Indirana semipalmata
| Indirana semipalmata | |
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| Adult from Talakaveri shola grassland | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Amphibia |
| Order: | Anura |
| Family: | Ranixalidae |
| Genus: | Indirana |
| Species: | I. semipalmata |
| Binomial name | |
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Indirana semipalmata (Boulenger, 1882) |
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| Synonyms | |
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Indirana semipalmata is a species of frog endemic to the Western Ghats region of southern India. They are small frogs, reaching lengths of about 36 mm (1.4 in) from snout to vent. The species breeds during the monsoons, laying their eggs on moist rocks and tree bark. Their tadpoles are terrestrial - hatching, feeding, and undergoing metamorphosis without ever entering any standing bodies of water.
Indirana semipalmata is a small frog, with a snout-vent length (SVL) of 36 mm (1.4 in). The snout is blunt with moderate canthal ridges. The space between the eyes is about the same width as each of the upper eyelids. The tympanum and the eyes are of the same diameter. It possesses vomerine teeth with two slightly oblique oval groups just behind the level of the rear edge of the choanae. The males of the species lack vocal sacs.
The first fingers of the forelimbs extend slightly beyond the second. At the ventral surface of each joint are well-developed tubercles and there is a single oval tubercle along the inner metatarsals. If the hind limbs are stretched forward the length of the body, the tibiotarsal ("ankle") articulation reaches the snout.
The skin of Indirana semipalmata has short longitudinal glandular folds on the back; while on the bottom surface, it is smooth . It is predominantly brown in coloration with the throat and chest mottled and lighter in color. The temples and the sides of the eyes (the temporal and loreal regions) are black. A dark band is also present between the eyes at the top of the head. The limbs possess dark stripes across.
Indirana semipalmata was first described by the Belgian-British zoologist George Albert Boulenger in 1882 as Rana semipalmata. The exact location the type specimen was collected from is unknown, but it was recorded as "Malabar", South India. The specific name (Latin for "half palmed") is in reference to its half-webbed toes, in contrast to Indirana beddomii which had two-thirds of their toes webbed and Indirana leptodactyla which only had a third of their toes webbed. In 1918, Boulenger included it under the (then) subgenus Discodeles of the genus Rana. In 1986, the Belgian zoologist Raymond Ferdinand Laurent separated it, along with other closely related species from India, to the genus Indirana.
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