#galaxy frog

Galaxy Frog

This stunning frog, on the internet better known as a galaxy frog, is endemic to southern India where it inhabits wet evergreen forests. Unfortunately, this species is endangered.

@hispaatra more FROGS ! ! ! :D

Description

Melanobatrachus indicus is a rare frog with a slender, elongated bodied of uniform width. The snout-vent length is reported as 24 up to about 32 millimetres. The head is wider than long and the short snout length is longer than the eye diameter and the interorbital distance. There is no canthus rostralis or cranial ridges. The pupils are circular and the eye diameter is greater than the distance between the eyes. There is no tympanum or parotid gland. The mouth has a cleft that extends towards the eyelid.

The skin on the dorsum of the head and body, and on the hind limbs are covered in tubercles. The arms, flanks, and ventrum are smooth.

The fingers are unwebbed and not dilated at the tips. The third finger is twice the length as the other fingers. The fourth finger is short. The hind limbs are about the same length as the snout-vent length with the thigh being shorter than the shank. The cylindrical toes have basal webbing and are undilated at the tips. The fourth toe is much longer than the third.

The dorsum is black with small white dots. The ventrum sometimes has a few scarlet blotches on the anterior region of chest that can extend to the upper arms and humerus. There are larger white dots on the belly. There is a broad scarlet band across the ventral surface of its thighs near to the groin area that can completely encircle the thighs. The aposematic coloration of the belly and limbs remain largely hidden when the species exhibits anti-predator, contraction behavior.

Distribution and habitat

It is endemic to wet evergreen forests of southern Western Ghats in Kerala and Tamil Nadu states of India at heights of 1000 to 1500 metres above sea level. It has been recorded from Anaimalai, Munnar, Palni hills, Periyar Tiger Reserve and Kalakkad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve. It lives amongst leaf-litter, rocks and other ground cover of moist evergreen tropical forests.

Galaxy Frog Pattern, available on a variety of products.

it’s thursday you fat nasty trash

(A BIG OLE homestuck triptych I illustrated for 4/13! Alternatively known as Cascade: The Illustration)

Galaxy frog (Melanobatrachus indicus) portrait, Munnar, Kerala, India.