Description
Male holotype 31.6 mm SVL. Slender body. Head dorsally convex, with flat interorbital area. Snout blunt in profile, angled at 105 degrees (category 7 of Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda 2005), with sharp canthal edges, concave loreal region, and flat internarial space. Tympanum oval, vertical, with prominent supratympanic fold. Pineal ocellus present. Vomerine teeth present. Lingual papilla absent. Fingers have lateral dermal fringe. Toes webbed medially. Tarsal fold lacking; tarsal tubercle present. Supernumerary tubercles present on palm and sole. Dorsum smooth with a few glandular warts. Head, dorsal surfaces of forelimb, thigh, shank and foot have glandular warts. Flanks, throat, chest, belly, and ventral surface of thigh granular. The male holotype has internal vocal slits and a velvety nuptial pad (Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda 2005).

Color in preservative: Dorsum, dorsal surface of head, and upper flank are brown with lighter marks. Canthal region and loreal area are brown. Upper lip light brown. Tympanum dark brown. Dorsal surfaces of forelimb, thigh, shank and foot are crossbarred. Posterior thigh light brown with dark brown marks. Ventrum is yellow (Manamendra-Arachchi and Pethiyagoda 2005).

Distribution and Habitat

Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Sri Lanka

View distribution map in BerkeleyMapper.

Pseudophilautus zimmeri was a species endemic to Sri Lanka and was only known from the type locality of Galle ("Point de Galle, Ceylon"). The exact habitat that this species required is not known (Stuart et al. 2008).

Life History, Abundance, Activity, and Special Behaviors
This species has been found only at the type locality and is only known from the holotype, described by Ahl (1927). It has not been rediscovered despite extensive searches and is presumed extinct.

Larva
It is believed to have been a direct developer, as is the case for other members of the genus Pseudophilautus (Stuart et al. 2008).

Trends and Threats
Habitat loss is believed to be the major factor in this species' extinction, since the area of the type locality is now heavily urbanized (Stuart et al. 2008).

Possible reasons for amphibian decline

General habitat alteration and loss

References

Ahl, E. (1927). ''Zur Systematik der asiatischen Arten der Froschgattung Rhacophorus.'' Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft Naturforschender, 1927, 35-47.

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.

Species Account Citation: AmphibiaWeb 2022 Pseudophilautus zimmeri <https://amphibiaweb.org/species/6479> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed Nov 18, 2024.

Citation: AmphibiaWeb. 2024. <https://amphibiaweb.org> University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. Accessed 18 Nov 2024.

AmphibiaWeb's policy on data use.