Description
"Above bright green, with transverse darker bands, and irregularly spotted white. Limbs barred brown and spotted white. Beneath pinkish white. Body oval. Total length about 2 1/4 inches...This frog, too, changes its green colour into a purplish brown, the transverse bands become brown, but the white spots are always present." (Kelaart 1853).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sri Lanka

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

This species was found in Sri Lanka, at the type locality of Nuwara Eliya (Stuart et al. 2008).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
Known only from the lost holotype. Pseudophilautus stellatus has not been recorded since its description (Kelaart 1853) despite extensive searches and is presumed extinct. It is believed to have been a direct developer, like other species in the genus Pseudophilautus (Stuart et al. 2008).

Trends and Threats
Habitat loss is likely to have been the major factor leading to the population decrease and eventual extinction of this species (Stuart et al 2008).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss
Habitat modification from deforestation, or logging related activities
Mining

Comments
This species was described as Polypedates stellata by Kelaart (1853), who diagnosed the genus as having large discs and incomplete webbing. Bossuyt anbd Dubois (2001) point out that the combination of characters places this species as a member of the current subfamily Rhacophorinae. No known Sri Lankan Polypedates is green, but some Sri Lankan Pseudophilautus and Kirtixalus are green or greenish (Bossuyt and Dubois 2001). The SVL of 57 mm described by Kelaart (1853) is larger than any known Sri Lankan Pseudophilautus, although several Sri Lankan Kirtixalus reach or exceed that size, leading Bossuyt and Dubois (2001) to propose that this species is actually a member of the genus Kirtixalus.

Bossuyt and Dubois (2001) also suggested that since many new Sri Lankan species of Kirtixalus remain to be described, the name Pseudophilautus stellatus should be used to describe another species from the Nuwara Eliya area, with characters matching those of Kelaart's (1853) description, and that a neotype be collected. Since the holotype cannot be found, Manamendra and Pethiyagoda (2005) have instead put forward that Pseudophilautus stellatus should be considered a valid, extinct species, and that another name be used for any similar species.

In 2013, L.J. Mendis Wickramasinghe and colleagues announced its rediscovery nearly 160 years later; these striking individuals were found in inaccessible, high elevation cloud forests in the Peak Wilderness of Sripada World Heritage Site. Despite being found in a protected area, the area is suffering from forest dieback, expanding tea plantations, illegal mining and the expansion of invasive species, so it continued survival is not assured. The study recommends listing the species as "Critically Endangered" (Wickramasinghe et al 2013).

References

Bossuyt, F., and Dubois, A. (2001). ''A review of the frog genus Philautus Gistel, 1848 (Amphibia, Anura, Ranidae, Rhacophorinae).'' Zeylanica, 6, 1-112.

Kelaart, E. F. (1853). Prodromus Faunae Zeylanicae: being Contributions to the Zoology of Ceylon. Self-published by E. F. Kelaart, Colombo.

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.

Wickramasinghe, L. J. M., Vidanapathirana, D.R., Airyarathne, S., Rajeev, G., Chanaka, A., Pastorini, J., Chathuranga, G., And Wickramasinghe, N. (2013). ''Lost and found: One of the world's most elusive amphibians, Pseudophilautus stellatus (Kelaart 1853) rediscovered.'' Zootaxa, 3620(1), 112-128.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2013 Pseudophilautus stellatus <http://amphibiaweb.org/species/6077> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Feb 25, 2021.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2021. <http://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 25 Feb 2021.

AmphibiaWeb's policy on data use.