4 > 2 > 1. Along each finger there is a dermal fringe. The metacarpal fold is present, but not prominent. The femur is twice as long as the fourth toe length with the entire foot length longer than the thigh length. The relative lengths of toes goes as follows, the 4 > 5 > 3 > 2 > 1. Like fingertips, the toe tips are rounded with enlarged discs on each toe and the dermal fringe is present as well. There are supernumerary tubercles present on the feet. The skin present between the eyes is tubercle with a dermal ridge going from the tip of the snout to the vent. The side of the head is smooth, the upper flank and dorsal thighs are tubercular, the lower flank region is granular while the throat and chest are weakly granular (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

Pseudophilautus samarakoon can be differentiated from similar species by its small size, convext interorbital space, laterally truncate snout, rounded canthus rostralis, the presence of fringes on the fingers, smooth sides of the head, granular upper flank and dorsal thigh, weakly granular chest and throat, and supernumerary tubercles on the feet (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

The dorsal color is uniform milky, light brown with dark brown patches. There is a dark brown band present between the eyes and another band in front of the eyes. Lower are the dorsum, a “W” shaped patch is present and is milky, light brown in color. From the “W” there are two symmetrical dark brown diagonal lines. The dorsal limb coloring is the same as the dorsum with forelimbs, hind limbs, fingers and toes with brown cross bands. The ventral side is lighter than the dorsal side, the throat is uniform brown and the feet and webbing are lighter than the throat. In alcohol, the color pattern remains with little fading; the dark brown coloring fades to light brown and the milky cream color fades to off white. The dorsal color varies in shades from reddish brown to lighter brown (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sri Lanka

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Pseudophilautus samarakoon is endemic to Sri Lanka and found in elevations of 100-1400 meters from the forest floor to about 2 meter high shrubs and in bamboo. They were often found in lower montane forests with high precipitation rates close to the stream off the Kaluganga River (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
All frogs of this genus are direct developers (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

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
This species was first described in Wickramasinghe, L.J.M., D.R. Vidanapathirana, M.D.G. Rajeev, S.C. Ariyarathne, A.W.A. Chanaka, L.L.D. Priyantha, I.N. Bandara & N. Wickramasinghe (2013). Eight new species of Pseudophilautus (Amphibia, Anura, Rhacophoridae) from Sripada World Heritage Site (Peak Wilderness), a local amphibian hotspot in Sri Lanka. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(4): 3789–3920

This species was named after Ananda Vijith Samarakoon in great appreciation of his involvement in education wildlife officers of the country’s biodiversity and conservation efforts (Wickramasinghe et al. 2013).

References

Wickramasinghe, L.J.M., D.R. Vidanapathirana, M.D.G. Rajeev, S.C. Ariyarathne, A.W.A. Chanaka, L.L.D. Priyantha, I.N. Bandara & N. Wickramasinghe (2013). Eight new species of Pseudophilautus (Amphibia, Anura, Rhacophoridae) from Sripada World Heritage Site (Peak Wilderness), a local amphibian hotspot in Sri Lanka. Journal of Threatened Taxa 5(4): 3789–3920 [link]

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2013 Pseudophilautus samarakoon: Samarakoon's Shrub Frog; Samarakoonge panduru madiya <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/7991> 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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