Description
Female holotype 31 mm SVL (according to original description in Boulenger 1891; now 29.8 mm, according to Bossuyt and Dubois 2001). Dorsum smooth (Gururaja et al. 2007). Snout not pointed (Gururaja et al. 2007). Similar to R. luteolus, but R. travancoricus has conspicuous black markings in the preserved specimen, and a shorter snout that is not pointed (Kuramoto and Joshy 2003).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: India

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Endemic to the Western Ghats of India, it is know from very few sites including its type locality "Bodanaikanur, Travancore, at the foot of the hills on the eastern side", Tamil Nadu. It is an arboreal species found in tropical moist evergreen forests, up to 400 m asl (Stuart et al. 2008).

For over 100 years, this species was only known from its type locality (Boulenger 1891), despite extensive searches. It has very limited distribution.

Larva
It is believed to have been a direct developer, like other species in the genus Raorchestes (Stuart et al. 2008).

Trends and Threats
In all its known sites, there are threat factors including deforestation of the land for urban development and agricultural use (Stuart et al. 2008).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

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

References

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

Boulenger, G. A. (1891). ''On new or little-known Indian and Malayan reptiles and batrachians.'' Annals of the Magazine of Natural History, 8, 288-292.

Gururaja, K. V., Aravind, N. A., Ali, S., Ramachandra, T. V., Velavan, T. P., Krishnakumar, V. and Aggarwal, R. K. (2007). ''A new frog species from the central Western Ghats of India, and its phylogenetic position.'' Zoological Science, 24, 525-534.

Kuramoto, M., and Joshy, S. H. (2003). ''Two new species of the genus Philautus (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from the Western Ghats, southwestern India.'' Current Herpetology, 22, 51-60.

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 2022 Raorchestes travancoricus: Travancore Bush Frog <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/4462> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Dec 26, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 26 Dec 2024.

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